Six months after debuting with the mini-album The Story Begins, Twice finally released their second mini-album Page Two. It was released by JYP Entertainment on April 25th, 2016, with the lead single “Cheer Up”. “Cheer Up” is a hip-hop, tropical house, and drum and bass genre song. This blend of genres is known as the color pop genre. The title track of the album Page Two has a cheerful and bright melody. This song tells about the feelings of girls when they first fall in love. Times where girls don’t want to show their love too much so that their crush becomes more curious and chases them.
Background of “Cheer Up”
JYP Entertainment said Twice will present something new, “The comeback will show an even more lively side of Twice, and please look forward to Twice’s unique energy.” On April 5th, 2016, the agency announced Twice’s comeback by releasing a teaser image which was posted on their official SNS. On April 12th, 2016, Twice shared the tracklist of their second mini-album Page Two. This album consists of seven songs with the title track “Cheer Up”. The lyrics of the song were written by Sam Lewis, composed by Black Eyed Pilseung, and arranged by Rado. JYP Entertainment published many teaser videos for the song “Cheer Up”. The first teaser video is titled Twice “Cheer Up” Teaser 1 and it was released on April 18th, 2016. This first teaser video is only 21 seconds long, showing the nine Twice members wearing different costumes like a house party and then switching to cheerleader costumes on a soccer field.
Starting the following day, Twice were releasing teaser videos for three consecutive days. The second teaser was released on April 19th, featuring Dahyun, Nayeon, and Momo. The next day, teaser three was released, starring Mina, Jeongyeon, and Jihyo. And the last members’ teaser video was released on April 21st, featuring Tzuyu, Chaeyoung, and Sana. In addition to the members’ teaser videos, JYP also released two MV teasers. The first MV teaser was released on April 22nd, KST which shows a boy with the first edition camera and the members looking like they are having a party at home. The second MV teaser was released the next day featuring all the members in cheerleader costumes on a soccer field. Twice performed a choreography snippet with Nayeon looking like she was watering the other members which then grew like a flower in bloom.
Twice Members Were Embarrassed By the Cute Choreography of “Cheer Up”
Twice are known for their cheerful songs with unique choreography showing the members’ cute sides. Like most of the Twice songs, “Cheer Up” also has a very unique choreography. But apparently, some parts of the “Cheer Up” choreography made the members embarrassed to do it. The part of the choreography that is considered funny and made the members embarrassed was the part when Nayeon waters the members who seem to be blooming like flowers in the second MV teaser. This funny story about the choreography was revealed by Dahyun and Nayeon on the Happy Together TV show on Thursday, May 3rd, 2018. Dahyun said that actually, the Twice members are different from what they appear, they are not good at acting cute. And the choreography of watering the flowers put them to shame. “For ‘Cheer Up’, we start the song like this, say that if there’s a flower and Nayeon waters the flower. We’d be crouching down then we grow. It made me cringe.”
Nayeon also shared another secret regarding the choreography. “I was so flustered. It ruined the mood. The first time we saw the choreography, the choreographers danced to the song. When we saw someone had to water us, no one wanted to be that person.” The choreography that is considered very cute by fans is not very liked by the members. But that’s just a funny story behind the success of the song “Cheer Up”. In addition to the choreography of watering flowers, the choreography of Sana’s “shy shy shy” lyrics is also very popular. This cute choreography became a viral meme and was imitated by many South Korean celebrities.
MV of “Cheer Up”
The music video for “Cheer Up” was released on April 25th, 2016, on Twice’s Youtube channel. The MV was directed by Kim Young-jo and Yoo Seung-woo. The “Cheer Up” music video received rave reviews and a very positive response from fans. Even this MV managed to get 400,000 views in just 30 minutes after it was released. And in less than a day, the MV “Cheer Up” reached one million views. As of April 27th, the music video has over 7 million views. The “Cheer Up” MV managed to surpass 100 million views on November 17th, 2016. And on August 9th, 2017, the “Cheer Up” MV reached 200 million views. This MV also topped the 2016 Most Popular YouTube Music Video in South Korea.
The Members Play Characters From Famous Movies
The concept of the “Cheer Up” MV is a costume party in the house. The members wore different costumes. Evidently, the costumes they wore are costumes from legendary figures in famous movies and TV shows. Mina wore a costume like a schoolgirl’s uniform in Japan. Mina played Itsuki Fujii, the main character from the old Japanese film Love Letter. This film is very popular and was first aired in 1995. Jungyeon appeared with a tomboy hairstyle in the music video “Cheer Up”. She played the figure of Faye from the old film series Chungking Express. This film was very popular in 1995. Jihyo is the cheerleader in the “Cheer Up” MV. The Twice leader played the character Kristen Dunt in the movie Bring It On, which aired in 2000. Twice’s face of the group, Nayeon, looks scared while holding a landline phone. This beautiful idol played a character from the legendary horror movie Scream which was popular in 1996. Momo also looks stunning with a gun in her hand. Momo played the character of Angelina Jolie in the 2001 movie Tomb Raider. The sub-vocalist Sana wore a costume from the popular cartoon Sailor Moon which was released in 1992. Not only the costume, but Sana’s hairstyle also looks like Sailor Moon’s hair. Next, there is Chaeyoung who looks very cool in a cowgirl suit. She played a character from the old Gunslinger movie which first premiered in 1956. Dahyun is the only member of Twice who plays a Korean movie character. She looks very beautiful playing the gisaeng character from the movie Hwang Jin Yi, played by Song Hye Kyo in 2007. Tzuyu also looks very elegant and feminine with a black and white video concept. Tzuyu played the character of legendary actress Audrey Hepburn in the popular 1961 movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
MV “Twice Avengers”
Twice released a “Cheer Up” music video titled “Twice Avengers” which was released on May 27th, 2016. This music video was released to celebrate the “Cheer Up” original MV which reached 35 million views on YouTube. This music video features Twice members dancing in their movie character costumes against the backdrop of outer space. Until today, the “Twice Avengers” MV has reached more than 16 million views.
“Cheer Up” Achievements
“Cheer Up” has won many prestigious awards and made Twice’s name even more popular. In 2016, “Cheer Up” won two of the most prestigious awards. Twice won with the song “Cheer Up” in the Song of The Year category at the 8th Melon Music Awards and the 18th Mnet Asian Music Awards. In 2017, Twice won 4 awards out of 6 nominations. “Cheer Up” again won the Song of The Year Award and the Digital Bonsang Award at the 31st Golden Disc Awards. In addition, Twice also won the Record of The Year in the Digital Release category at the 26th Seoul Music Awards, and won in the Song of The Year category at the 6th Gaon Chart Music Awards. The song “Cheer Up” also topped the weekly Korean music charts, namely the Gaon chart and the K-pop Hot 100 chart. Not only successful in South Korea, but “Cheer Up” also managed to occupy the third position on Billboard’s US World Digital Song Sales. Twice’s “Cheer Up” First Place at Music Show Twice’s “Cheer Up” Music Awards “Cheer Up” boosted Twice’s popularity. Many prestigious awards won by Twice have made this JYP Entertainment‘s girl group have more and more friends. Twice’s name hasn’t faded until now.
