YVES

Busan, Yangsan, and the ninth slot

Ha Soo-young was born in Busan on 24 May 1997 and moved to Yangsan while she was at primary school. The decision to try music is traced back to 2007, when she watched the girl group Wonder Girls perform their debut single "Irony". She trained at Dance Up Academy in Busan and then at Dream Vocal & Dance Academy in Seoul.

On 14 November 2017 she was revealed as the ninth member of LOONA, the Blockberry Creative project that introduced its line-up one member at a time over roughly eighteen months. Her self-titled single album followed on 28 November 2017 with the tracks "New" and "D-1". She was placed in the sub-unit yyxy, whose EP Beauty & the Beat reached number four on the Gaon album chart on 30 May 2018, and she took part in the full twelve-member debut, the EP [+ +], which peaked at number two on 20 August 2018. From May 2020 she also presented the variety show Fact iN Star.

The group's commercial arc flattened and its contractual arrangements did not hold. On 28 November 2022 Yves and most of the other members filed suit against Blockberry Creative, citing a loss of trust in the company.

The ruling that made a solo career possible

The first ruling, on 13 January 2023, went against her. The Seoul High Court reversed that on 16 June 2023, allowing the suspension of her exclusive contract and ending her time in LOONA. Nine months of silence followed.

On 14 March 2024 she signed to Paix Per Mil, an independent label founded by the Korean hip-hop and R&B producer Millic. That choice has shaped everything since: no title-track committee, no large-label release calendar, and a working method she described in April 2026 as wanting "to make the music that I want and be able to share that with the rest of the world", adding that she was trying to avoid being pinned to a single genre.

Five EPs in thirty months

The solo discography has arrived at a pace closer to an independent artist than a K-pop soloist. Loop, released on 29 May 2024, reached number 13 on Korea's album chart and carried a title track featuring the rapper Lil Cherry; NME placed the song at number 12 in its best K-pop songs of 2024 and Billboard put the EP at number 18 in its albums list for the year. The standalone single "Tik Tok" followed on 30 August 2024.

I Did arrived on 14 November 2024, peaked at number 16 and did better critically than commercially — eighth in Billboard's 2024 albums ranking and a nomination for Best K-Pop Album at the 2025 Korean Music Awards. A deluxe edition, I Did: Bloom, came on 17 January 2025, and the EP DIM ∞ on 1 April 2025.

Soft Error, released on 7 August 2025, remains her highest-charting record at number seven in Korea. It included "Soap", a collaboration with the British producer and singer PinkPantheress, and the single "White cat", which NME ranked 16th in its best K-pop songs of 2025. A deluxe version, Soft Error: X, followed on 15 October 2025.

Nail, and the year the press caught up

Nail was announced on 27 March 2026 and released on 17 April through Paix Per Mil and Warner Music Korea. Five tracks in fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds — "It", "Halo", "Nail" with Lolo Zouaï, "Break it" with Lexie Liu and "Birth" — built around a club-leaning concept she co-wrote and helped produce. It peaked at number 14 on the Circle album chart and later took eighth place in Billboard's 25 Best K-Pop Albums of 2026 So Far.

Ten days after release, on 27 April 2026, she appeared on NME's The Cover with an accompanying playlist, Stretch Before You Move, drawing on Chet Baker, Erykah Badu, Amelia Moore and Frank Ocean — a set of reference points that explains the hyperpop, house, pop-punk and indie swings across Nail better than any genre tag.

Where she stands at the end of 2026

On 2 October 2026 Paix Per Mil announced a fifth EP, Cute & Anxiety, for 20 November, with a double single as the lead-in. "Hysteric" and "Adam" arrived on 27 October and the video for "Hysteric" the following day. "Hysteric" sits on a dark deep-house groove with a plucked bass line, her delivery moving from wordless humming to the plain admission "I'm losing control, got nothing at all"; "Adam" handles the aftermath. The video has her with red hair in near-darkness and unsteady movement, deliberately rougher than the brighter presentation of her earlier records.

The EP runs five tracks — "Too Much" with the Chilean artist Akriila, the focus track "Polaroid", "Hysteric", "Bat" and "Adam" — and ships in four physical versions, including two hello82 limited editions, a Barnes & Noble edition and a Korean edition. The theme, per the label's framing, is the blurred line between cuteness and anxiety.

The sequencing is tight: her 2026 touring finishes in Sydney on 17 November, three days before the record comes out.

The show as it is now

The 2026 tour opened in Europe in April across a sold-out nine-city run, moved through the Americas in May and June, took in festival slots over the summer — including KBK Fest in Bucharest on 27 September, a 45-minute, eleven-song set — and returned for an Asian leg that began at PORTAL in Hong Kong on 1 November and ran through Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Ayala Alabang and harevutai in Tokyo on 11 November.

Headline shows run about an hour and forty minutes, and the setlist has barely moved. "HALO" has opened every show logged on setlist.fm; the main set closes on "DIM" and the encore is almost always "NAIL". The New York date at Palladium Times Square on 20 May 2026 ran 22 songs — "HALO", "Hashtag", "Gone Girl", "Afterglow", "BIRD", "Aibo", "White cat", "birth", "It", "Break it", "NAIL" with Lolo Zouaï in person, "Do you feel it like i touch", "mom", "See You in Hell", "Ex Machina", "Viola", "DIORAMA", "Tik Tok", "Goldfish", "Soap", "LOOP" and "DIM" — before a "NAIL" reprise and a return to "HALO" over which she introduced her dancers.

Production is deliberately thin for the genre: a hanging tapestry printed with the tour logo and motifs, and a single chair she works from for much of the night. Four dancers, no LED wall. Reviewing the Chicago show at the Copernicus Center on 23 May 2026 — which fell on her birthday in Korean time — the Michigan Daily's JC Rafal singled out the falsetto on "It" and a seated "See you in hell", and read the small-room staging as a rejection of the manufactured productions the format usually demands. A recap of the 8 May date at the Alex Theatre in Glendale described the floor of the room shaking as the crowd rapped along to "LOOP", the fan chant of "Space!" through the chorus of "Viola", and Yves calling out quiet sections of the balcony until they answered.