UNFAIR is a song as old as time—and Felix of Stray Kids sings it like it’s heartbreaking

Some performances seduce. Others haunt. UNFAIR, Felix’s solo from Stray Kids’ 5-STAR Dome Tour—and all versions of it for that matter—does both. It’s not just a ballad—it’s a mirror. One laced with blue velvet, aching restraint, and a voice that sounds like it’s remembering every time it’s been left behind. And when Felix sings it live, eyes glassy, body barely moving, you don’t breathe. You wait.

Because this isn’t just a song about heartbreak. It’s a song about becoming the heartbreak. And much more. It has layers. According to Felix of Stray Kids himself, it all started after he watched Beauty and the Beast.

Disclaimer: What stays behind the curtain matters too

This is a personal and analytical interpretation based on my background in fairy tale studies, narrative theory, visual symbolism, and emotional subtext in performance. I’ve studied the origins and evolution of classic tales like Beauty and the Beast across multiple versions—from oral traditions to literary texts to modern retellings—and worked for decades as a translator, writer, and critic specializing in layered storytelling across music, film, and animation.

I’m also deeply familiar with Stray Kids’ body of work and have followed Felix’s artistic trajectory long before the 5-STAR Dome Tour and the current dominATE Tour.

What you’ll read here isn’t fan projection—it’s critical observation, filtered through years of study and an understanding of how fairy tales, especially those softened by Disney, still hold deep psychological weight.

Any references made to Beauty and the Beast—and other "fairy tales"—are not superficial or costume-driven. They’re rooted in the symbolic core of their myth, their darker undertones, and how they’ve been reinterpreted by Felix in UNFAIR.

This isn’t about labeling a performance as “pretty” or “emotional”—it’s about unpacking the very real artistic statement behind it.

Take it as what it is: a serious read of a modern fairy tale in motion. One that doesn’t just echo a “tale as old as time”—but reshapes it entirely.

---

A fairy tale in minor key, by Felix of Stray Kids

Inspired by Beauty and the Beast, UNFAIR takes the myth and strips it bare. There are no enchanted roses here. Well, there is—but not like in the movie, not like in any versions—at least the ones I've watched, and I did watch some—no, he takes it to another level.

No promises of happy endings. Just longing. Isolation. The painful awareness that someone can see all of you—and still walk away. The reference lives in the core of the song, not in costume or fan service. But obviously, the visuals also speak for themselves. It is a musical and visual masterpiece and a hauntingly beautiful homage to "a tale as old as time."

And Felix doesn’t try to be the Beauty. He becomes the Beast. Not the monster, but the misunderstood. The one trapped inside silence, waiting to be chosen, knowing he won’t be. And that’s what makes it hurt. There’s no full-fledged anger (notice the subtlety when he sings of Gaston) in UNFAIR—, mostly ache.

Yeah, my life is unfair (ay) / The one and only woman I love / Left me unprepared (unprepared) / I'm staring down at my own petals falling / One by one and piece by piece / I can't feel any peace in my heart but that tear / I can't bare, I can't say I can wait / While I take all this pain from Gaston / Filled with nothin' but hate (ay) / I guess this is where I’m gonna die, in the rain /If I saw you one last time, I could change my fate

Once, when he was explaining the meaning of the song, his inspirations, someone joked he should be the Beauty, right? No. That's even quite offensive in artistic terms. Glad he pointed that, while politely—well, that's our Felix. Just because he is handsome, ethereal even, looks life an elf et all, he is human. Yes, a Korean (actually Australian, but part of a K-pop act) idol. But a human above all. Felix of Stray Kids is the Beauty and the Beast. And... Isn't that what we all are?

Live on stage, the visuals echo this duality: the softness of candlelight, the depth of shadow, the fragility of the artist at its center. He looks like porcelain, but he sings like glass shattering.

---

Felix doesn’t just perform. He remembers.

The way he stands still for most of the song isn’t about control—it’s about collapse. The restraint makes every blink feel loaded. Every breath, calculated. There’s no excess. No drama. Only feeling. He doesn’t beg. He mourns.

And when he finally lets the emotion crack through, it’s devastating. Like watching a confession slip out when someone thought they’d buried it for good. The deep vocals that Felix is known for become even more powerful here—not because they’re rich but because they sound empty. Hollowed out by pain. Also, the range of his voice is incredible, but that's not the focus point here.

This isn’t about a breakup. It’s about being invisible to someone you still see clearly. Maybe even to his fans. Sometimes. He bared himself in UNFAIR—his sould, and it shows.

---

Not everything that glitters is light

Some Stays joked—again, why joe?—that UNFAIR was inspired by a children’s movie. As if Beauty and the Beast were just a fairy tale. As though it was really created by Disney. It is a tale as old as time, and it talks about much more than love and/or acceptance. It's also about Stockholm Syndrome. It's layered, just like UNFAIR. Original fairy tales used to actually be more brutal, most even gruesome, before they became softened by the Grimm Brothers et al. Then Disney. They were actually cautionary tales.

Take all the polemics around Snow White. Again, not the focus point here, but important nonetheless. I hereby invite you all to read the original versions of them both: Beauty and the Beast, Snow White (you can find it here)—and add The Little Mermaid to the mix, if you will.

But Felix saw something else. He saw a story about being misjudged. About loving too deeply, too silently. About hoping someone will stay—even when they’re already walking away.

Again, and it's important to emphasize so, it comes with zero surprise that during a fan meeting, when someone called him “Beauty,” Felix looked visibly uncomfortable. Because, yes, his smile is radiant. Yes, he looks ethereal. But that’s not the whole story. That’s not why he made UNFAIR. He’s not just the Beauty in the glass. He’s the Beast behind it. Waiting. Watching. Breaking.

And in this song, he gives us all of that—without ever raising his voice.

---

UNFAIR is the sound of a soft heart cracking

What makes UNFAIR unforgettable isn’t just the performance. It’s what’s underneath it. Every time you watch a live performance and or the MV—a short film in itself—Felix doesn’t show us how it feels to be abandoned only: he shows us what it’s like to stay behind.

Unseen. Unheard. To love in silence. To slowly disappear in plain sight.

There are mirrors here. To hearts, souls. But no. No libraries. No happy ending. Just flashbacks. Now. Then. And pain.

Painfully beautiful, yet... pain.

And that, readers, is the most grown-up thing a song can do.