The Best Debut of the Decade (Majestic Edition): 24 Hours (24시간이 모자라) by Sunmi

Fun Sunmi fact: Did you know that Sunmi’s actual birth name is Sun Mi (meaning that her first name was Mi and her last name was Sun, which is a pretty uncommon last name in Korea). But she legally changed it to LEE Sunmi. I thought that was pretty interesting to share 😊

The Majestic Corner is a “new” corner (that was established two years ago but I wanted to build up on my other subsections) that shows what I think are the best songs this genre has to offer. And today, that song is Sunmi’s 2013 debut “24 Hours”

I’ve been on a chronological Wonder Girls listening binge lately and I’ve gotten to the point where Sunmi’s absence is very prominent. This was around 2010 when the group was 3 years into their career and Sunmi was on hiatus in order to pursue her academic career. However, 3 years later in August of 2013 she decided to bless the world with her renowned debut, 24 Hours.

24 Hours can be described as “hard-hitting pop track enhanced with a tango-inspired section” (Genius, 2013). You rarely find pop songs as full and as melodramatic as 24 Hours which is a shame but trends do change from generation to generation. So let’s hope that the 5th gen can prioritize rich melodies again. JYP did a phenomenal job as always writing, composing and producing this song. You can count on J.Y Park to make timeless songs such as cultural power force Tell Me by the Wonder Girls, the classic Bad Girl, Good Girl by miss A, and one of my top 3 favorite TWICE tracks, Feel Special.

The instrumental intro of 24 Hours before landing into the first chorus is like a firework being shot into the sky before exploding into a colorful array. I know the addition of the GIF besides this text is a tad bit cheesy but I really wanted to put further emphasis on this metaphor especially in a visual sense.

According to Sunmi, this song is about a girl falling in love for the first time and the lyrics express her feelings about it. That meaning in a song is very common, especially in kpop, but 24 Hours transcends that meaning beyond it’s lyrics. Sunmi’s intonation and tone make her feel desperate and frantic, as if this is the most intense feeling she’s ever felt. As if 24 hours in a day are truly not enough to spend with her lover and experience all the fiery emotions that come with love such as yearning, lust and effervescent passion. The instrumental also heavily contributes to this feeling with it’s thumping baseline, swirling sound effects and haunting electronic keys. And thanks to the producing, writing, arranging and composing prowess of JYP alongside the additional arranger Nat Powers, mastering engineer Geoff Pesche and the musical talents of Sunmi, we have a masterful debut that hasn’t aged a day in over a decade.

24 Hours honorably gets a…

10/10

Thank you for reading! Ideally, I would have posted this on the 10th anniversary of this song on the 26th of August. But there’s no way I couldn’t post this before 2023 ended.