K-Pop News 2018: Twice Preparing for April Comeback
One of South Korea's hottest girl group Twice is preparing a new album to be released in April.
The group's agency, JYP Entertainment confirmed the report on Feb. 26, Monday. "We are looking at early April as the approximate timing for their comeback," the Park Jin Young-led company said. "However, the exact comeback date is undecided, and we will reveal it officially once it is confirmed."
JYP added that the album release will be followed by a tour in May. The group will take its first stage in Seoul in 11 months with the "Twiceland Zone 2: Fantasy Park" shows scheduled for May 18 to 20.
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Twice is reportedly hoping to showcase more of its iconic bubbly charm and diverse colors for their first album in 2018. This will arrive just four months after they launched "Merry & Happy," a repacked version of "Twicetagra," in December 2017.
The album's title track was Twice's hit song "Heart Shaker," which became the group's most viewed video in 24 hours. The energetic and catchy song was viewed over 11 million times just a day after its release and is now at 134 million views and counting.
The repackaged album also included the hit song "Likey," which was released in late October and now has 193 million views.
The nine-member group has been on a roll since it was launched in 2015, thanks to its early big hits "Like Ooh-Ahh" and "Cheer Up." Twice has not had a downtime since then and recently led its agency JYP to become the second-highest valued K-pop company, overtaking previous title holder YG Entertainment.
In January, JYP's market capitalization rose by 22 percent, or 552 billion won. That is around $515 million on the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations or KOSDAQ. The Yang Hyun Suk-led YG was valued 533 billion won (around $498 million).
Despite Twice's overwhelming global popularity, however, JYP remains in the far second from leading K-pop agency SM Entertainment, which was at that time valued at 829 billion won (around $779 million). SM is the home of Red Velvet, EXO, Super Junior, Girl's Generation, SHINee and so-called Queen of K-pop BoA.
