JYP Entertainment and Republic Records’ K-pop girl group Twice released their second Western-targeted English single, “Moonlight Sunrise” on Jan. 19. The song is the lead single of the group’s new EP, ‘Ready To Be,’ which will be released on March 10. The group consists of Momo, Nayeon, Sana, Jihyo, Tzuyu, Jeongyeon, Chaeyoung, Mina and Dahyun.
Like many of the group’s songs, this release focuses on romantic love as they sing about having a crush. It includes lines such as “But I’mma really need your touch / If I’mma make it through the night,” suggesting that the singer wants to be around her crush. The rest of the song continues to express similar themes with lines like “I don’t even know how to talk right now” and “I guarantee I got ya,” which imply that, even though the singer is nervous about the person she is singing to, she wants to reassure them of her loyalty.
The lyrics reinforce the group’s image as a relatively innocent and idealistic girl group compared to their competitors, providing a refreshing change in a market full of K-pop groups with edgier concepts. The adorable confession song concept is a common trait of their Korean discography, as their other songs like “Yes or Yes” shows the members as wanting the object of their affection to love them back.
A music video was also released to promote the song featuring Twice in front of a heart locket-shaped house. The video transitions between various rooms featuring the members, including Jihyo in a bedroom, Jeongyeon in a car listening to the song and Chaeyoung in a phone booth making a call. Occasionally, it will show the members dancing to the song in group shots outside the house or in a bright room filled with plants. The video is set at night — a fitting time given the song’s title — which adds to the dreamlike feel of the song. There are also bright butterflies that appear to be made of light in several shots.
Several additional versions of the song were also released as an EP designated specifically for the single. “Moonlight Sunrise (The Remixes)” contains four other variations of the song: an instrumental version, a club remix, a house remix and an R&B remix. While the instrumental mix is self-explanatory since it’s just the song with the vocals removed, each of the other versions takes its own spin on the original song.
For instance, the R&B remix turns the song into a slower, stripped-down affair that ends up shorter compared to the original song, while the club remix, despite being longer, is faster-paced and features distorted electronic voices and beats. The house remix is somewhere in the middle, being shorter than the club remix, but still featuring electronic rhythms and voices throughout the second half of the song — this time clearly saying “Take a shot on me.”
Several supplemental videos were also released to coincide with the song, each fulfilling a different purpose. For instance, the lyric video offers a clearer reading of the lyrics — expressed mostly as a series of texts — and combines it with videos and pictures of the members on the music video’s set.
In addition, the group released a mood film: a type of video released in the K-pop industry that establishes the tone of the album or single. Their mood film mostly featured footage from photoshoots where the members wore their black outfits from the music video’s dance sequences alongside a shortened, remixed version of the song.
JYP also released three videos of the members doing a balance game, where they answered questions by walking to the left or the right side of the screen. Other types of videos that the company released included a dance tutorial in which Momo and Jihyo taught fans the song’s accompanying dance and M/V cams that focused on a particular member during the music video’s dance sequence. Despite not technically promoting the dance as a challenge, fans have since uploaded their renditions of the dance to platforms such as Tiktok and Youtube Shorts.
Despite the song not getting the usual level of western promotion the group normally enjoys — like appearing on talk shows, MTV, interviews with magazines and Buzzfeed — the song was relatively successful. It reached number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the group’s second entry on the chart after “The Feels,” which reached number 83. The song also received 13.1 million views on Youtube within 24 hours.
Aside from their first English single “The Feels,” which was released back in 2021, Twice has also released several other English songs. These are as follows: “Moonlight,” “ICON,” “F.I.L.A (Fall In Love Again),” “Candy,” “No Problem” — from Nayeon’s solo album — and “Queen of Hearts.”
“Moonlight Sunrise” serves as a great song reminiscent of their typical style. Fans will continue to await the group’s next single in March.
Bailey Kanthatham is an A&E Contributing Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.
