TWICE

TWICE is one of K-pop’s premier girl groups, purveyors of the sunniest dance pop imaginable—and a bellwether of the industry’s shifting priorities. Based in Seoul, the nine-member ensemble was created by JYP Entertainment in 2015 on the singing-competition series Sixteen. While the show revealed some of the pressures of K-pop training programs, part of the genre’s appeal is its bright attitude, and TWICE toed that line easily on its 2015 EP, The Story Begins. Subsequent releases continued to offer slices of upbeat pop music, bolstered by the members’ colourful outfits and bubbly energy. The nonet’s debut album, Twicetagram, topped many Asian charts, and with members hailing from Japan and Taiwan as well as Korea, the group’s first Japanese album, 2018’s BDZ, dominated the airwaves in Japan. The group has serious songwriting firepower behind them, including MNEK, Zara Larsson, Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, who have written for Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, and Justin Bieber. But TWICE has endured some pain: In 2019, the dancer Mina took a break from performing, citing an anxiety disorder. Since then, the group has become more outspoken about physical and mental health. A new sense of empowerment and experimentation began to permeate the ensemble’s maximalist bops—like on its 2020 ecstatic second Korean album, Eyes wide open, which features Dua Lipa collab “BEHIND THE MASK”, and 2023’s READY TO BE EP, a retro celebration that merges glossy disco with euphoric Balearic beats. Tirelessly releasing multilingual albums and EPs and performing stadium shows worldwide, TWICE has built an unshakeable bond with its fans—known as ONCE—and become one of the most successful girl groups.