Twice is set to kick off the new year big with a new English song and a mini album.
JYP Entertainment on Wednesday announced Twice will drop a new English song in January, before making an official comeback in March with its 12th Korean mini album.
The English single will be a pre-release from the upcoming album, the company's announcement poster on Twice's social media showed. Hinting about the new releases were the words Our Youth written below Twice's name on the poster.
The releases come after Twice dropped its 11th Korean EP, Between 1&2, in August. The album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, making Twice the first K-pop girl group to land three of its albums onto the album chart's top 10. In November, the music video of the EP's title song, Talk that Talk, reached 100 million views on YouTube -- the 21st music video of Twice's to do so.
A nine-piece consisting of members Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu, Twice officially debuted in October 2015 through Mnet's survival show Sixteen.
It has since carved out a musical niche of its own with its signature upbeat pop music, topping charts annually with viral hits like Ooh-Aah, Cheer Up, Heart Shaker and I Can't Stop Me.
The upcoming single will be the second original English song from the group since The Feels released in October 2021. The Feels logged at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, entering the chart as the only song from a K-pop girl group last year.
In recent years, the band has seen its popularity skyrocket especially in the American market. This year, Twice was the most-streamed K-pop girl group inside America on Spotify, with the act's songs racking up a total of 289 million just inside America as of Dec. 15.
In February, it drew an audience of 100,000 people with its US leg of the world tour III, It was the first K-pop girl group to garner such a crowd size with a single tour.
This year, the nonet smoothly passed the notorious seven-year mark, a point when many K-pop acts disband or lose a member due to termination of contracts. JYP announced in July that all nine members renewed their contracts with the label. – By Choi Ji-won/The Korea Herald/Asia News Network