JiU Day, A Rainy Day, And VLive Days Mark Dreamcatcher’s Continuing May Work
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
Dreamcatcher spends time with fans even as they continue to work on content for them as late May approaches.
The weather’s getting warmer, and with it comes Dreamcatcher’s continuing commitment to ensure they continue to make their fans not feel like they’re cold to them with constant appearances and content in May, even between comebacks. As always, there was a decent amount to recap, so let’s get right into it!
[embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/248372[/embed]
The week kicked off with a birthday celebration — Dreamcatcher’s leader and eldest member JiU turned 27, and much like last year’s macaroon-making session, JiU spent the day doing something for those other than herself, choosing to spend her vLive session on a bit of arts and crafts. The end product? A bunch of custom-painted and decorated phone cases for all of her fellow Dreamcatcher members. As always, it’s fun to see the members do things they’ve never or seldom do for vLive broadcasts, and there was definitely an art teacher vibe as JiU painted cases, decorated them with some Among Us characters and other pieces of interesting flair, and generally had a good time chatting with fans. Many JiU fans are fans of her because of her selfless, caring nature, especially as it relates to the other members, so seeing her do this seemed perfectly in line with who she is.
Tuesday brought with it yet another SBS Young Street episode and of course, another appearance by main dancer and resident “high tension” member SuA, and she didn’t disappoint this time around, either. This time, with fellow guest DJ Sleepy and guest MC Lee Gikwang of BEAST/Highlight, she bantered about producer Ollounder’s work with Dreamcatcher and chatted about the worst types of friends to go out with (friends that whine all day, ones that ask “are you paying”, and those that just drag themselves along and do nothing), among other topics. As always, SuA’s energy and loudness radiated from her as she worked, and it was pretty nice that they decided to play popular B-side track “Jazz Bar” from “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” as well. We’re nearing the end of the month’s appearances from SuA, but the hope is that she’s made a good case for herself (and of course, for Dreamcatcher) appearing in these roles more in the future. Be sure to grab the May 18th, 2021 episode of SBS Youngstreet if you want to listen to all of the SuA-branded chaos.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpdNoYMk654[/embed]
We also got another content drop this week in the form of a Special Clip by resident Chinese member Handong, covering song “Rainy Day” in full Mandarin. This is Handong’s first special clip in a while (the last being the multi-lingual “Proof of Heartbeat” from 2019), and it’s for a song that apparently is very familiar to the Chinese fandom. Handong’s always seemed to have a talent for exuding this sort of ethereal nature to her solo singing — her ballad-singing voice is very soothing and soft as it can be nuanced in either low or high tones — so this was nice to hear. And as a bonus, we also got to see Handong display her painting skills as well.
We knew this Special Clip was coming at some point — she’d dropped a spoiler about it during her last solo vLive where she was wearing the very outfit she filmed it in, after all — but this was still nice to get. Part of the appeal of Dreamcatcher Special Clips is that you’re never quite sure what the members have decided to sing, from pop tracks in English like 24kGoldn’s “Mood” to well-regarded Korean songs such as “Return”. To get Handong able to cover something in her native language is a nice treat, both for Chinese Dreamcatcher fans and for fans in general who want to see more of Handong’s talents, so the company’s continued support for her to do what she wants is good to see.
[embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/248372[/embed][embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/248372[/embed]
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the other members were by any means idle this past week, either. A couple of voice-only vLives, one by Yoohyeon and Siyeon and one by Gahyeon, made their way to the official Dreamcatcher vLive channel. Yoohyeon and Siyeon talked about JiU’s aforementioned phone cases, talking about how cute they were (they even looked “delicious” to them with how the paint looked a bit like frosting on a cupcake) and also hinted that they were working on something together, while Gahyeon popped in to deflect a few spoiler questions (“we’re always working on a comeback” in answer to whether or not comeback prep was happening) and chat a bit about people wanting to see her pink hair again. Both vLives mentioned the upcoming Dreamcatcher reality show and that they’d watched previews of the final edit — as well as the thought that fans would definitely enjoy it. I know I’m excited to see what a produced reality show highlighted for Dreamcatcher, and if the members are endorsing how fun it is, I’m sure I and many other InSomnia will find it fun as well.
[embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/248372[/embed]
But the highlight vLive of the past week didn’t show up until near the end of it, as JiU and SuA combined forces to broadcast a combination mukbang (food eating), live chat, and impromptu karaoke session. Eating up some mala soup, the two eldest Dreamcatcher members clowned one another like elementary school kids, talked about work and current projects (SuA polling JiU with the same friend question from SBS Youngstreet and JiU talking about what to do with her hair), and generally were having a great time interacting with fans.
One of the highlights, though, was Dreamcatcher Company CEO Lee Joo-won dropping in from off-screen to greet and say goodbye to JiU and SuA as he prepared to leave for the day. As always, the interactions between members and the CEO were fun ones, the kind of casual and comfortable work relationship you’d have if you enjoyed working with one another over the years, but then the CEO dropped a blatant spoiler about an upcoming Special Clip from JiU and SuA. This was made all the more funny by the fact that they’d been talking about how not dropping spoilers is difficult for the members, so having the company’s CEO do it so casually just made for entertaining watching. Clearly, even the CEO knows what the fans want. You’ll definitely want to check out the vLive if you can — aside from the spoiler, there were a decent number of covered songs from the duo, from well-known artists like IU and BoA, and it’s always a nice bonus to hear Dreamcatcher’s vocal talent.
May is going to be drawing to a close soon, and with it will certainly come even more Dreamcatcher news. Will we hear more about Dreamcatcher’s upcoming reality show, or even an upcoming potential summer comeback? The jury’s still out on either, but what we can count on is a steady stream of content from K-Pop’s resident rock/pop girl group as we head into June. Be sure to drop by here next week for yet another recap of Dreamcatcher content, and feel free to follow and/or clap on Medium to help me out!
