“Yes or Yes” is the first track and the lead single of Twice’s sixth extended play (EP) album with the same title. “Yes or Yes” was also released as a single, and this single was released at the same time as the extended play album, which was on November 5th, 2018. This EP album consists of seven tracks. After the release of the EP album, Twice released their third special album titled The Year of “Yes” a month later, and the song “Yes or Yes” served as the third track of this special album. This special album was released on December 12th, 2018, in South Korea, and consists of nine songs. The song teasers for “Yes or Yes” were released three times; you can see those teasers below.
The song intro and the jacket video can be seen here.
To promote the EP album, they also released the EP album play. You can see the album play here.
The dance video was also released. It was released to show the dance choreography of the song. You can see the dance video here.
This song was a huge success at that time. It has been certified and awarded three times, with so many first-place wins in various music programs. Until July 21st, 2021, this song has been heard by many people, more than 130 million times on Spotify. Many non-public figures have made covers and have reacted to the song, such as in Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) in one of their React videos, there were adults and kids who reacted to Twice, specifically to this song. Until recently, there have been a lot of people who thought that the “yes or yes” part with their “okay” fingers choreography is very catchy and iconic, and there are many other K-pop artists who remember the song’s choreography and have done a dance cover of the song.
Background of “Yes or Yes”
The agency of Twice, JYP Entertainment, confirmed on October 11th, 2018, that Twice would release two albums: their third Korean EP album and their special album for that year. Before the official confirmation was made, there were a lot of Twice advertisements with the phrase, “Do you like Twice? Yes or yes?” Those advertisements were put up in October 2018, on many billboards at many various public places like subway stations and buildings. Those advertisements managed to draw many people’s attention, but at that time they didn’t know the title of this single either the album. The “Yes or Yes” title was revealed in October 2018 in a short video. This video was made to celebrate Twice’s third anniversary. In the same month, specifically on October 23rd, Twice released their first group photo. Starting from the very next day, on October 24th, they started releasing their individual photo teasers, starting from Momo, Jeongyeon, and Nayeon. The next day, on October 25th, they released Mina’s, Jihyo’s, and Sana’s photo teasers. Lastly, on October 26th, they released the three youngest members’ photo teasers, which were Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. That day was also the release of the EP album tracklist poster and their second group photo. Those photos were released with another batch of their individual teaser images and their EP album cover, they were uploaded on October 28th. There were also photo cards and three versions of their album posters; those were shared on their Twitter account on October 30th. This is one of their album posters. As I’ve told you before, there were three song teasers for “Yes or Yes”: they were called Teaser Y, Teaser E, and Teaser S. The Y was released on October 29th, the E was released two days (October 31st) after the Y, and the S was also released two days (November 2nd) after the E. The 46-second song intro was released right the next day (November 3rd) after the S. The EP album play was released on November 4th and the jacket video was released on November 5th, with each video being about 5 minutes long.
Story of “Yes or Yes”
This song was composed by David Amber and Andy Love, with the initial lyrics in Korean coming from Sim Eunjee and the Japanese lyrics coming from Matsumoto Yuka. Amber composed the previous Twice song “Heart Shaker”, while Sim wrote the song “Knock Knock”. David Amber also arranged this song. This song is about how to be able to reply “yes” to someone who confesses their love to you. There were so many music critics talking about this song, such as Jeong Jiwon and Shim Sunah who described the song as a bright pop song, and a result of reggae and arena pop influence.
MV of “Yes or Yes”
The music video of “Yes or Yes” was released at the time when the EP album was released, which was on November 5th. The music video was made by Naïve Production. This production company had been working with Twice for making their music videos since Twice debuted. The music video has a carnival concept, and it also includes magic tricks. One of the members, Jeongyeon, said in an interview that her concept for the music video was a magician. For this music video, she used some props like roulettes, tarot cards, and crystal balls. Chaeyoung once said that for the music video, she was also a magician, specialized in reading tarot cards. The music video also features strong choreography, and the members are dressed in a 90s-inspired outfit abundant with plaid and leather. According to YouTube’s official report, the MV achieved 31,4 million views within the first 24 hours of its release, and became the seventh biggest 24-hour YouTube debut of all time. Because of this MV, Twice became the fastest K-pop girl group to reach 10 million views on YouTube, in only six hours and two minutes. The MV had been watched 100 million times as of December 14th, 2018. Until July 21st, 2021, the MV has 300 million views on YouTube.
“Yes or Yes” Performance
This song was promoted in various K-pop music programs, such as M Countdown and K-POP TV Show on the Mnet K-POP station, Show Music Core on the MBC K-pop station, Show Champion on MBC Music station, Inkigayo on SBS, and Music Bank on KBS World TV. They also performed this song at their Twicelights concert and at various music awards like Mnet Asian Music Awards, GMA Awards, and The Fact Music Awards. They also did the Relay Dance, in which each member dances the choreography in turn one-by-one. The Relay Dance was done by M2, the Mnet Digital Studio. They also performed this song at the K-Pop Festival in December 2018. You can see their performances by clicking these videos below.
Even though the promotion period was over, they still kept performing this song after several years. On January 6th, 2021, they performed this song at the 34th Golden Disc Awards with TikTok Digital Music Division. You can see their performance in the award show by clicking the video here.
“Yes or Yes” Achievements
This song has charted so many times, especially in South Korean music charts and Japanese music charts. You can see the table below for the song’s peak position in every chart. This song has also won first place in various music programs. You can see the table below for the song’s wins in music shows. This song was listed in Paper Magazine as The Top 20 K-pop Songs of 2018. In that magazine, this song ranked 11th out of 20 K-pop songs released in 2018. This song has also achieved many awards and has been also certified by various recording industries especially in South Korea and Japan. You can see the table below for the song’s awards and certifications.
