TWICE

TWICE became the first female Korean act to simultaneously top Billboard’s World Albums and World Digital Song Sales charts, doing so in 2017 with their first studio album, Twicetagram, and its lead single “Likey.” Formed by JYP Entertainment through the 2015 television program Sixteen, the nine-member group debuted on October 20, 2015, with the EP The Story Begins. Its lineup comprises Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu.

The group rose rapidly in South Korea in 2016 through “Cheer Up,” a number-one Gaon Digital Chart single that became the country’s best-performing single of that year. It also won Song of the Year at both the Melon Music Awards and Mnet Asian Music Awards. “TT,” released later that year on the third EP Twicecoaster: Lane 1, spent four consecutive weeks atop the Gaon charts, while the EP became 2016’s best-selling Korean girl-group album. Within 19 months of debut, TWICE had sold more than 1.2 million units across four EPs and a special album.

Initially associated with a cute, bubbly image, TWICE broadened its sound and concepts as its catalogue grew. Its precisely designed point choreography, including the routines for “Cheer Up,” “TT,” “Signal,” and “What Is Love?,” became dance crazes and viral memes. By 2022, the group had sold more than 14 million albums cumulatively in South Korea and Japan, and had come to be recognized as one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. In South Korea, they have been dubbed “The Nation’s Girl Group” and credited with helping lead the re-emergence of girl groups in the Korean Wave.

TWICE entered the Japanese market on June 28, 2017, through Warner Music Japan with the compilation album #Twice. The release reached number two on the Oricon Albums Chart and posted the highest first-week album sales by a K-pop artist in Japan in two years. Their Japanese single “One More Time” followed that October. In the same year, TWICE became the first Korean girl group to receive Recording Industry Association of Japan platinum certification for both an album and a CD single, ranked third in Billboard Japan’s Top Artist year-end category, and later became the first Korean girl group to undertake a Japanese dome tour in 2019.

Following a partnership between JYP Entertainment and Republic Records for American promotions, TWICE scored seven top-ten albums on the US Billboard 200 and reached number one in 2024 with their thirteenth EP, With You-th. Their first official English-language single, “The Feels,” arrived in 2021 and became their first entry on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, peaking at numbers 83 and 80, respectively. “Feel Special” also made TWICE the third female Korean act to enter the Canadian Hot 100 in 2019.