On June 27, 2023, soloist Choi Ye Na released her second single album, “HATE XX”. The single album’s title track titled, “Hate Rodrigo” features (G)I-DLE’s Yuqi, and is a song that, despite the connotations of the word hate, expresses Ye Na’s feelings of admiration and jealousy towards Filipino-American singer Olivia Rodrigo.
Prior to the release of the single album and from Ye Na’s teaser photos alone, Korean online users and K-Pop stans weren’t the most enthusiastic about the whole concept, with some images including photos and references from Olivia Rodrigo. For Koreans, Ye Na using the word “hate” is too strong a word and too hateful to call out other artists.
Ye Na also explained the title and meaning of “Hate Rodrigo,” where she says that “it is a song that maximizes affection and admiration with an ironic expression.” “’Hate Rodrigo’ is a cute and honest expression of various emotions such as longing and jealousy that we feel for the object of our envy…I used an ironic expression to maximize my affection and longing for that person.” said Ye Na in her album press conference on the 27th.
On June 29, 2023, however, Ye Na’s music video for “Hate Rodrigo” was unavailable for viewing on YouTube. Later that evening, Korean news outlet Xportsnews reported that the MV had been made private following a request from the management of Olivia Rodrigo.
The report from Xportsnews said that the MV had been made private on YouTube for copyright infringement issues in some scenes in the video, not for the song’s title.
On June 30, 2023, Ye Na’s agency Yuehue Entertainment, responded to the reports and rumors with an official statement:
“Hello, this is Yuehue Entertainment.
We would like to express our stance regarding our artist Choi Ye Na’s second single album title track “Hate Rodrigo” music video.
The music video was made private on June 29 after the company found that some scenes may have caused issues with trademark infringement, violation of portrait rights, and copyright. Currently, the music video is being edited again. We apologize for the sudden confusion without giving prior notice due to recognizing the problem belatedly. We will upload the music video again as soon as the editing is completed.
Additionally, we’d like to clarify that it is not true that the music video was made private at the request of Olivia Rodrigo’s side. We have never received any request regarding that matter and we hope that there will be no more misunderstandings for both artists and fans due to unverified reports. In the future, we’d also like to ask you to refrain from spreading unconfirmed speculations.
Thank you for your interest and love in Choi Ye Na’s latest album. We will humbly accept your feedback and repay you with better music.
Thank you.”
As of writing, the revised music video has now been reposted.
Jigumis, Ye Na’s fandom, came to the artist’s defense following the backlash received by her new track. At the same time, they also helped explain to others the meaning of the track and its nuances.
For clarification Yena doesn’t hate Olivia Rodrigo but the song states that she’s jealous of her and Liv is her idol. However, the issue is that she used copyrighted images of Olivia are also on behalf of Interscope Records without permission https://t.co/8gqIfT5HWC pic.twitter.com/wQZOFdoMkw
— aubrey 〄 (@aubreyvision) June 29, 2023
i feel so bad for yena but what was company expecting using yena hard work for such a weird concept like putting rodrigo name and pics all over the mvs teasers even creating a hate rodrigo hashtag to promote it on tiktok this is disrespectful to both olivia and yena talent
— Lilac☆彡 (@jentakoyakis) June 29, 2023
idk what yuehua was thinking giving yena this concept TBH like hate rodrigo was cute but they greenlit that shit thinking it was gna break records NO! what you’re gonna get is a lawsuit omg pic.twitter.com/OZEKsPsqsx
— ۟ (@gyuirous) June 29, 2023
FREE MY GIRL YENA SHE DID NOTHING WRONG HATE RODRIGO ATE pic.twitter.com/OB8oLUaRuf
— kami‹𝟹 SAW TUBATU AGAIN ᵕ̈ (@soobtokkii_) June 30, 2023
Need yena to release another song titled Hate_KNETZ#YENA_Hate_RODRIGO @yena_OFFICIAL pic.twitter.com/BxKBlj8I92
— Yenation | HATE RODRIGO (@yenagotchi) June 29, 2023
WAR IS OVERRR (not with #them though) let’s catch up and support yena a million times more from now on
HATE RODRIGO M/V: https://t.co/lC01AfBick
— yena loops (@cynloop) June 30, 2023
yena's hate rodrigo music video and all its promo materials being deleted omg pic.twitter.com/SH6ruUIXxL
— kiss of life pr manager (@wekikepi) June 29, 2023
im so glad a statement has finally been released, but what pisses me off is the fact that all this could've been avoided if a statement was released sooner. all this hate towards yena could have been prevented if the company came out and explained this to us instead of making us- pic.twitter.com/g1yn3wLJ6R
— bex ♡ hate xx (@dearlycyn) June 30, 2023
all of y’all owe yena an apology idc how u wanna phrase it you guys keot making the worst assumptions about a situation where we didn’t even have all the info https://t.co/bC7Kkf2e2c
— ʚïɞ soyeon’s gf (real) (@lgbtjinho) June 30, 2023
yuehua failed yena very miserably wow….
dropping a statement saying you're editing the MV by your own choices and not the Olivia team's demand could have saved yena from all these ridiculous backlash even if just a bit and you failed to do that
— ً (@dancingyena) June 30, 2023
This feels like Yena shade https://t.co/UpfC9YQXJ5
— Nicolas is happy (@niggaolas) June 29, 2023
see… it's not even olivia's team who requested to take down the mv, it was yuehua's own decision to do it but what fucking annoys me the most is why did the company prolong the agony and let yena be roasted w false accusations all over the internet?
— rei | HATE XX (@yenaens) June 30, 2023
nasty ppl in the qrts saying "deserved" + being hateful towards yena need to realise she put SO much work into this cb + was so excited to be promoting for the 1st time in almost a year. this is so sad + i feel so bad for her. her company literally set her up. she deserves better https://t.co/NoMq1dB03Y
— bex ♡ hate xx (@dearlycyn) June 29, 2023
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