Warner Music Japan released Twice‘s Japanese compilation album with the title #Twice2 on March 6, 2019. This album is the second Twice Japanese compilation album after the album #Twice which was released on June 28, 2017. The album recorded in 2017-2018 was produced by J.Y. Park “The Asian Soul.” #Twice2 is an album containing lead songs from several Twice albums in Japanese and Korean. This album contains ten songs, namely “Likey,” “Heart Shaker,” “What Is Love?,” “Dance the Night Away,” and “Yes or Yes” in Japanese and Korean versions. “Likey (Japanese Ver.)” was released earlier as a digital single on January 10, 2019. And, on February 7, 2019, JYP Entertainment released “What Is Love? (Japanese Ver.)” as a digital single. And, on March 6, 2019, Warner Music Japan released the compilation album #Twice2 which contains “Likey” and “What Is Love?” along with 3 other songs in Japanese and Korean. “Likey (Japanese Ver.)” is the title track for the album #Twice2. This song is the Japanese version of “Likey” in the Korean language that was released on October 30, 2017, as the lead song on the Twicetagram album.
Background of “Likey (Japanese Ver.)”
“Likey (Japanese Ver.)” was written by Black Eyed Pilseung, Jeon Goon, and Mayu Wakisaka. Black Eyed Pilseung is a Korean music producer who has written several hit songs for Twice. Besides “Likey,” Black Eyed Pilseung also wrote “Cheer Up,” “TT,” “Like Ooh-Ahh,” and “Fancy.” And Mayu Wakisaka is a Japanese music producer and lyricist who also composed “Like a Fool” from Twice’s debut album The Story Begins. There is no change in the musical composition of the song “Likey (Japanese Ver.).” Like the Korean version, this song was composed by Black Eyed Pilseung and Jeon Goon. The only difference between the Korean version of “Likey” and the Japanese version is the song lyrics. “Likey” is a song that tells about someone who tries to always look beautiful on social media to attract a crush’s heart. And, this song also tells about how people struggle and pretend to get a good image on social media.
MV of “Likey (Japanese Ver.)”
The “Likey” music video (Japanese ver.) is no different from the Korean version. There is no additional choreography or other things. It’s just that the Twice members are seen saying Japanese lyrics. That’s the only thing that makes the “Likey” music video (Japanese ver.) different from the Korean version. The “Likey” MV was produced by Naive Creative Production and directed by Kim Young-jo and Yoo Seung-woo. The music video for “Likey” is in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was shot in September 2017. The MV of “Likey (Japanese Ver.)” was released on the same day as the song’s release as a digital song. This music video was released on January 10, 2019, on Twice Japan’s official YouTube channel. This MV has been watched more than 28.9 million times and has received more than 460 thousand likes.
Achievements of “Likey (Japanese Ver.)”
“Likey (Japanese Ver.)” and 9 other tracks made the #Twice2 album a commercial success in Japan. This album managed to become a K-pop girl group album with the highest sales on the first day in Japan. This album managed to top the daily Oricon Albums Chart with sales of 95,825 copies. #Twice also managed to occupy position 1 on Billboard Japan Hot Albums with sales of 211,406 copies. Due to its commercial success, the #Twice2 album was certified platinum by the RIAJ (Recording Industry Association of Japan). Twice managed to get a platinum certification for having sold more than 250,000 copies of the #Twice2 album in Japan.
