LE SSERAFIM's Kim Chaewon Went Off on Leemujin Service

LE SSERAFIM's Kim Chaewon walked into the Leemujin Service studio and left with no songs to spare. In Episode 215 of KBS Kpop's beloved live performance series, the group's leader covered four songs across strikingly different genres — her own group's track "CELEBRATION," Olivia Dean's "So Easy (To Fall In Love)," AKMU's "기쁨, 슬픔, 아름다운 마음" (Joy, Sorrow, Beautiful Heart), and 한로로's "비틀비틀 짝짜꿍" — and the resulting performance is already the kind of thing fans are dissecting frame by frame.

The timing is no accident. LE SSERAFIM are days away from the release of their second full album, PUREFLOW pt.1, dropping May 22, 2026. For Kim Chaewon to appear on Leemujin Service now — with a setlist that ranges from K-pop to British soul to AKMU's emotionally complex folk-pop — is a statement about what she brings to the group and what she's capable of when the material demands it.

What the Setlist Reveals

The Leemujin Service format, hosted by singer-songwriter Lee Mujin, is deliberately low-key by K-pop standards: a small studio, a live band, and the expectation that what you hear is what the artist can actually do. It's a format that strips away a lot of the infrastructure artists typically rely on, and it rewards the performers who can fill the space with their voice alone.

Kim Chaewon opened with "CELEBRATION," drawing the live performance context directly into LE SSERAFIM's current moment. The song, one of the tracks from the group's recent releases, translates well to a stripped-back setting — its melody clear and direct enough to hold its own without production reinforcement.

The Olivia Dean cover, "So Easy (To Fall In Love)", was where the session shifted into different territory. Dean's music sits at an intersection of soul, jazz, and indie pop that is quite far from the sonic world LE SSERAFIM typically inhabits. Choosing to cover her in this setting is a vote of confidence in your own taste and ability to inhabit a song that doesn't belong to you yet. The fact that Kim Chaewon made the choice and delivered on it says something real about her musicality.

AKMU's "기쁨, 슬픔, 아름다운 마음" is a different kind of challenge. AKMU's music is built on a kind of genuine emotional specificity that resists imitation — their writing tends to feel personal in a way that makes covers feel either deeply resonant or slightly hollow. Pulling off an AKMU song live, in a small studio, for an audience that knows exactly what the original sounds like, requires something beyond technical ability. The ability to make a borrowed song feel genuinely felt.

The final cover, 한로로's "비틀비틀 짝짜꿍", brings a contrasting warmth and playfulness that rounds out the setlist in a way that feels intentional rather than random. Han Roro's music carries a particular emotional lightness, and closing the session with it suggests that Kim Chaewon's approach to this performance was to move the audience through different emotional registers rather than simply demonstrate range.

Kim Chaewon's Role in LE SSERAFIM's Sound

LE SSERAFIM's group identity has always been built around a kind of fearless, controlled confidence — the idea that the members know exactly what they're doing and have made deliberate choices about how they're presenting themselves. Kim Chaewon, as the group's leader and one of its most experienced performers, has been central to how that identity comes across.

She predates LE SSERAFIM's debut in the idol industry: her time in IZ*ONE gave her several years of stage experience and public exposure before the group's formation under Source Music. That history is visible in how she carries herself in performance contexts — the ease of a performer who has done this enough times to stop thinking about doing it and simply do it.

The Leemujin Service appearance amplifies that quality in a specific way. Cover performances require a different kind of emotional engagement than performing your own material. You have to understand what made the original song work and find a way to honor that without losing yourself in the process. A setlist as diverse as the one Kim Chaewon brought to Episode 215 suggests someone who listens broadly, thinks carefully about what she's singing, and has enough technique to execute across styles without becoming unrecognizable.

LE SSERAFIM's Upcoming Album and What PUREFLOW Means

The cover session arrives at a meaningful moment for LE SSERAFIM as a group. Their second full album, PUREFLOW pt.1, releases on May 22, 2026 at 1 PM KST. The album represents a deliberate evolution of the theme that defined their debut era: "fearless." Where LE SSERAFIM once declared "두려움이 없기에 강하다" (We are strong because we have no fear), the new record responds to that with "두려움을 알기에 더 강해질 수 있었다" (We could become stronger because we came to understand fear).

The title track, "BOOMPALA", embodies that shift in a characteristically LE SSERAFIM way: bright, high-energy, and built around a hook you can't unhear. The song samples "Macarena" — a choice that signals both confidence and a willingness to lean into something unexpected — while the lyrics carry a more nuanced emotional message about facing rather than avoiding fear. The group's preview video, featuring the five members' choreography for the chorus, has already generated anticipation for what the full performance will look like.

Following the album release, LE SSERAFIM will launch their second world tour, "2026 LE SSERAFIM TOUR 'PUREFLOW'", starting with two nights in Incheon on July 11 and 12, 2026. The tour extends the PUREFLOW narrative into a live context where the group has consistently delivered the kind of performances that build long-term fanbases rather than just initial excitement.

Why the Leemujin Service Moment Matters

In the lead-up to a major album release, artists make choices about how to position themselves. Some flood social media with content, some do press rounds, some let the music carry itself. Kim Chaewon's choice to appear on Leemujin Service — a format that asks for live vocal performance without a net — is a specific kind of positioning: it says that behind the group's visual identity and production values, there's a vocalist who can stand alone in a room and make it worth watching.

For fans who have followed LE SSERAFIM through their various chapters, the performance is also a reminder of something that sometimes gets obscured by the scale of the group's aesthetic: these are artists with genuine instincts, who make choices about music and performance that come from a real place. Kim Chaewon's cover of Olivia Dean, or the AKMU song, didn't happen because it was the safest option. It happened because she wanted to sing those songs.

Episode 215 of Leemujin Service is now available on the KBS Kpop YouTube channel. PUREFLOW pt.1 drops May 22, 2026.