Melanie is behind some of your favourite K-pop songs (Picture: Instagram)

Melanie Joy Fontana is one of the songwriters behind BTS’ Euphoria, a track sung by Jungkook that is included on the idol group’s Billboard 200-topping album Love Yourself: Answer released in August.

Euphoria debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales, No. 12 on Digital Song Sales and No. 5 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts last September. It also became BTS’ longest charting song on Korea’s Gaon with eight straight weeks on the music chart.

Fontana, who is also a pop singer, has a long list of credits as a songwriter. Besides Euphoria, she has written many K-pop songs including f(x)’s Boom Bang Boom, Girls’ Generation’s Stay Girls, I.O.I’s Crush, AOA’s Cherry Pop and Hyorin’s One Step, which featured Jay Park.



She is also credited as a songwriter for Justin Bieber’s Home This Christmas, The Chainsmokers’ Setting Fires, Britney Spears’ Mood Ring and all the songs on Aaron Carter’s Love album.


Fontana told Metro.co.uk that she is a big fan of BTS and revealed the story behind Euphoria.

‘What a massive blessing BTS has been for me. First and foremost, I’m a fan of BTS and so honoured they and their team took a listen to the song I co-wrote and gave it a home,’ she said.

She added: ‘I was brought into the studio to write Euphoria by a successful producer who’d worked with The Chainsmokers, Beyonce etc. He had started an idea with another producer that he fancied me to finish melodically and lyrically. Together, we wrote a few ideas and compiled our favourites to make a song we thought might work for BTS.’

For her work in Euphoria, she got a parking ticket that night outside the producer’s spot in Los Angeles but said: ‘I joked that the song was so good, the ticket was worth every penny I had to pay the city!’

When asked which K-pop songs are her favourite, Fontana said, ‘I can’t choose a favourite because they’re all so unique. It’s like asking a mother to choose a favourite kid!

‘I do, however, really and greatly appreciate when these massive K-pop stars go off and make the most breathtaking music videos ever.’

‘One of my all-time fave videos for a song I wrote is NiNaNo by Minzy. Another of my favorites is the extended video for Euphoria by BTS,’ she added.

Among the K-pop songs she had worked on, she finished I.O.I’s Crush the fastest with her and production partner Lindgren completing it in under two hours

‘The wildest part about Crush is that it came out like, 72 hours after we finished writing it,’ she revealed.

Fontana’s involvement in writing K-pop songs started when she was introduced to Andreas Carlsson, whom she described as a songwriting legend.

‘We wrote quite a few songs together and he had some faith in me as a creative, so he took me to Stockholm to write. It was there in Sweden where I met and went into the studio with some skilled producers who had been writing for the Asian market. That was in 2012 and it’s been snowballing ever since,’ she said.



Her favorite K-pop artist is Girls’ Generation, saying, ‘They hold a special place in my heart because back in 2011, when I first uttered the word K-pop, it was their videos I was watching in awe.’

‘I adore solo acts like CL, Tiffany, Taeyeon, Hyolyn and I love the rap vocals of Flowsik as well as Jay Park. Flowsik has this sexy husk to his voice that is unlike any other rapper,’ she said.

Fontana said she started writing at the young age of five and the first song she wrote was titled Banana Seeds, ‘a song which I taped onto a Sting cassette my mother used to listen to.’

‘As I got older, I would copy melodies I’d heard on the radio and change the words. Eventually, I made my own melodies from notes I’d hear in my head! That being said, I don’t play an instrument (aside from very mediocre ukulele) so I’d just think up these songs and pen them in old 5 Star brand notebooks.’

She added: ‘I’d sing them from memory to my close friends. Day-to-day life is what really inspires me to write. You have to go out and live to write about living. I think of my songs as journal entries for those who can’t find the words to say what they mean. These days, politics is inspiration for me. I feel like I’m channeling 1960s Joan Baez when I write about something political.’

Besides BTS, other K-pop artists like NCT 127, Monsta X and Tiffany Young have been making strides in the US and Fontana believes they and others will be successful in the west.


‘There is no doubt in my mind that these artists, as well as many others from Korea and Asia, will successfully cross over from east to west in 2018 and beyond. K-pop is like a rainbow coloured happy wildfire; one can’t help but stare into the gorgeous flames and see what else it decides to take over. The fandom stateside is quite compelling. Word-of-mouth as well as these must-see music videos keeps K-pop on the tip of everyone’s tongue on a global level,’ she said.

BTS grabbed the No. 1 spot on Billboard 200 twice this year and succeeded in their world tour in the US and according to Fontana, BTS filled the void left by artists like the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

‘BTS is wisely picking up where the US pop market left off. In the early 2000s and well inward, the USA clung to the theatrics of Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, 5IVE, Britney, Christina, Mandy etc. The showmanship of these artists has not yet been matched until BTS came to town. They really filled the void when fans were in dire need of something exciting,’ she said.

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