First openly gay K-pop singer, MRSHLL, dedicates new release to all the ‘aliens and misfits’
- K-pop star’s Alien Issa Mixtape describes how he feels out of place in South Korean society
- Singer will share six new songs on streaming platforms
By Celeste Kriel
K-pop’s first openly gay singer, MRSHLL, has released his new mixtape, Alien Issa Mixtape, which he says is dedicated to all the “aliens and the misfits” and those on the margins of society.
“These are songs I’ve been working throughout the past year that didn’t make it onto the Breathe EP released this past June, nor did it quite fit into the concept of my next album but I didn’t want to throw them away,” the Korean-American artist said.
During the process of writing the new music, it became more than just a “SoundCloud thing,” he added, and he decided to share the six new songs on all streaming platforms as a mixtape.
The title of Alien Issa Mixtape alludes to the fact that the artist does not feel fully at home in this world, especially Korean society, the birthplace of his parents.
“I kind of sometimes feel like I’m not a part of this world and I don’t fit in necessarily. While my parents are from here, I was born and raised abroad,” ” he said. “But now being here in the land of my parents which essentially is a part of me, I’ve been learning a lot about the culture and my identity as a Korean. But being raised somewhere else, sometimes I feel like I look like me but I’m an alien, like a Korean impostor.”