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Is Nive 'original producer' of 'Blue and Grey'? Angry fans rally to give BTS' V credit: Truth behind controversy

Nive trying to clear up the controversy noted, 'first, it was never my intent to cause such a scene around the creation of ‘Blue and Grey', a song that is both precious to both V and ARMY. For that, I am truly sorry'

Who is the ‘original producer’ of ‘Blue and Grey’? A recent comment of one of the producers, Nive, who worked on the BTS ‘BE’ song, ‘Blue and Grey’, with V has sparked controversy on social media as V aka Kim Taehyung fans feel that the only original producer of the song is the only Grammy-nominated BTS member V. 

Is Nive the ‘original producer of ‘Blue and Grey’

Nive who is known to be a colleague and friend of BTS’ V appeared on the South Korean music show ‘Yoo Huiyeol's Sketchbook’ to talk about his recent work with the ‘Sweet Night’ crooner and the success of the Billboard Hot 100 charting the ‘BE’ track ‘Blue and Grey’. On being asked how he got the chance of working with Kim Taehyung on ‘Blue and Grey’, Nive shared, “it was really by fateful chance that I worked with them. I wrote and composed Paul Kim-hyung's The Reason For My Spring and I think Paul Kim-hyung showed the song to BTS's V.” 

He added, “he showed him the song and Taehyung, V, listened to it and said that he really wanted to meet the person who wrote this song. And that's how we came to meet. And afterwards, through our musical chemistry, we wrote a number of songs together and one of those ended up being a song in BTS's new album.” While introducing Nive, the interviewer used the word ‘original producer’ for the song ‘Blue and Grey’ which added confusion and due to mistranslations, a lot of BTS fans took it as the producer claiming credit for the song.

Nive aka Jisoo Park who has previously worked for K-pop sensation EXO and EXO’s Chen addressed the issue on social media and penned a touching statement apologizing for causing any confusion regarding BTS V’s credit. The 27-year-old singer, songwriter and composer wrote, "I wanted to post this to formally apologize and to hopefully clear up some misunderstandings concerning a recent interview that took place.” 

He noted, “first, it was never my intent to cause such a scene around the creation of ‘Blue and Grey, a song that is both precious to both V and ARMY. For that, I am truly sorry." He added, "Blue and Grey was and will always will be the result of a complete collaborative effort that includes all of the significant contributions by V, Suga, RM, J-hope, Levi, Metaphor and Hiss noise. That is a fact- I will never claim that I wrote or produced ‘Blue and Grey’ by myself.”

Acknowledging the confusion regarding the mistranslation of the word(s), Nive wrote, “There also seems to be some misunderstanding around the word ‘Original composer/Singer’ that was used multiple times throughout the interview. I have been made aware that this word has been misunderstood by many to mean ‘the one who originally sang the song' or ‘the original creator of the song’ which is of course not true. I apologize for not recognizing the potential for misinterpretation in that situation and using that moment to clarify that BTS is the original singer and that not just myself, but all the others are also composers or writers for the song." The Korean-American has further stated his wish to personally apologize to BTS V while clearing out any confusion that this might have caused.

BTS V as a creator of ‘Blue and Grey’

BTS’ V has talked about his inspiration and the reason behind writing ‘Blue and Grey’ candidly in a Weverse interview. The 26-year-old K-pop vocalist who has broken quite a few musical records with ‘Sweet Night’ in 2020, said, “I wrote 'Blue & Grey' when I was at my lowest point, when I was actually asking whether I could keep going with my work or not. Even the fun parts of work became a chore, and my whole life felt aimless. 'Where do I go from here? I can’t even see the end of the tunnel.' Those kinds of thoughts hit me hard.” Read the complete interview here. 

What are fans saying?

Initially, a number of BTS V fans were outraged at the confusion of Nive being called the original producer of the song as they trended Blue and Grey Prod (producer V) on Twitter. A user wrote, “BTW..who is this Nive..or whatever. Blue and grey wrote and composed by V....Okay some artists always use bts for their fame..And nive is not the exception..” However, Nive’s statement has also received positive comments. A fan wrote, “Please don’t apologize for not recognizing how your words could be twisted. You aren’t clairvoyant. I’m sure if you talked to Tae he would think the whole situation was a big misunderstanding as well. Thank you for your hard work on B&G.” Another said, “thank you so much for clearing this up. my respect for you has increased so much. and we genuinely apologize that your word were misinterpreted and taken out of context. we are very guilty because of what happened.”

‘Blue and Grey’, a B-side track from BTS’ ‘BE’ has received huge acclaims from music artists and fans worldwide. The song debuted at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the first week itself, the song’s digital download sales were over 69,000. The song was also praised by the director of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for normalizing talking about depression. 

To read about how BTS' V went viral five times, click here.