Eom Jung-hwa: 9-year comeback album didn't crack the chart TOP100 — "I was shocked"

"TOP100에도 안 들어갔다"

Eom Jung-hwa's album after a 9-year absence — her first since Disco — did not enter the music chart TOP100. She said so herself, on camera.

September 11. Her YouTube channel Umaizing 엄정화TV. A video filmed with Girls' Generation member Choi Soo-young, titled 너 되게 의외야 수영아… 엄정화 and 최수영 ("You're Quite Unexpected, Sooyoung… Eom Jung-hwa and Choi Soo-young").

"I released an album and I was very shocked. It didn't even enter TOP100," Eom said.

The gap between then and now

There was a time when this wouldn't happen. "Before, when I released an album, it naturally entered TOP10," she said. "The question was whether it would be #1."

A decade changed everything. "In 10 years, so much changed. The way people listen to music changed, and I didn't know that entering the chart was so difficult."

When Soo-young asked what it would feel like to lose people's interest, Eom didn't hesitate. "I've already experienced it."

What she told Sooyoung

From someone who'd already lived through indifference, the advice came easy. "Don't be afraid and keep going. You can't meet everyone's standards. What's important is that this is me, and it's what I like."

She'd built her career on that principle. "I made bold attempts even when the company said I would fail if I did that. I actually failed sometimes. But those attempts made me who I am now."

The chart miss was just another one.