Queens of K-pop. The girl group TWICE has continued to dominate the music industry, both in Asia and around the world.
The nine-member band — comprised of members Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu — was formed in 2015 on the music competition series Sixteen, and released their first EP, The Story Begins, in October of that year. Just like fellow K-pop groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK, TWICE has grown to become one of the best-selling artists of the genre, even before rising to global popularity.
Over the years, they have released over two dozen albums, EPs and singles, and recently dropped their latest mini album, READY TO BE, on March 10. The girls will be hitting the road this summer on their fifth world tour, fittingly titled the READY TO BE tour, and will make several U.S. stops in cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and New York City.
Their upcoming tour comes just one year after their 2022 North American tour, during which they played to sold-out arenas across the country. “That was our first time having a concert of that scale, so it was really shocking for us to see so many fans in the U.S.,” lead singer Jihyo, 26, recalled in a February 2023 interview with Billboard, referring to their back-to-back shows at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
One of the group’s rappers Chaeyoung, 23, went on note, “At that time in Korea, we couldn’t perform in the same way as in the U.S.,” due to South Korea’s COVID-19 restrictions. “So it was really refreshing to see the fans face to face in the U.S.”
Though the group’s upbeat, catchy songs mostly feature Korean lyrics, TWICE has also released several English singles over the years, including “The Feels” and “MOONLIGHT SUNRISE,” the latter of which they performed at the Billboard Women in Music Awards on March 1. At the ceremony, they were awarded this year’s Billboard 2023 Women in Music Breakthrough Award.
But as Jihyo pointed out to Billboard, “I think it’s the songs of ours that carry TWICE’s color rather than the language in which the song is sung. I don’t think the language is that relevant in carrying out TWICE’s [identity].”
Becoming one of the biggest girl groups in the world is something eldest member Nayeon, 27, said they never expected to happen. “We didn’t imagine this,” she said in a July 2022 interview with Cosmopolitan. “Not just us, but the K-pop market has really expanded over the years. So I think that’s another reason why we have so many global fans now. Because we had our debut in Korea, I think our initial hope was to let ourselves be known to as many people as possible in Korea. We didn’t really expect the global fans.”
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When asked how they hope to be remembered in 50 years’ time, youngest member Tzuyu, 23, told Cosmo her hope for the group’s future: “I want to be remembered as the legendary band of our time.”
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