UMI performs at Oakland Arena in Oakland on Dec. 2, 2023. Matt Pang/STAFF.

Updated: Dec. 25

OAKLAND — Seattle-born, L.A.-based neo-soul artist UMI and BTS’ Kim Tae-hyung, better known as V, recently announced on social media a collaborative song the two worked on remotely.

UMI (Tierra Umi Wilson), who performed in Oakland with Jhené Aiko earlier this month, spoke to us about her upcoming EP and future musical work, and said the EP may not be the only new music she releases in January. While she said they could not announce what the song is called, she spoke about its themes, as well as how she and V became fans of each others’ work and then friends. She also spoke about the thematic complexities of the song—missing someone separated by distance—and how it began with her writing about grandmother in Japan. It could just as easily, to fans of BTS, be about V himself—as he’s beginning his mandatory military service in South Korea.

Their relationship started when UMI learned Kim Tae-hyung had been a fan of her music for five or six years, she said.

V (Kim Tae-hyung) of BTS attends the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. Photo by Kevin Mazur, courtesy The Recording Academy.

“I couldn’t even believe it,” she said. “A couple months ago, he shared my music again. I was like, ‘If he likes my music, I might as well say ‘thank you.’ … I reached out in a DM. … He’s such a friendly person—genuinely such an amazing person. He reached out to talk to me and took the time to talk about what we like musically. Organically, we were like, ‘Should we make a song together?’ So I sent him a bunch of the songs I’d been making. He picked one that he liked, and then he recorded it.”

She said she didn’t know whether the song would ever see the light of day until he talked about it in a live stream.

“He teased the song, so I was like, ‘Oh, it’s happening!’” she said.

UMI said the song would likely be released under her name with V as the featured artist because he’s unlikely to be able to focus on music during his military service. But it was a true 50-50 partnership, she added.

“But it will definitely be both of us on this song together,” she said. “I’m hoping, too, since he’s leaving, when people listen to this song, they can think of him. The song itself is about long-distance love and not just romantic love, but love of all kinds. I initially wrote about my grandma because my grandma lives in Japan: [about] how I can only talk to her through FaceTime, and I wish I could talk to her more. Then it kind of evolved. There’s a lot of people I feel this way about. So I’m sure that fans will feel that way about him while he’s gone. It just feels divine. It feels like it’s meant to be for people.”

And as for that song title: “People are guessing, people are saying, ‘This is what the song is called.’ I love it. Keep the name guessing coming!”

Has anyone guessed correctly?

“No one’s been right,” she said, laughing.

🤍🕊️ @bts_bighit pic.twitter.com/ndgiANWf4u

— UMI (@whoisumi) December 11, 2023

Dec. 25 update: Umi and BTS have announced the title of the song as “wherever u r,” and a Dec. 29 release date.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.