Lucas of WayV Reclaims His Voice With a Solo Comeback
The Chinese sub-unit of SM Entertainment's NCT collective has been quietly rebuilding momentum for months, and the moment fans had been waiting for finally arrived last week. Lucas Wong, the Hong Kong-born performer who anchors WayV's most public-facing promotions, confirmed that he is releasing new solo material in the coming weeks, marking his first extended artistic effort since the dating scandal that derailed his career in 2021. The reveal dropped across WayV's official Weibo and Instagram accounts simultaneously, with a sleek teaser trailer that leans into themes of reflection and personal growth rather than confrontation.
The path back has not been a smooth one. After weeks of silence and the eventual exit of his fixed fan-meeting schedules, Lucas spent the better part of two years largely off-screen, appearing only occasionally in group content while his label navigated the aftershocks. Rumours swirled across Chinese platforms and Korean forums alike, while international supporters organised hashtag campaigns hoping for transparency. The return, then, carries the weight of a redemption narrative that K-pop and C-pop industries have grown fluent in scripting.
Australian WayV fans, many of whom travel between Sydney and Melbourne for the occasional Asian music festival stop, have been waiting for this signal. The country's K-pop listenership has grown steadily on Spotify Australia, with Mandarin-language tracks climbing year after year, and Lucas's move lands squarely in a market that has already shown it will queue up for the right act. Local fan accounts from Brisbane to Perth have already begun counting down to the drop, and several Perth-based group orders are now in motion for physical copies.
The Teaser Drops Across All Platforms
Within hours of the trailer surfacing, clips were circulating on TikTok and X, with fans parsing every frame for clues. The teaser shows Lucas alone in a dimly lit studio, headphones around his neck, a notebook open on a mixing desk, before cutting to wide aerial shots of what looks like the cliffs outside Lisbon. No release date sits in the official announcement yet, but pre-save links have appeared across major platforms, and the single is expected to arrive ahead of a longer project teased for later in the year.
SM Entertainment has been characteristically tight-lipped about the recording process, which sources close to the project suggest was completed across studios in Seoul and Shanghai between late 2024 and early this year. For a label that has spent the past two seasons recalibrating its roster around stable releases, a Lucas solo drop functions as both a test case and a reset button. His previous mini-album, cut before the controversy, performed respectably in the Chinese market but never quite broke into the upper tier of streaming totals.
Industry watchers in Seoul say the timing is deliberate. C-pop soloists are enjoying a wider international window than at any point in the past decade, and competition for attention in the male soloist lane is fierce. By releasing before summer festivals lock in their line-ups, Lucas and his team appear to be angling for a late-spring pivot into live appearances, something that could anchor the rest of the year.
The 2021 Scandal and Its Aftermath
The scandal broke in August 2021, when multiple Korean media outlets published reports alleging that Lucas had been involved in overlapping personal relationships, including with fellow NCT-affiliated figures and fans. Within days, handwritten apologies in both Mandarin and Korean appeared on his social accounts. He stepped back from scheduled WayV promotions, took an indefinite hiatus, and was quietly removed from several NCT sub-unit projects that had been pencilled in for late 2021 and 2022.
The reputational fallout extended well beyond Korean shores. Chinese platforms scrubbed some early promotional visuals, and at least two major beauty brand partnerships rumoured at the time stalled before contracts were ever signed. Australian K-pop commentary podcasts based in Melbourne dedicated entire episodes to unpacking fan reaction, and Sydney meet-up groups paused their usual WayV-themed events for the remainder of that year.
What followed was a slow, careful climb back. Lucas appeared briefly in WayV's group activities during 2023, mostly in pre-recorded segments that limited his on-screen presence. He opened a personal YouTube channel where dance practices and travel vlogs offered a softer window into his life, deliberately avoiding any public discussion of the 2021 events. That silence, while criticised in some corners, gave the more sympathetic fanbase room to rebuild their support organically, which is what this new solo chapter is finally banking on.
Building the Comeback Slowly
Behind the scenes, Lucas has spent much of the past eighteen months re-recording vocals, working with songwriters in both Korean and Mandarin, and rebuilding his public image through carefully staged appearances. He attended a handful of fashion events in late 2024, kept his social media output consistent but understated, and avoided the kind of high-visibility guesting that would have courted further debate. The strategy has read as deliberate, patient, and grounded in the kind of long-game thinking SM Entertainment is known for across its senior roster.
Fan club leadership in markets like Australia, Japan, and Thailand have been briefed quietly on the rollout, which has allowed local events to be planned without tipping off general audiences. Sydney chapters organised small listening sessions for WayV's recent group album, and Melbourne dance cover crews began updating their choreography libraries in anticipation of new solo material. The groundwork has been laid with care.
That patient groundwork also explains the choice to release a single before any full-length project. A fresh track, with its own music video, press cycle, and lead-up, gives Lucas a runway to reintroduce himself without the weight of a multi-track album making demands of his schedule. Should the single perform, the path to a longer project opens naturally. Should it stall, the rest of WayV's calendar still moves forward with Lucas integrated but not exposed.
