PERMISSION

The song

‘PERMISSION’ is a digital single Taemin released on 22 May 2026; Sports Kyunghyang reported that it came out at 1 p.m. Korean time that day. It followed his first English-language digital single, ‘Long Way Home’, from March, and went on to PHASE 1 : Soft Violence of 31 August, whose track list marks it as a CD track.

The album introduction describes the song as Taemin’s own story of choosing and leading his own life. It reads the repeated line “Don’t need no permission” as a declaration that he needs no one’s leave, and describes restrained rhythm and vocals unfolding with tension over a dark sound. According to the introduction, JORDi produced it, and JHart, Rachel West and Taemin wrote the lyrics. The credits give the music to Yarden Peleg (JORDi), Taemin, James Abrahart and Rachel West.

On stage

The song was heard on stage over a month before its release. Sports Kyunghyang reported that on 11 April 2026, at 7.30 p.m. local time, Taemin played a solo set of about 50 minutes on the Mojave stage of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, and that in its first section, after ‘WANT’ and other songs, he sang the new songs ‘PERMISSION’ and ‘PARASITE’ back to back. Newsen reported that the six songs he presented at Coachella, this one included, are on PHASE 1 : Soft Violence. The story is told in the article on Taemin’s new album and world tour.