How Toronto’s Sofia Kay manifested her way to Seoul to write for the biggest K-pop stars
At 20 years old, Kay has written for the likes of TXT, P1Harmony, aespa and TWICE
(Photo credit: Sofia Kay)
Growing up in Toronto, Sofia Kay recalls some of her favourite memories bonding with her friends over their shared love of K-pop.
At school, they’d form a K-pop dance club and learn all their favourite choreographies. In her bedroom, Kay would cover her walls full of posters of her favourite idols. But most of all, she’d dream of one day going to Seoul—the global mecca of K-pop.
Those experiences led Kay to pen her debut song titled “Seoul” while she was in Grade 8. In it, she describes her dreams of traveling to the South Korean capital with her friends. Though its accompanying music video feels like any quintessential Toronto teenage experience. In it, Kay is seen roaming around the grocery aisles of Koreatown staple P.A.T. Central with her friends, thrifting in Kensington Market and dancing around Sankofa Square.
While that song is deeply rooted in Kay’s Toronto upbringing, it also helped bring her to bigger heights. A few years later, a teenage Kay would find herself travelling to Seoul and Los Angeles to participate in songwriting camps that would lead to credits for some of the biggest K-pop stars. Among them include aespa, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, TWICE, P1Harmony and LE SSERAFIM.
“I really do feel like somehow I manifested it!” Kay, now 20, says in an interview with bunni pop. “It was music that brought me to Seoul for the first time.”
Kay, who is of Korean and Italian descent, grew up in a musical family and always knew she’d end up in music. She sang, played piano and the guitar. And around six or seven years old, she started writing songs.
At 12, one of Kay’s songs helped her get noticed by music publisher Brill Building Modern Copyrights after she submitted the track to an online songwriting contest. A couple of years later at 14-years-old, Kay was getting opportunities to attend songwriting camps. It was that same year she landed her first credit: “Way Home” by TOMORROW X TOGETHER.
“That was surreal because I was a fan of K-pop before I even started writing for K-pop artists,” Kay says. “Getting my first cut in the K-pop world was just insanity to me.”
As a teen, Kay would attend virtual songwriting sessions over Zoom during the COVID-19 lockdown, all while attending high school in Toronto. While she realized early on that her life was unlike any of her peers, Kay also stresses the importance of having a normal teenage social life.
It was only at 16 that Kay flew to Los Angeles for a songwriting trip. And from there, the hits kept flowing. At 17, she wrote “Sugar Rush Ride”, the lead single from TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Billboard #1 EP The Name Chapter: Temptation.
“I love how the song turned out, it was everything and more,” Kay says, still with a sense of disbelief in her voice.
“I feel really proud and just really grateful to be a part of it. It truly is a gem.”
I ask Kay if she ever feels her age plays a factor in the rooms she enters during songwriting sessions.
“I was always the youngest in the room. I still think I’m the youngest in the room,” she says.
“Surprisingly, it never affected the songwriting ever. When I was 16 in my first few sessions in LA, I was always an equal in a room of equals. I wasn’t a 16-year-old girl anymore. I was a songwriter and I was there to work and write the best song possible.”
Still, it took a few more years for Kay to end up going to Seoul. That dream was finally realized when she turned 19, when she took a trip across the ocean for another set of songwriting sessions.
Kay describes the trip as a “full circle” moment both professionally and personally. While she had long dreamed of making music in Seoul, it was in that city that she also got to connect with her Korean roots.
One moment she remembers is when her aunt took her to the iconic Gyeongbokgung Palace to try on hanboks and take pictures.
“I think it really healed a little part of me in some ways because I just never had been there and I think I connected to my Korean heritage.”
Beyond songwriting, Kay is also focused on her own artist project. In 2025, she released her EP i’ve been secretly dreaming.
Kay describes the EP as a diary of coming of age during her teenage years. “Forget me nots” is a pop-rock track that channels the angst and cynicism of being single. While “Wild Cherry” captures the fluttery feelings that come with having a crush. It’s a track Kay wrote back when she was 12 and performed at a Grade 7 talent show. “A blast from the past,” she recalls.
In May, Kay performed songs off the EP during a showcase at the Departure Festival, where she also participated in a panel featuring other homegrown K-pop songwriters including August Rigo and Sophie Simmons. Kay will also take the stage at The Baby G on June 10, as part of NXNE.
On top of Kay’s busy schedule managing her own music, she was is also credited as one of the songwriters of “Around & Go”, a new track by MONSTA X subunit SHOWNU and HYUNGWON, released on May 21st.
Moving forward, Kay also has dream collaborations in mind. She names Hearts2Hearts as one of her favourite new girl groups. But like many songwriters, she also hopes to one day write a track for BTS.
At 20, Kay doesn’t yet know if she’ll move to LA or Seoul like many artists end up doing. But for now, she remains happy in Toronto and is continuously inspired by the city.
“The one thing I always truly adored about Toronto is how multicultural it is,” she says.
“So many different people, so many different cultures all in one place. I love how beautiful that is.”
Kay also has advice for anyone who wants to try writing their own songs.
“I’m inspired by literally anything and everything, so I would probably tell them there’s no right way to go about writing a song. Really play around. It’s not serious and it’s very experimental,” she says.
“It’s messy. The process is never the same. It’s very diverse, and varied. Don’t be scared to just write what you feel.”
Follow Sofia Kay on Instagram and Spotify!
Sofia Kay also performs at The Baby G on June 10th as part of NXNE. For tickets, click here.
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