Michelle Zauner, lead singer for the band Japanese Breakfast and author of The New York Times‘ bestselling memoir “Crying in H Mart”, is performing a show at the Met Philly on May 16, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today.

The show will feature her new album, titled “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)”, which is set to be released on March 21.

“I felt seduced by getting what I always wanted,” Zauner says in the release. “I was flying too close to the sun, and I realized if I kept going I was going to die.”

In April 2023, Zauner appeared on Good Morning America to talk about her life, her family, and her inspiration for the book. Midway through the segment, Zauner discusses the way in which Elkins Park’s H Mart served as a coping mechanism after the passing of her mother in 2014.

“I think I wanted to go there around the holidays because it felt like the closest I could sort of be near her, subconsciously, to just hear women that kind of dressed like her or spoke like her, eating the things that we used to eat together,” Zauner told GMA. “And I found myself going to this grocery store more and more to unlock these different memories of my mother.”

The book was an expansion of an essay Zauner published in The New Yorker in 2018. According to The Inquirer, it’s being made into a movie directed by Will Sharpe, with screenplay by Zauner.

She graduated from Bryn Mawr College and “started her indie band Little Big League in Philly in the early 2000s, vaulted into the mainstream with the runaway success of Crying In H Mart, her heartbreaking memoir about grief, food, and her Korean American identity written after the death of her mother Chongmi,” The Inquirer said.

In 2021, Zaunder gave mention to Cheltenham’s Chung Dam Spa in article by Cup of Jo:

Before the pandemic, I would regularly go to a Korean spa, where a bath lady will scrub you down and remove all the dead skin from your body. There’s a place called Chung Dam Spa, in Cheltenham, outside Philly, that I used to frequent. Once it’s safe, I’ll go there and have my skin removed. It’s intense, but I grew up going to Korean spas, so I’m used to it. I love when they wash your hair — it’s like a holy experience.

In 2022, Zauner was named to TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list.

Ticket pre-sales begin on Wednesday before becoming available to the general public on Friday.

Here’s the track list to “For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)”:

1. “Here is Someone”
2. “Orlando in Love”
3. “Honey Water”
4. “Mega Circuit”
5. “Little Girl”
6. “Leda”
7. “Picture Window”
8. “Men in Bars” (feat. Jeff Bridges)
9. “Winter in LA”
10. “Magic Mountain”

Listen to “Orlando In Love” below:

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Photos: Wikipedia