What the Solo Project Includes in Detail
Early details from fan-translated press releases suggest the project will lean into R&B and stripped-back ballad production, a stylistic pivot away from the punchier hip-hop flavours of his earlier work. One track reportedly features a feature from a well-known Korean vocalist whose identity the label is keeping under wraps until release. The aesthetic across the teaser leans heavily on moody lighting and minimalist choreography, a clear sign that the team is positioning Lucas as an artist rather than an idol in this phase.
Music videos have been confirmed for the lead single, with location shoots reportedly spanning Portugal and Thailand over the past few months. The packaging of any physical release will include a photobook and randomised postcards, following the format established by most SM solo drops of the past two years. Fans in Australia have already begun comparing potential pricing to similar releases, and most expect the standard version to land somewhere between $35 and $45 AUD once shipping is factored in.
There is also talk of a small fan-meet tour across Asia, with stops in Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Taipei currently pencilled in. Whether Australia will feature on the route remains unclear, though Melbourne promoters have reached out publicly in past years when other C-pop acts have toured locally. With venues like Margaret Court Arena and The Forum Melbourne already familiar with K-pop-adjacent bookings, a Lucas appearance would not be a logistical stretch if the timeline opens up.
Australian Fans Are Tuning In From Sydney to Perth
Australian listeners have grown comfortable with Mandarin-language pop on their daily commutes. Spotify Australia's editorial team has featured C-pop playlists in multiple national campaigns, and stations like Triple J have occasionally interviewed Mandarin-speaking artists when albums cross certain thresholds. Lucas's profile sits in a sweet spot that mixes the K-pop machinery with the more relaxed, fan-driven engagement style that has defined Asian pop fandom in this country since the early 2010s.
Sydney in particular has become a hub for organised fan events, with several long-running accounts coordinating cup sleeve events, birthday ads on digital billboards in the CBD, and unofficial listening parties at venues around Chippendale and Surry Hills. Melbourne's scene skews more toward the live-event side, with karaoke nights dedicated to NCT and WayV catalogues running regularly in venues around Box Hill and the inner city. Brisbane and Perth audiences, while smaller, are known for being some of the most dedicated vinyl and physical collectors in the Australian fan ecosystem.
A Lucas release also tends to drive traffic to legitimate digital storefronts in Australia, where the country's content distribution framework means physical and digital sales feed directly into the ARIA charts. That matters because it gives the project a measurable foothold in the local market, even if radio play remains modest. Fans know how to engineer pre-save spikes, and several Australian fan accounts already have tutorials circulating for how to register interest across Apple Music, Spotify, and the local iTunes storefront.
Where Lucas Sits Among His Peers
The C-pop and K-pop solo release calendar for 2025 is unusually crowded, and Lucas's project will land alongside returns from a number of well-known figures.
| Artist | Last Solo Release | Style | Post-Controversy Comeback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas (WayV) | Forthcoming, 2025 | R&B-leaning | First solo effort since hiatus |
| Zayn Malik | "Room Under the Stairs" (2024) | Alternative, indie-tinged | Reshaped brand around solo expression |
| Taeil (ex-NCT) | Pre-debut features only | Ballad, R&B | No formal return to commercial releases |
| Chen (EXO) | "Last Scene" (2022) | Ballad-heavy | Continued regular releases |
| Taeyong (NCT) | "SHALALA" mini (2023) | Hip-hop, dance | Active solo output ongoing |
The table above is not a ranking, but a snapshot of who is releasing, what lane they are releasing in, and how their comeback narratives are tracking. Lucas joins a small but notable group of male idols who have had to engineer returns after periods away, and the question across Korean and Chinese entertainment forums right now is whether his output will match the polish of his 2020 debut. Australian critics tracking the ARIA landscape will also be watching closely, since strong fan-driven sales could land the project on the chart's lower rungs in its debut week.
What Lies Ahead for WayV and Its Centre
Group-wise, WayV is expected to release a fresh mini-album later in the year, with Lucas fully integrated back into the promotional cycle. That puts pressure on his solo single to land cleanly first, so the narrative arc reads as individual growth followed by reunion. Internal schedules suggest the team has built a six-month runway for both projects, with potential television appearances already booked on variety programmes in both Korea and mainland China.
If the solo release performs well, the label is likely to greenlight a fuller album by the end of the year. If it stumbles, expect a quieter rollout and continued emphasis on group activity to absorb the attention. Either way, the international press cycle around this drop will be significant, and outlets that have covered C-pop for years are already filing requests for interviews.
For those tracking how other artists in adjacent lanes are moving, fan commentary has begun comparing release strategies across markets, and recent coverage of Zayn Malik teasing a new album provides a useful parallel for how social-media rollouts can be staged effectively. That kind of cross-market comparison is increasingly driving how labels around the world plan their own release calendars.
Follow the rollout as it unfolds, set your alarms for the pre-save, and keep an eye on the official WayV channels for confirmation of any Australian tour dates. For readers wanting direct access to the audio the moment it lands, a curated WayV solo single source is also available through regional distribution channels. Updates, interviews, and reaction pieces will be running on the Mikey Lately Show throughout the rest of the campaign, so check back for full coverage as the release date locks in.