Twice
Twice is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. Twice was formed under the television program Sixteen and debuted on October 20, 2015, with the extended play The Story Begins, and has received the honorific title of "The Nation's Girl Group" in their home country.
Twice rose to domestic fame in 2016 with their single "Cheer Up", which charted at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart, became the best-performing single of the year, and won "Song of the Year" at the Melon Music Awards and Mnet Asian Music Awards. Their next single, "TT", from their third EP Twicecoaster: Lane 1, topped the Gaon charts for four consecutive weeks. The EP was the highest selling Korean girl group album of 2016. Within 19 months after debut, Twice had already sold over 1.2 million units of their four EPs and special album. As of 2022, the group has sold over 14 million albums cumulatively in South Korea and Japan.
The group debuted in Japan on June 28, 2017, under Warner Music Japan, with the release of a compilation album titled #Twice. The album charted at number 2 on the Oricon Albums Chart with the highest first-week album sales by a K-pop artist in Japan in two years. It was followed by the release of Twice's first original Japanese maxi single titled "One More Time" in October. Twice became the first Korean girl group to earn a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan for both an album and CD single in the same year. Twice ranked third in the Top Artist category of Billboard Japan's 2017 Year-end Rankings, and in 2019, they became the first Korean girl group to embark on a Japanese dome tour.
Twice is the first female Korean act to simultaneously top both Billboards World Albums and World Digital Song Sales charts with the release of their first studio album Twicetagram and its lead single "Likey" in 2017. With the release of their single "Feel Special" in 2019, Twice became the third female Korean act to chart into the Canadian Hot 100. After signing with Republic Records for American promotions as part of a partnership with JYP Entertainment, the group achieved five top-ten albums on the US Billboard 200 and topped the chart in 2024 with their thirteenth extended play With You-th. Their first official English-language single, "The Feels", became their first song to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, peaking at the 83rd and 80th positions of the charts, respectively. Their point choreography—including for "Cheer Up", "TT", "Signal", and "What Is Love?" —became dance crazes and viral memes.
Career
2013–2015: Formation and debut
On December 19, 2013, JYP Entertainment announced that they would debut a new girl group in the first half of 2014, the first female group to come out of the company since the debut of Miss A in 2010. On February 27, 2014, JYPE trainees Lena and Cecilia were confirmed as members of the group tentatively called as 6MIX, while other rumored members included JYPE trainees Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Minyoung. The group's debut plan was eventually canceled when Lena and Cecilia left the company.On February 11, 2015, J. Y. Park, the founder of JYPE, announced that the lineup of the upcoming seven-member girl group would be decided through Sixteen, a competition survival show that would air on Mnet later that year. The show began on May 5 and ended on July 7 with Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, and Chaeyoung being selected as the seven Twice members. Park then announced that he would increase the size of the group from seven members to nine by adding Tzuyu, who was known as the "audience's pick" since she was the most popular contestant by the show's end, and Momo, who was added by Park himself since he felt the group needed someone with Momo's performance abilities. The decision was controversial at the time, with many people complaining about eliminated contestants being able to join the group. The group's name, Twice, was chosen by Park, explaining that "the group will touch people's hearts twice: once through the ears, and once again through the eyes". Fans of Twice are known as "Once", commonly stylized in all caps, illustrated by the members' statement "If you love us even once, we will repay your love with twice of our love" on social media in 2015.
