D.O, whose real name is Do Kyung Soo, has dropped his first solo project since he began his career as a member of the K-pop boy group, EXO.
On July 26, SM Entertainment’s official YouTube channel released the official music video of his track Rose. The track explores a story of first love while giving the fans soft and calm vibes.
D.O. composed the song as part of his eight-track album, Empathy. Apart from the official Korean version, the singer also recorded an English version of the track.
As quoted by HelloKpop, the vocalist revealed what inspired him to create the mini-album.
“There was a time when I couldn’t quite empathize to the word ‘Empathy’, but I realize that there is a lot of energy in that word. So, as I felt, I chose that them with the desire to give a good energy and impactful energy to others,” he said.
D.O. Breaking Records as Soloist
The recent mini-album pushed D.O. to be the sixth EXO member to have a solo promotion, following members Baekhyun, Lay, Suho, Chen, and Kai.
As one of the most anticipated debut albums in the second half of 2021, it immediately secured the top spot on iTunes Album Chart in 33 countries in the second half of 2021. All the seven tracks made it to the top 20 of Bugs chart, while six of them scored slots on the Genie chart.
As reported by Hanteo Chart, D.O. sold over 196,000 physical copies in less than two hours, allowing the album to gain certified gold from QQ Music.
It took over the highest spots on WW trends and surpasses 1M tweets in about 15 minutes of the MV release. On YouTube, it surpasses 1.1M views with 542K likes.
D.O’s solo music success caused SM Entertainment’s stocks to spike up by 1.10 percent – the highest ever recorded since 2012.
The 28-year-old EXO member also worked outside the album. He recently released the songs That’s Okay for SM Station and Crying Out which served as the official soundtrack of Cart.
The projects surge came soon after he was discharged from the military in January. Apart from the music industry, he will soon grace the movie industry as he has been tapped to appear in the upcoming flick, The Moon.
He will also spearhead a yet-to-be-titled Korean remake of the 2008 Taiwanese film Secret.
Featured image courtesy of WeareoneEXO’s, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons