Fly to the Youth: NOWZ Let YUQI Turn Burnout Into a Group Project

“Fly to the Youth” is what happens when five rookies admit adulthood already feels like unpaid overtime, then ask YUQI to produce the escape route. It is warm, earnest, slightly messy, and much more interesting than another rebrand anthem yelling about a new era.

What the song means

The lyric starts with a cruel little adult truth. Every day adds another thing to your shoulders, yet somehow your smile keeps disappearing. The narrator looks at the life he wanted and realizes the result does not feel like the dream. There are tasks everywhere. The heart is still young. Nobody included instructions.

“Fly to the Youth” does not pretend confidence fixes that. The verses admit fear, dissatisfaction, and wounds that do not vanish just because time passed. The chorus offers movement instead. There may be no correct answer, so go anyway. Fly toward the person or version of yourself that still feels like light.

The line about becoming an adult while the heart remains unchanged is the whole song. It is not childishness. It is the shock of discovering that responsibility arrives faster than certainty. Very rude of adulthood, honestly.

YUQI and PENTAGON’s Wooseok wrote the song with all five NOWZ members. Hyeonbin, Yoon, Yeonwoo, Jinhyuk, and Siyun have lyric credit. Jinhyuk and Siyun also share composition credit with YUQI, Wooseok, and Siixk Jun. Siixk Jun arranged it. That makes the “group project” part literal. The members are not borrowing somebody else’s inspirational poster.

The Korean music video

The video treats youth like a place everyone is trying to reach before the city swallows the address. Its night-air palette fits Cube’s description of the track as cinematic soul-pop: clean guitar, restrained rhythm, bass and synth layers, then enough open space for the voices to sound uncertain without sounding weak.

YUQI is not inserted like a famous aunt arriving for one line and a thumbnail. She exists inside the story and performance as the person who has already survived several versions of this industry. That changes the feature. She is not rescuing NOWZ with celebrity glitter. She is handing them a song, singing beside them, and letting the work log show how nervous they were.

My actual first reaction

YUQI did more than feature

The behind-the-scenes work matters. NOWZ looked nervous in the recording room, and YUQI made the space less terrifying without pretending the notes did not need work. Fans noticed that immediately. She has been the junior under pressure. Now she is the senior telling younger artists to trust the song and try again.

There is also a risk. One critic argued that YUQI’s gravelly voice outshines the group, the way a famous guest can become the only part casual listeners remember. Fair. Her tone is a fingerprint. NOWZ still needs more vocal identity around it.

But removing her would erase the point of the project. The song sounds like YUQI because she helped build it. Her presence turns the feature into authorship, mentorship, and a Cube family collaboration that actually feels human.

The Chinese version

Six days later, Cube released a Chinese version with a different official video. This one moves toward the blue seashore and a brighter, more openly youthful story. SBS reported that the original video entered QQ Music’s Korean music-video chart, while the hand-dance challenge climbed Douyin. The Chinese release was not random subtitle bait. It followed a real response from that market and used YUQI’s language and audience properly.

The Chinese lyric adaptation credits YUQI, Eleven Zhan, and Wooseok. The song keeps its emotional center, but the seaside video lets the release breathe differently. The Korean version feels like escaping a city-night thought. The Chinese version feels like the escape already reached the coast.

Member moments that matter

• Hyeonbin: His writing credit matters because the leader is helping define the new NOWZ voice instead of merely introducing it.
• Yoon: The cleaner melodic sections give the main vocalist space to sound warm rather than prove volume.
• Yeonwoo: He helps the verses move naturally, and his lyric credit adds credibility to the song’s youth perspective.
• Jinhyuk: He shares composition and lyric credit. The track’s shape is partly his work, not just his performance assignment.
• Siyun: The maknae also shares composition credit, which makes the song’s anxiety about becoming an adult feel less like company copy.

What worked

• The members wrote about the age they are actually living.
• YUQI’s mentorship exists in the credits and recording footage, not just the marketing line.
• The clean guitar and city-night sound suit the lyric.
• The Chinese version has its own real visual identity.
• The rebrand finally points toward music instead of a logo meeting.

What did not fully work

The chorus is pretty, but it stops one step before becoming undeniable. The production is caught between sentimental pop-rock and a summer anthem, and it sometimes chooses politeness over impact. I wanted the last chorus to open the roof, not simply raise the window.

NOWZ also has to survive YUQI’s shadow. This collaboration got people to look. The next songs need to make them stay for Hyeonbin, Yoon, Yeonwoo, Jinhyuk, and Siyun. A famous producer can open the door. She cannot become the entire house.

The RaeRae verdict

“Fly to the Youth” is not a perfect anthem. It is a good piece of evidence. NOWZ sounds more emotionally specific after the rebrand, the members are inside the writing credits, and YUQI treated the collaboration like work worth doing.

Rating: 8.1/10. The chorus needs one more shove, but the sincerity stayed out of the corporate refrigerator.

Receipts

• Official Korean music video and full creditsDaily+329Total views11.9M
• Official Chinese-version music videoDaily+56Total views6.5M
• SBS Entertainment on the Chinese release, QQ Music, and Douyin response
• NOWZ official release page
• Listener discussion
• A contrasting critical review

Keep digging: NOWZ · YUQI · i-dle