SHINee dropped Atlantis, a repackage of their seventh Korean studio album Don’t Call Me. In the “Atlantis” MV, the group pays tribute to their eternal member Jonghyun by bringing him along on a deep-sea adventure. SHINee members paid their tributes to late member Kim Jong-hyun, popularly known as Jonghyun on April 8 on his birth anniversary, expressing how much they missed him on this day. 

SHINee’s tribute to his Friend Jonghyun

SHINee are set to release a repackaged version of their seventh studio album ‘Don’t Call Me’ in mid-April. Titled ‘Atlantis’, it will feature three brand-new tracks: ‘Area’, ‘Days and Years’ and the title track of the same name.

The group’s seventh studio album “Don’t Call Me” was released on February 22 at 6 p.m. KST. Following its release, the album rose to No. 1 on iTunes Top Album charts in at least 45 regions including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand, and more. In addition, the album topped the digital album sales charts on China’s QQ Music and Kuwo Music as well as the Line Music Album Top 100 chart in Japan.The title track, also “Don’t Call Me,” ranked No. 1 on Korean real-time music charts such as Bugs, Genie, and Vibe.The long-awaited seventh full-length album titled ‘Don’t Call Me’ is here and it is everything the fans hoped for! Along with the album comes the lead track with a fiery music video.

SHINee disclosed information about their upcoming Albums in 2021

SHINee members Onew, Minho, Key, and Taemin hosted a live broadcast on January 31 in order to talk about their upcoming album. During the session, they unveiled the group is gearing up for their comeback. Along with several teasers, they also sang the upcoming B-side track ‘Marry You’ along with performances on ‘Good Evening’, ‘Idea’, ‘Imagine’ among others.

Jonghyun being missed by everyone on his birthday

Taking to Instagram, SHINee’s rapper Choi Minho shared a BTS image from one of their performances and wrote – ‘Happy birthday to my j’, adding- ‘I always miss you’ in Korean.

Key, on the other hand, shared a picture of Jonghyun that he had personally clicked saying ‘‘I said I’d take a picture of your outfit, was it that exhausting’, pointing to the singer’s poker face in the image.

The K-pop band’s official page managed by SM Entertainment also shared a photo of the late singer from one of his performances on his birth anniversary which drew thousands of fans to wish the late musician.

What happened to Jonghyun?

Back in 2017, Jonghyun’s death had sent shockwaves across the K-pop industry and had brought to light what netizens began calling the ‘dark side’ of Kpop riddled with insurmountable pressures of being an ‘idol’. The 27-year-old singer was reportedly found unconscious at a private hotel in Seoul on December 18, 2017, and is said to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning through slow-burning coal briquettes. His last rites had gathered unprecedented national and international media coverage with many celebrities such as the BTS and fellow members of SM Entertainment EXO, Girl’s Generation, Super Junior, BoA, and other fans attending the three-day public funeral. 

His farewell note was made public the following day which revealed the crushing burden the Korean pop star felt from being an idol. He wrote, “I am broken from inside. The depression that had been slowly eating me up finally devoured me and I couldn’t defeat it”. 

Jonghyun – whose full name was Kim Jonghyun – initially rose to fame as the main vocalist of SHINee, who made their debut in 2008. He later kicked off a solo career in 2015 with the mini-album ‘Base’, which featured the chart-topping hit ‘Déjà-Boo’ with Zion.T.  His final album ‘Poet | Artist’ was posthumously released in January of 2018. Proceeds from the album went to the Shiny Foundation, an organisation formed that same year by Kim’s family to support aspiring South Korean creatives.

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