Success of K-pop group Twice’s single in English, The Feels, set to be followed by release of their album Formula of Love: O+T=<3
- The nine-member girl group enjoyed major chart success in the US and UK for the first time with their English-language track The Feels, and have a new album due
- It remains to be seen whether the Korean-language LP Formula of Love: O+T=<3 will continue that success, as the group make hopeful plans for a world tour
K-pop group Twice have entered a new phase of their career with the release of recent single The Feels, and are set to continue the momentum with their upcoming third LP, Formula of Love: O+T=<3.
The group’s first formal English-language single, The Feels, which dropped on October 1, is also their first to enter the Top 100 of US Billboard’s main singles chart, debuting at No. 83, and the UK’s Official Singles chart, debuting at No. 80. The US and UK are, respectively, the biggest and fourth largest music markets in the world.
The song’s release and subsequent success were accompanied by heavy promotion in the American entertainment market; Twice appeared on popular television programmes, including The Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon and the largest morning programme, ABC’s Good Morning America.
Altogether, this push marks a new stage for Twice as they look to continue growing their presence in international markets.
Since their debut in 2015 under South Korean music company JYP Entertainment, Twice have had a string of hits and broken records as they’ve evolved musically.
The group’s nine members hail not only from South Korea but also Japan and Taiwan, and they regularly release music in Japanese. Their songs have been hits in both these markets, regularly topping the local charts, and they have broken numerous records. They sell millions of copies a year of their albums in Japan and Taiwan.
Until now Twice have largely targeted Asian music markets, but the release The Feels suggests they hope to become power players in other regions as well.
The music video for The Feels offers a hint of this: in it they announce an upcoming album and their hope to go on tour for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The album, Formula of Love: O+T=<3, will be Twice’s third Korean-language LP, and will arrive on November 12.
Twice are known for delivering “colour pop” earworms, and Formula of Love: O+T=<3 is expected to get a strong reception from the group’s fans around the world.
Whether the group will carry the momentum of The Feels forward and continue garnering attention in different markets with Formula of Love: O+T=<3 remains to be seen.
The forthcoming album release follows the issuing in June of their Korean-language EP Taste of Love, which sold over 500,000 copies in South Korea alone, and of July’s Japanese-language LP Perfect World, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, with over 100,000 copies sold.
