Standing out is crucial in K-pop. But that's not a problem for boy band Oneus, because its concept this time is definitely one of a kind as each of the members turns into mermen princes and sings of their love in Spanish.

“Our goal for this album was to surprise the fans,” Keonhee told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview held prior to the release of the band's 10th EP “La Dolce Vita” today at 6 p.m.

The boy band, which debuted in January 2019, currently has five members: Seoho, Leedo, Keonhee, Hwanwoong and Xion.

“We’ve already done things that we knew we were good at, so this time, we wanted to try something completely new. But even though it was a new challenge for us, we wanted to do it well and hear people say that we did well, so we thought a lot about what we could do.”

The five-track EP comes as the band’s first new album in four months since its last EP “Pygmalion” and also the second album since former member Ravn left the band in November last year.

For the surprise twist, Oneus has turned to a completely new motif and a totally new language. Up until now, Oneus has been famed for pulling off very Korean themes in its music, as seen in songs such as “Lit” (2019) or “Luna” (2021), by fusing traditional Korean elements in not only the musical notes but also the costume and lyrics.

But for “La Dolce Vita,” not only is the title of the album in Spanish, which means “the sweet life,” the lead track’s title is also in Spanish — “Baila Conmigo,” meaning “dance with me.”

The Latin dance pop was inspired by the story of “The Little Mermaid,” as the members of Oneus turn into mermen princes who have been given a single day to dance on land with the one they love. The melody takes inspiration from “Hungarian Dance No. 4” by Brahms, which they reinterpreted in a contemporary Latin Moombahton vibe.

“When you first hear 'Latin dance,' you think of a couple passionately dancing in red outfits, bull-fighting or just anything in red,” Keonhee said.

“But rather than going with the obvious choice, we wanted to give it a twist and use blue as the key color. In ‘The Little Mermaid,’ the princess gives up her voice and risks becoming nothing more than bubbles in the sea just to be with her love. So our song is also about that urge to be with the person you desperately desire, even if you know that could be your very last moment.”

The Spanish version of “Baila Conmigo” is yet another present to the group's Spanish-speaking fans.

This is the first time for Oneus to sing an entire song in Spanish and release it as an official track. The members took extra care to make sure their pronunciations were on point, and even the melody had been changed in some parts so as to fit the linguistic difference between Korean and Spanish, according to Seoho.

“With Spanish being a new language for us, it made us a little worried and tense about not getting it right,” he said.

“But our director really helped us relax and record well. A native-speaking Spanish tutor also told us that we almost sound native, so we’re excited to hear what the fans have to say. There’s a part where the melody is completely different, so it will be a fun experience to listen to the two tracks and compare the differences.”

“I even spoke every single word into Papago and listened to other songs with similar words to see how they’re pronounced in different situations,” Keonhee said. Papago is a local translation service by tech company Naver and is known for its high-quality voice recognition function.

“The same word can be pronounced differently depending on whether you need to say it very clearly or when you can let it flow a little,” Keonhee continued. “But we could completely change the meaning of the word if we pronounced it too differently, so we tried our best to bring out the best of the song while also maximizing the emotions behind the words. We’re very proud of what we ended up with, and we hope the fans look forward to it as much as we do.”

Prior to “La Dolce Vita,” Oneus had fused a fictional story of six kings into their previous albums, in which they ruled the ancient human world and were locked away by a sun god that became jealous of people’s love and reverence toward them.

The story began in early 2020, when Oneus took part in cable channel Mnet’s all-male K-pop competition program “Road to Kingdom,” from April to June that year. The latest album bids farewell to this story for now, in order to start a new chapter.

Oneus will begin its second world tour series, also titled “La Dolce Vita,” with two concerts in Japan next month. The band is set to perform in Korea, Japan, Europe and the United States as part of the tour, and specific venues and dates will be revealed in the coming days.

“During our first tour, there were times when I felt like I wanted to express myself to the fans but I couldn’t,” Keonhee said.

“I tried to learn the language the best I could, but there were limits to what I could do. I hope this Spanish song helps them feel more welcome. I focused a lot on putting on a good performance in the past, but now I want to focus more on communicating better with the audience and giving them energy.”

Giving positive energy and influencing the fans with goodness has always been a goal of Oneus since day one of its debut. Just as fans give them the push to go on, members hope that they can become the reason for Tomoon, their fan club, to be happy and keep on with their lives.

“Our goal is to make Tomoon so proud that their shoulders shoot up to the top of the ceiling,” Hwangwoong said when asked about Oneus’s goal for “La Dolce Vita.”

“I want fans to be able to proudly say, ‘I am a fan of this artist’ anywhere and feel confident in saying so. We’ve always been performing with this goal in mind, and I hope that our first Spanish song makes people surprised to hear our song from the streets around the world. We believe that if we do our best in every situation, then good things will happen.”

“We’re into our fifth year now,” Xion, the youngest of the group, said. “Seven years is said to be quite tough for K-pop idols. But we see so many wonderful senior artists continuing on and releasing great music. I think we’re still like babies. We want to keep going and make Oneus’s songs known to people.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]