MONSTA X’s Hyungwon Explains Why & How He Wrote The “Secrets” Lyrics In English
This month, MONSTA X made their highly-awaited comeback with their ninth mini-album, One of a Kind. Alongside the title track, “Gambler,” one of the standout tracks on the album has to be “Secrets,” which was written entirely in English. In a new interview for Rolling Stone, Hyungwon talked about why and how he co-wrote the “Secrets” lyrics in English.
“Among our albums,” Hyungwon started, “I really like ‘All About Luv’.” Reaching the top five on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, 2020 studio album All About Luv was MONSTA X’s first record released entirely in English, and it was acclaimed by critics from the U.S. to Korea to England.
Hyungwon went on to explain that he wrote the lyrics to “Secrets” in English because he wanted to bring pop songs like those in All About Luv to One of a Kind. Of course, it wasn’t easy. While Hyungwon’s English is pretty good, it’s far from fluent, making this endeavor even more impressive.
The process of writing the lyrics in English was a bit long because I didn’t speak English well enough to write lyrics.
— Hyungwon
So, how did he manage it? Hyungwon came up with a smart process to get his English lyricism on. “I wrote the lyrics in Korean first,” he explained, “then translated them into English, and rewrote them to fit the rhythm.” While Hyungwon says it took him some time to create the finished song, he still considers it “a good experience.”
And even though he may have had a somewhat difficult time, Monbebe can all agree the song couldn’t have been better.
