Suho's self-composed Stay and the quiet heart of Self-Portrait
When Suho stepped onto the stage of a small showcase in Seoul in early 2020 to introduce his first solo project, the moment carried more weight than a debut announcement. As the leader of EXO, Kim Junmyeon had spent nearly a decade guiding a group that reshaped K-pop, so the idea of him releasing personal work felt both rare and quietly anticipated. Self-Portrait arrived on 30 March 2020 under SM Entertainment, positioning Suho as both a vocalist and an artist willing to sketch his interior.
The album traced themes of longing, reflection and the awkward honesty of being seen by someone else. Within that running order, Stay sits as a single highlight, written by Suho himself and credited alongside producer Lee Jongsoo, whose airy guitar programming had already shaped several SM ballad recordings. For longtime EXO-Ls, hearing Suho's name in the composition line was an early hint of the songwriter identity he would later build across second mini-album Grey Suit.
For EXO-Ls across the fandom, hearing Suho sing under his own name rather than a group title was a small but meaningful shift. The seven-track mini-album was treated less as a side project and more as a window into a leader fans had watched for years. Songs such as Stay became the touchstone of that shift.
A solo debut that read like a confession
Self-Portrait was shaped during the winter months that led into 2020, when Suho was finishing EXO-SC promotions with Sehun and preparing for his first solo broadcast. The seven-track record moved from the bouncy opener Let's Love to the folk-tinged closer My Self, threading a confession-style vulnerability through the middle. Each track worked as a sketch of an emotion, hence the album's title. Suho's warm baritone carries the project, leaning into a grain that suits mid-tempo ballads rather than dance-floor builds.
The release reached the upper tier of South Korean album charts upon arrival and gathered strong pre-orders overseas through platforms familiar to Australian listeners, including Apple Music Australia and Spotify. Because physical copies initially shipped from Seoul-based distributors, fans in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide often queued at independent Korean grocers in their suburbs or relied on import services bundled through local mail-order hubs, an arrangement that has become routine for any Korean release arriving outside the major capitals.
Suho's path as a songwriter
Suho's writing credits stretch back further than Self-Portrait might suggest. EXO-CBX members collaborated on a handful of Japanese b-sides, and Suho co-wrote Curtain for the subunit's 2019 project, an experience that taught him how to hand a soft personal lyric to a producer without losing its intent. By the time he entered the Self-Portrait sessions, he had already collected dozens of melodic drafts in his phone notebook, refining verses that might otherwise have stayed private.
Stay is the track where those drafts found their clearest shape. Suho has said in interviews that the chorus carried him first, with the melody arriving and pulling the words into place around it, a workflow many singer-songwriters in the Australian indie scene would recognise. The lyric "stay with me a little longer tonight" reads simply, almost plainly, which is part of its pull. There is no elaborate metaphor, no cosmic sweep, just an honest request that a person remain.
| Track | Lyrical lens | Sonic character | Suho's writing credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Let's Love | hopeful first move | bright synth-pop | featured lyricist |
| 자화상 (Self-Portrait) | introspective sketch | warm soft-rock | co-writer |
| 너의 차례 (Your Turn) | invitation to a partner | folk-tinged pop | co-writer |
| 잘 자 (Good Night) | night-time longing | quiet bedroom ballad | co-writer |
| Stay | yearning, asking someone to remain | acoustic mid-tempo | principal writer |
| My Self | reflective farewell | slow ballad | co-writer |
Inside the music of Stay
Compositionally, Stay leans on an acoustic guitar figure that runs under the first verse, then expands into warm synth pads as the chorus lifts. The tempo sits around ninety beats per minute, slow enough to feel reflective and bright enough to keep the song moving. Suho sings in his lower register for most of the verses and steps into a slightly headier mix on the bridge, the moment that fans consistently name as the emotional peak of the track.
What distinguishes Stay from the more orchestrated ballads on the album is its restraint. Production stays close to the vocal, leaving room for the words to land without a heavy string section or big-band flourish. Australian listeners who grew up on Triple J unearthing understated indie tracks often respond to that approach, treating the song less as a showcase number and more as a small, trustworthy piece of work. The chord movement leans on classic four-chord pop writing, the kind a fan could pick up on guitar in an afternoon and play back without thinking.
How EXO-Ls across Australia responded
The release window of Self-Portrait coincided with a strange season worldwide, and Australian fan groups translated that mood into small, deliberate events. In Sydney, supporters organised a listening afternoon at a K-pop cafe in the CBD that kept the volume polite and the conversation gentle. Melbourne-based EXO-Ls gathered in a Lonsdale Street venue for a vinyl-imported copy of the album and shared reactions track by track on Discord. Brisbane fans organised a banner photo at South Bank, a reminder that even physical fan traditions kept moving through arvos that felt unusually quiet.
Online, Australian K-pop accounts added Stay to curated Spotify playlists aimed at the local scene, several of which later appeared in Spotify Wrapped recaps when the year closed. The casual tone of Suho's lyric also slipped quickly into Australian fan talk. Posts describing the song often used phrases like "this one hit different, no worries," or "keen as to listen again," reflecting how seamlessly a Korean ballad can absorb local slang when fans feel protective of it. The album's softer tracks sat alongside Korean indie and singer-songwriter picks in several user-curated lists, suggesting that Australian EXO-Ls were folding Suho into a wider listening habit rather than treating him as a side step from the group.
Where Stay sits in Suho's wider catalogue
Two years after Self-Portrait, Suho released his second mini-album Grey Suit in 2022, an even more personal set of singer-songwriter tracks that leaned into folk, soft rock and jazz colourings. Stay reads, in hindsight, as a foundation stone for that era. The willingness to write the lyric first, then let the melody breathe around it, became a habit across Grey Suit tracks. Live performances of Stay, especially the busking-style acoustic arrangement Suho occasionally brings out on music shows, have kept the song in steady rotation.
For newer EXO-Ls approaching the back catalogue, Stay is often the recommended entry point. It clears space around Suho's voice, holds a single emotional idea without dilution and reads cleanly as a songwriter's statement. As more solo projects arrive, the song continues to function as the moment Suho decided to be heard with his own voice rather than a borrowed group one.
Ways to approach Stay as a new listener
- Listen through good headphones first so the acoustic guitar texture and synth pads feel layered
- Follow the lyric sheet on a second pass and note how each chorus offers a slight variation rather than a copy
- Try a quiet room at night, the way the song was first written, to feel the tempo's reflective pacing
- Build a small playlist of Suho solo tracks before and after, including Grey Suit picks like Hate You and Morning Star
- Compare the bridge of Stay with the bridge of My Self to see how restraint travels across the album
- If you have access to a guitar, learn the four-chord loop and notice how the chorus lands differently under your own hands
EXO's leader has spent more than a decade placing his voice at the front of an ensemble, so a solo song like Stay cuts differently once you notice how much air surrounds every vowel. If you have not revisited Self-Portrait in a while, this is the track to start with. Drop a comment below with the lyric line that stayed with you, share the song with an EXO-L who missed it the first time, and let other readers know which Self-Portrait track you want the site to write about next.