Table of Contents
‘Silla Princess’ Zena Takes the Chuseok Stage
As Zena takes the microphone in her hanbok-inspired outfit and updo, the screen feels less like a standard idol vlog and more like a holiday music special. RESCENE’s youngest member, Zena, kicks things off with “Yongdusan Elegy,” then rolls into “Honk Honk,” “What’s Wrong with My Age,” “Melting,” “Oh My,” and “First Marriage.” The medley spans multiple generations of trot, from the 1970s to the 2020s, all in a single video. By mixing older classics with more recent hits instead of sticking to one era, it lets different age groups spot songs they already know. Watching the group’s youngest member handle a setlist this wide makes for a strong first impression.
Released on September 18 as a Chuseok special, the video premiered on RESCENE leader Woni’s personal YouTube channel, “Hello I’m Woni, Please Take Care of Me” (shortened to “An-Won-Jal-Bu”). It passed 6 million views within days. Part of the reaction came from how naturally Zena’s established “Silla Princess” persona, built on a Gyeongsang dialect, lined up with trot’s own regional and generational flavor. Timing mattered too. Chuseok is the holiday when extended families gather in Korea, and broadcasters have long filled the schedule with music and variety shows meant for every age. “An-Won-Jal-Bu” took that old holiday format and ran it through the shorter, quicker rhythm of YouTube.
A Channel Anyone Can Enjoy, Even Without Knowing the Idols
Managed by The Muze Entertainment, RESCENE is a five-member girl group with Woni, Japanese member Minami, Liv, May, and Zena. They debuted on March 26, 2024, but their jump in mainstream recognition didn’t come from music shows or ad campaigns. It came after “An-Won-Jal-Bu,” produced by Solfa Studio and led by PD Yoon Sung-won, launched in February 2026. Through YouTube and short-form video, the members’ individual personalities started to reach people who had never followed the group. Even the channel’s name reads like a long self-introduction to a stranger, an opening line rather than a polished star statement.
The channel doesn’t lean on inside jokes for existing fans. Woni plays up her hometown Geoje dialect and plain-spoken manner, while Minami leans into the “gyaru” look, drawn from Japan’s flashy youth fashion scene. Together they produced the catchphrase “Geoje Yahoo,” which spread on its own as a meme. Zena, for her part, turned her Gyeongju roots and dialect into a full Silla-princess persona. Each character grows out of a member’s real hometown or way of speaking, so there’s no lore to memorize. A first-time viewer can follow the joke just from the accent, the outfit, and the setting.
Interest Shifting from Characters to the Group
This is a different starting point from typical idol content, which usually gives existing fans an extra look behind the scenes. “An-Won-Jal-Bu” is built so anyone can watch based on the setup alone: an idol speaking dialect, a gyaru visiting Geoje, a Silla princess from Gyeongju, no prior knowledge of the cast required. The character comes first, and viewers pick up the members’ names afterward. You don’t need to know the discography or any fan slang to get the joke, which keeps the entry point low while the names and personalities still stick.
The channel passed 2 million subscribers about seven months after launch. A single viral video tends to send viewers looking for the other members and their music. What started under Woni’s name became an entry point to the whole group, introducing Minami and Zena first, then Liv and May. Unlike promotion tied to a comeback window, this kind of content keeps pulling in new viewers on its own schedule. Someone might arrive for one member, stay for another’s videos, and end up streaming the group’s songs. The individual channel and the group’s own activities feed each other instead of competing for the same attention.
Reaching the Top of the Charts in 680 Days
The attention built on YouTube eventually reached the music charts. When RESCENE released “LOVE ATTACK,” the title track of their first mini-album “SCENEDROME,” on August 27, 2024, it didn’t crack the Melon Daily Top 100. Once “An-Won-Jal-Bu” videos and their short clips took off, the song started climbing and hit No. 1 on the Melon Top 100 on July 8, 2026, 680 days after release. Unlike a new single that peaks fast on fandom streaming, this older track rose slowly as a wider audience discovered it, which says something about how far the channel’s reach extends: video views turning into musical curiosity.
“LOVE ATTACK” wasn’t RESCENE’s debut song. It came out about five months after their March 2024 debut single album, “Re:Scene,” and its title track, “UhUh.” That distinction matters for reading the chart reversal correctly. This wasn’t instant promotional success. It was a track from a closed-out era getting rediscovered almost two years later through new content. In Korean music, a “chart reversal” (yeok-ju-haeng) describes a song that surges long after its original release. What sets RESCENE apart is that character-driven content went viral before any music promotion did, and that pulled attention back into a catalog most people had already forgotten.
What Trot Reveals to International Audiences
The Chuseok special also shows how K-pop and trot can meet in the middle. Trot is a Korean pop genre built on repetitive rhythms, distinctive vocal bends, and choruses that stick fast. It was long seen as music for older listeners, but audition shows and reinterpretations by younger artists have worn down that line. It’s also closely tied to the holidays, since trot is one of the genres multiple generations of the same family tend to watch together. A short trot clip carries enough emotion and story on its own, which is part of why it clips and shares so well.
Having the youngest member, 2008-born Zena, sing everything from the old “Yongdusan Elegy” to more contemporary songs treats trot as more than a retro bit. She keeps an idol’s choreography and expression while still using trot’s own vocal style and movement. With Woni, Minami, Liv, and May joining in, the video moves back and forth between a solo vocal moment and group variety. That combination closes the generational gap in the music while giving the members room to play off each other. For international viewers, it’s a reminder that Korean idols don’t only perform current K-pop; they also translate older pop music into new characters and video formats.
The New Chapter Opened by ‘An-Won-Jal-Bu’
Zena’s trot medley shows that “An-Won-Jal-Bu” wasn’t a one-off hit. Minami’s gyaru persona and “Geoje Yahoo” connected Woni’s hometown with a member from Japan. This video connects Zena’s Gyeongsang dialect and Silla-princess image with Korea’s own holiday and trot traditions. The team takes a trait each member already has and builds it into a format non-fans can follow right away, and rather than repeat the same beat, they keep finding different cultural material for each person. It’s still Woni’s channel, but the spotlight moves around; other members get their turn.
RESCENE’s run so far suggests that for idols at small and midsize agencies, YouTube content built around personality can matter more than fan service alone. Instead of pushing the same music promo over and over, the team built independent content around who the members actually are, and let that recognition flow back into the group and its songs. The “LOVE ATTACK” reversal showed the effect in chart numbers; the Chuseok video, past 6 million views, shows the same formula working with a different member and a different genre. It’s a bet that a shareable moment beats a bigger ad budget. What comes next depends on keeping these characters fresh while turning that attention into lasting support for RESCENE’s music.
Source: ‘Hello I’m Woni, Please Take Care of Me’ YouTube Channel, September 18, 2026; Sisa Journal, July 8, 2026.
