YouTuber Song Ji-ah uploads new video to channel after five-month break

Controversial beauty YouTuber Song Ji-ah uploaded a video on her YouTube channel FreeZia on June 27, signaling her return to the platform after a five-month break. As she had deleted all her previous videos, the latest video was the first post on..

Controversial beauty YouTuber Song Ji-ah uploaded a video on her channel FreeZia on June 27, the first since announcing that she was taking a break on Jan. 25. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Controversial beauty YouTuber Song Ji-ah uploaded a video on her YouTube channel FreeZia on June 27, signaling her return to the platform after a five-month break.

As she had deleted all her previous videos, the latest video was the first post on her channel. It was watched over 710,000 times within 22 hours.

“I missed you guys so much,” she said in the beginning of her 10-minute vlog. In the video, she tells her fans how she spent her time off YouTube. She also brought her camera along as she shopped, not buying luxury items but materials for her oil painting class that she began during her break. She also bought herself a bouquet of pink flowers to match her pink makeup.

Song, who rose to global fame after appearing on Netflix Korea’s dating reality show “Single’s Inferno,” took a sudden hit after it was revealed that dozens of luxury designer items she had flaunted on the Netflix show and her social media were fake. She admitted to wearing knock-off items and apologized, deleted all her videos on YouTube and took a break on Jan. 25.

“While I was on my break, I missed you guys so much that I would read the messages you guys sent me on Instagram every night,” she said. She also told her fans that she moved to a new apartment.

Song used to live in a luxurious apartment with a view of the Han River in Seongsu-dong of Seongdong District, eastern Seoul. As it was in a very expensive, high-end apartment complex, Song’s agency Hyowon CNC was criticized for renting out the apartment to create a luxurious image for her. The agency denied the claims, saying Song rented the apartment using her own money.

“I missed the chitchats we had and all the conversations we shared with each other,” she said. “I wanted to join the open chat room that you guys are in, but I just didn’t have the courage.” She added that during her time off of YouTube, she had spent a lot of time with her family in Busan and began learning things she had always wanted to learn, like oil painting.

She maintained her signature outspokenness and her cool spirit in the video, but wrote in the video description that she was “so nervous to even upload the video.”

Before the controversies, Song had over 3.6 million Instagram followers and 1.9 million YouTube subscribers. Now, she has 1.8 million YouTube subscribers while her Instagram followers remain about the same.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]