“Given-Taken” by ENHYPEN

“Given-Taken” is a song partially based on a vampiric theme, with applicable references being made in the lyrics. But beyond that, the lyrics are meant to express ENHYPEN’s (Jay, Ni-Ki, Jake, Heeseung, Park Sung-hoon, Jungwon and Sunoo) feelings in relation to their newfound stardom. And in that regard they do come off similar to their well-known contemporaries, BTS. For instance, there is this subtheme of the singer(s) having sort of a personal relationship with the addressee, i.e. the audience. Moreover, the idea of the vocalist being willing to follow his dreams, despite the risk factor involved, is present. In fact such seems to be the general notion upon which the entire song is based. The singer is on the cusp of ‘stepping into the sky’, i.e. pursue true freedom, “given or taken”, as in all or nothing.

This track was officially released on 30 November 2020. It is actually the first song that ENHYPEN, a boy band from South Korea, has ever come out with. And they are clearly beneficiaries of the concurrent K-pop craze, as the EP this song featured on, Border: Day One, has achieved in excess of 300,000 preorders. Moreover one of the producers of “Given-Taken”, Hitman Bang, has worked extensively with BTS, another K-pop group who were the most-successful music group of 2020.

And the other producer of the track is Kim Tae Yun.

The writers of this song are as follows. In addition to the two producers, there is the following:

• Ellen Berg
• Andreas Carlsson
• Marline J. Fontana
• Kyle Niko
• Lil 27 Club
• Lindgren Schulz