Song Review:: Lee Hyori (Fin.K.L): My Heart, Like Ice, Hardened

• Release date: 2026 January 28

• Album tracklist: My Heart, Like Ice, Hardened

• Album runtime: 3 minutes

 This makes two of the first gen queens to drop singles this month, and not just any first gen queens. At the beginning of January, Bada, leader of S.E.S, dropped a single and now here at the end of the month, Lee Hyori, leader of Fin.K.L, drops hers. Like, I know I wasn't around for the legendary S.E.S/Fin.K.L rivalry (although I was alive for it, so there's that), but I cannot stress enough how momentous January 2026 was for opening with one and closing with the other. That's huge. It's also a little bit amusing for those of us who are me, because S.E.S debuted before Fin.K.L. 

Do you hear that violin? Be still, my soul. This is an incredibly French sounding song, which I haven’t heard in a while, but the majority of the song is violin and piano and while I have feelings about these kinds of songs, the sheer melancholy of the song is incredible. Even if I didn’t know what the song title was, and how inherently sad it was, I’d still ascribe this a melancholy tone. This is a beautiful piano and violin duet that does take up the majority of the song, but that’s the style.

My ears are hearing the Korean being spoken, but the melody is so inherently French that my brain is trying to shift back to the French coding rather than the limited Korean I’ve got. It’s beautiful and haunting and is not going to be to everyone’s taste. But, this is a first gen voice, y’all, and you can hear the precision and mastery in the delicate way that she touches each note, even when she’s doing scales and runs. Her vibrato is just a shiver at the end of the lines, and I am so impressed.

No music video that I can find, which is a shame, but it's a fifty-fifty with singles.