South Korean singer Jung Kook from the K-pop band BTS performs solo on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday, July 14, 2023, in New York. (Evan Agostini, Invision/AP)
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, July 29, 2023: ‘Seven,’ Junk Kook feat. Latto
It’s always fun to watch kids turn to adults in the music biz. One day, you’re smiling, lip-synching to some innocent jingle about puppy love. The next, you drop a Latto collab where you end each chorus with the line, “I’ll be f--- you right.” Such is the case with BTS heartthrob Jung Kook, whose first foray into solo stardom comes at the perfect time to make a late play for Song of the Summer. Gone is the boy band innocence that made his group an international powerhouse; in is an edgier dose of cookie cutter pop that illustrates the American difference between bidding “Bye, Bye, Bye,” before saying hello to a special “Senorita.”
The best part is that it works: Any fan of pop can attest to the cold hard fact that the weekday-as-a-hook trope never fails (shout out to anyone who remembers Craig David’s infectious “7 Days” from all the way back in 2000!). Jung takes that blueprint even further here, using all seven days as the core of the chorus before getting to that thing he wants you to know he’ll do right. Asserting that over an up-tempo, European garage groove gives the track the energy it needs to succeed. Latto, as expected, adds even more attitude to the song as she drops a verse aided by an interesting tiny change in feel that gives the bridge a welcome soul.
It’s all so sexy, mildly explicit, and above all, an announcement that the BTS crooner isn’t a teenager anymore (to be fair, he actually hasn’t been for a while — the guy will turn 26 in September). Still, Jung understands the universal language of what it takes to make a hit, no matter the age, and he’s done it here with a solid first step into the batter’s box. If nothing else, it’ll have you humming the days of the week in your sleep. And for this time of year, when hot nights turn into sunny days … only to turn back into hot nights without notice, there’s value in remembering which one of those days it is.
With “Seven,” Jung promises that as long as it ends in the letter “y,” the partyin’ and the lovin’ won’t end.
