“‘Forever 19’ is, for the first time, quite personal to me,” says Yen, who recently unveiled the new single and its accompanying music video at an intimate showcase performance in Hong Kong. “Most of my music is different stories I created in my head, where I could become different characters.”
The young singer was visibly moved when revealing this latest project to the world, shedding tears before and after taking the stage. Her famous parents played your typical proud mum and dad for the day, snapping pictures from the front row. “‘Forever 19’ felt like a passion project. My friends being involved, [and] finally seeing the whole product come together for everyone to see, it was really emotional,” she added.
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That was also how I felt as an audience member attending Yen’s debut showcase. Despite having no personal connection to the project, the singer’s nostalgia for her youth and anticipation for the future in equal measure was contagious, and I can picture the faces of my own friends in place of hers in the music video. Yen says this feeling – not unlike how Swift has captured the hearts of millions of admirers over the years with her deeply detailed lyricism and personal POV – was intentional.“[‘Forever 19’] was not just for me,” says Yen. Many of her best ideas, like the vision for the song’s music video, came to her right before a flight. “I wanted to incorporate a photo booth because I think it fits perfectly well with the song, just capturing time with memories. I wanted to show a universal message that the whole world can relate to, no matter what age, what kind of person you are, where you come from … at 19, you’re still full of passion, fear, innocence, excitement.”
As the song’s name suggests, “Forever 19” is a snapshot of all the lessons Yen learned at 19 going on 20, and all the things she wished she could’ve told her younger self at that age. She is wise beyond her years, however, when it comes to both songwriting and how she spends her free time.
“I consider myself an old soul,” she laughs. “[Growing up], I was surrounded by my mum, aunts, uncles, and they’re all millennials. I’m super into soul music. I’m obsessed with Aretha Franklin, and Beyoncé, my idol. My mum told me a lot about her Backstreet Boys days, and honestly that got me hooked. My favourite artist was Aaron Carter. My brother always makes fun of me, because I play solitaire in my free time. I play [with] Rubik’s cubes for fun, too.”I note that Yen’s close relationship with her family has not only given her a more mature outlook on life, but also a truly global world view – the singer grew up jet-setting around the world from Hong Kong to Shanghai to Paris, where she performed as a debutante late last year.
“I’m really lucky I got to experience all that,” she admits. “My mum’s childhood was in Peru, so her side would speak Spanish to each other. We speak Shanghainese in the house. I’m really glad that I grew up being open-minded and knowing so much about the world, because now I feel lucky to be able to combine East and West into my own music.”
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While Yen says the Shanghainese dialect is still her comfort zone, along with English, she can comfortably sing in Mandarin, as well – making her an artist with international appeal. She is equal parts worldly and humble, something she attributes to her time spent studying in the US, where she learned to be independent from her family for the first time in her life.
“You meet different people who grew up in completely different environments, especially when I went to Berklee. But then they were also so passionate about music and really, truly talented. I found it really moving that no matter where we’re from, as soon as music starts playing and we start jamming together, it’s like a universal language,” she enthuses.
It was during her first year at Berklee, however, when her career quickly took a turn. “I wasn’t even thinking of taking a gap year, let alone debuting when I entered Berklee,” says Yen. “But first semester, I got the message that RCA [Records] wanted to sign me. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, yeah.’ So from January all the way to summer, daytime was classes, nighttime was Zoom meetings with RCA China.”
It’s lucky, then, that balancing the many changes between teenage years and young adulthood, and even juggling different time zones, have all been part of Yen’s life growing up, making her the industrious yet individualistic woman she is today.
“That was quite challenging – the balance,” she reflects. “But then as soon as that summer hit, I debuted, and I was like, you know what? Since I’m mostly based in Asia, I’m gonna actually give my 100 per cent or 200 per cent if I want to do this seriously. But I really do love it. I’m so used to the Hong Kong busy life, with 50 different [events scheduled] a day.”
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“I did the 16 personalities test and I’m 51 per cent extroverted, 49 per cent introverted,” she muses. “Music has been so impactful for me. It really helps with my self-expression. I’m really bad at communicating, expressing how I feel. When I’m on stage, it goes away.”
That, I feel, must be the mark of a true performer – not the circumstances one was born into, but rather the circumstances one has fought so hard to overcome. “My introvertedness was 10, a million times worse when I was a kid,” Yen says. “I wouldn’t speak a word.”
Thinking back to that fateful moment of volunteering to sing at her aunt’s wedding, the singer jokes that her mum was sceptical at first – and then Yen belted out Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. “It was my diva moment, and my entire family, they were so shocked. All of them were so emotional, because they’d never known I had that side to me. I’m really passionate, and I always have new ideas,” she assures me. “I just want to seize every moment.”
