Jewelry Reunites on Stage After 20 Years: 'How Can I Not Cry?'

The girl group Jewelry, which heated up the music industry in the early 2000s, is taking the stage once again under a single name after a 20-year hiatus. Members Park Jeong-ah, Lee Ji-hyun, Seo In-young, and Jo Min-ah broke their long absence to summon memories of their heyday by performing a series of hit songs. After finishing their performance, Seo In-young could not hide her overwhelming emotions, even remarking, "Is it menopause? I'm crying again.'

The 773rd episode of KBS 2TV's 'Immortal Songs,' airing at 6:05 PM on the 12th, is organized as the first part of the '2026 NEW WAVE Festival in Ulsan.' This special feature, held at the Taehwagang National Garden in Ulsan with approximately 10,000 spectators, features performers such as Lee Seung-gi, Forestella, Lee Chan-won, Dayoung, Click-B, and Jewelry.

The biggest sensation is undoubtedly Jewelry. Park Jeong-ah, Lee Ji-hyun, Seo In-young, and Jo Min-ah stepped onto the stage after 20 years under the name Jewelry to perform their representative songs, including 'One More Time,' 'I Like You So Much,' 'Tonight,' and 'Super Star.' They stimulated the collective memories of the audience by recreating the iconic ET dance and the 'shaking dance' that symbolized the music industry at the time.

The reason their reunion is being received even more specially is that Jewelry was not a team that started with this current lineup from the beginning. Jewelry debuted in 2001 with Park Jeong-ah, Lee Ji-hyun, Jung Yu-jin, and Jeon Eun-mi, and underwent several member changes. Later, Seo In-young and Jo Min-ah joined to build their peak era, and after Lee Ji-hyun and Jo Min-ah left the team in 2006, members like Kim Eun-jung and Ha Ju-yeon joined, with the composition changing according to the era. In 2011, Park Jeong-ah and Seo In-young left, and after passing through various member combinations, Jewelry officially disbanded in 2015.

Therefore, this stage is difficult to explain simply as a 'reunion of original members.' It is significant in that members who together created Jewelry's heyday at different times gathered in one place to compress various eras of the team into a single stage.

In particular, there is a special narrative regarding the reunion of Seo In-young and Jo Min-ah. The two have drawn significant attention from fans due to public reports that their relationship had grown distant in the past. Rumors of discord surfaced when Jo Min-ah did not attend Seo In-young's wedding in 2023, during which Jo Min-ah expressed her hurt feelings regarding the invitation. Subsequently, Seo In-young also expressed her apologies for not being able to reach out.

The fact that these two met again this year under the name Jewelry was particularly special to fans. On Seo In-young's YouTube channel 'Gaegwacheonseon Seo In-young' released last June, the members of Jewelry performed a full-group stage for the first time in about 20 years, and Jo Min-ah tearfully confessed, "I missed them," stating that she had tried to live without consciously thinking about the members.

This stage on 'Immortal Songs' is also meaningful in that it expanded the emotions of that reunion to a more official stage—a terrestrial music program. Regardless of what their past relationship was, by breathing together as one team on stage, they reaffirmed the historical significance held by the name Jewelry itself.

Of course, the passage of time has caught up with the members as well. While preparing for this stage, Jewelry confessed, "It was difficult to dance in heels like we used to. Once I turned around, my mind went blank." They thought their bodies would automatically remember the choreography as they did during their heyday, but they admitted that the long hiatus was not easy during the actual preparation process.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere changed the moment they stepped onto the stage. As the cheerful rhythm of 'I Like You So Much,' the intense performance of 'Super Star,' and the addictive choreography of 'One More Time' followed, the Ulsan audience responded enthusiately, recalling Jewelry's past stages. In particular, the reappearance of their signature ET dance and shaking dance made it feel like a time travel stage for the generation that remembers the 2000s music programs.

The emotional wave was even greater for Seo In-young. After singing again with members who had lived their own lives for a long time, she expressed her choked-up feelings, saying, "Is it menopause? I'm crying again." Although said jokingly, it contained a different kind of emotion than mere regret that the stage had ended. It was the realization of time, seeing the people who had passed through her youth and heyday gathered before her eyes again.

A collaboration symbolizing the generational shift is another highlight of this special feature. Seo In-young performs her representative song 'Cinderella' with the junior singer Dayoung. Dayoung revealed that she had viewed Seo In-young as a role model and a star since her childhood, melting her fan heart for her senior into the stage by recreating the outfits and high-heel styles Seo In-young showed back then.

There is a meaning here beyond simple intergenerational collaboration. It shows on a single stage how the idol culture from Seo In-young's active period is being inherited by junior singers today. If Jewelry is a legacy of the past, Dayoung represents a new generation that consumes and reinterprets that legacy in the current K-pop industry.

The case of Jewelry is also connected to the recent 'retro' trend repeated in the popular music industry. Listening to past hit songs again and having the protagonists of that era directly take the stage to sing are entirely different experiences. The former merely reproduces memories, while the latter possesses a much stronger sense of temporality in that the actual participants of those memories recall the past with their current bodies and voices.

In the 2000s, Jewelry was also a team that expanded the image of female idols. The bright popularity of 'I Like You So Much,' the confidence of 'Super Star,' and the sophisticated performance of 'One More Time' coincided with the process where girl group music moved away from pure images to build more diverse female archetypes. In particular, Seo In-young built an independent stardom even after Jewelry through her intense style and direct character.

In that sense, it is also noteworthy that this stage does not merely stop at being a trip down memory lane. Rather than trying to perfectly replicate their past selves, the members sing the past songs as their current selves. It is a way of standing on stage embracing time rather than erasing it.

It has been over 10 years since Jewelry officially disbanded in 2015, and nearly 20 years have passed since the peak members shared a stage. In the meantime, the members' lives have changed significantly. Although they have walked different paths, active in various fields such as acting, broadcasting, and business, they were able to return to a single name in front of the common memory called music.

Ultimately, what is most impressive on this 'Immortal Songs' stage is not the perfectly restored past. Rather, it is the current Jewelry—who find it difficult to dance like before, cannot immediately recall choreography, and shed tears after the stage ends. Because they did not erase the 20 years but embraced them as they are, their reunion creates a deeper resonance.

Jewelry's full-group performance goes beyond the dimension of a once-popular group reappearing; it is akin to a scene where people who passed through an era together meet again after time has flowed and turn the songs of those days into the present tense. And Seo In-young's tears remain as a symbolic scene showing that the stage was not just a broadcast event, but a moment for the members to reaffirm the time they had passed.