Twice made their official debut on October 20, 2015, with the release of their debut EP The Story Begins and its lead single "Like Ooh-Ahh", alongside a live showcase to promote it. The group initially received a lukewarm reception; while their EP debuted at number 4 on the Gaon Album Chart for the week ending October 24, "Like Ooh-Ahh" met moderate success, debuting at number 22 on the Gaon Digital Chart. A week after its release, the single dropped to number 57 on South Korea's largest music site Melon, but through word of mouth from netizens regarding the group's subsequent promotions and performances, "Like Ooh-Ahh" reached within the top 10 of various Korean music charts including Melon, Genie, and Naver Music by November 15. Such a reverse run on music charts by a rookie girl group was deemed unusual by Korean media. Eventually, "Like Ooh-Ahh" reached a peak position of number 10 on the Gaon Digital Chart, three months after the song's original release. The music video for the group's single hit 50 million views on YouTube within five months of their debut and became one of the most-viewed debut music videos for any K-pop group. The group's early success earned them a "Best New Female Artist" award at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards held on December 2. On December 27, Twice performed a remix version of their single "Like Ooh-Ahh" at SBS Gayo Daejeon, which was the group's first-ever attendance on a year-end music program.
2016: Career breakthrough
On its chart issue dated January 23, 2016, Billboard reported that Twice had entered its World Albums chart, with their debut EP The Story Begins debuting and peaking at number 15, which marked the group's first entry on the chart.On April 25, 2016, Twice released their second EP, Page Two, which notably included the lead single "Cheer Up", a rearranged version of Park Ji-yoon's 1998 hit "Precious Love", and "I'm Gonna Be a Star", which served as the theme song for Sixteen. The album became a commercial success for the group, debuting at number two on the Gaon Album Chart and number six on the Billboard World Albums chart, with 80,686 units sold during the month of April. With the total first-week sales volume for Page Two reaching approximately 41,800 copies, Twice achieved the highest first-week sales volume by a Korean girl group for the year. By August, Page Two had sold over 150,000 copies, making Twice the first girl group having a sales record of more than 100,000 units that year. Meanwhile, the album's lead single "Cheer Up" became the group's first chart-topper in South Korea, debuting at number 1 on eight real-time music charts immediately after its release, before going on to debut atop both the Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard K-pop Hot 100 chart. Notably, the song became a viral meme in South Korea due to the "shy shy shy" line sung by Sana. Eventually, the song became the best-performing single in South Korea for the entirety of 2016. "Cheer Up" also received international success, debuting and peaking at number three on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. Additionally, Twice became the only Korean act to place an entry on the U.S. YouTube Music Chart for the year when "Cheer Up" charted at number 25 in May.
Twice won their first music program award with "Cheer Up" on May 5, on M Countdown, exactly one year after the initial airing of Sixteen. This was soon followed by wins on Music Bank and Inkigayo. The group then made their debut performance in the United States with an appearance at the KCON music festival held in Los Angeles on July 31. On August 6–7, Twice and their JYP Entertainment labelmates held a concert at Jamsil Arena in Seoul, titled JYP Nation 2016 "Mix & Match". This was followed by shows at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo on September 2–4.
In celebration of Twice's first anniversary since debut on October 20, the group unveiled their new song "One in a Million" from their upcoming third EP, Twicecoaster: Lane 1, through a live broadcast on V Live. Twicecoaster: Lane 1 and the music video of pop dance song "TT" were released online on October 24. In Korea, the album recorded more than 165,000 physical copies sold on the Gaon Chart within a week, exceeding the five-month sales of the group's previous release Page Two in only seven days. Eventually, Twicecoaster: Lane 1 became the bestselling K-pop girl group album for 2016, selling 350,852 copies at year-end. Its lead single "TT" became one of the best-performing songs in 2016, claiming the top spot of the Gaon Digital Chart for four consecutive weeks and becoming the best-performing single in South Korea for the month of November. Internationally, the group's third EP debuted at number 3 on the Billboard World Albums chart, marking their first Top 5 entry, with the album's lead single "TT" debuting at number 2 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. "TT" then became the first music video by a K-pop female act to surpass 200 million views on May 25, 2017.
On November 11, the music video for their debut single "Like Ooh-Ahh" hit 100 million views on YouTube, making Twice the fourth K-pop girl group to reach 100 million views, as well as the first K-pop group to reach this milestone with a debut music video. On November 19, Twice's "Cheer Up" won Song of the Year at the 8th Melon Music Awards. It was then followed by another Song of the Year award at the 18th Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 2.