"Breakthrough" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group Twice. It is the group's fifth Japanese maxi single, featuring three other tracks. The song was pre-released digitally on June 12, 2019, and the CD single was later released on July 24 by Warner Music Japan.
On April 6, 2019, Twice announced the release of their fourth and fifth Japanese singles, titled "Happy Happy" and "Breakthrough".[2][3] On June 12, "Breakthrough" was pre-released as a digital single on various online music portals and the full music video was also released online on the same day.[4][5][1] The single physically released on July 24, along with the news that Twice would appear in a commercial for cosmetic brand Aube, featuring "Breakthrough" as the commercial song.[6][7][8] To commemorate the release of both new singles, the variety program Twice in Hawaii was aired on AbemaTV on July 19–21. Twice members fulfilled requests from fans, who had been recruited in advance on SNS, on location in Hawaii.[9][10][11]
"Breakthrough" was composed by Jan Baars, Rajan Muse, and Ronnie Icon, with lyrics written by Yu Shimoji.[12] Tamar Herman, writing for Billboard, said the song is "meant to evoke the feelings of a cool summer night" and "offers up a dramatic, brassier electro-pop sound that puts the nonet's silky smooth vocals front and center".[1]
The music video for the song was directed by Naive Creative Production and was released on June 11, 2019, on YouTube.[13] The music video begins with the same split-colored set as "Happy Happy" and features neon signs with the titles of both singles. "Breakthrough" features darker tones (in contrast to the brighter-toned "Happy Happy"), and the group is seen dancing at night in "sensual black outfits" and "imposing white power suits".[1] By May 2021, the video had received over 100 million views on YouTube, earning Twice a record for having "the most music videos with more than 100 million views on YouTube among girl groups in the world".[14]
On July 5, 2019, Twice performed "Breakthrough" for the first time on a 2-hour special episode of Music Station. It was also performed during the Japanese leg of Twicelights World Tour, which began on October 23 in Sapporo.[15][16] On September 28, they performed "Breakthrough" on NHK Shibuya Note Presents Twice Request Live, a spin-off project of the music program Shibuya Note.[17]
The CD single debuted at number 2 on the daily ranking of Oricon Singles Chart with 128,525 units sold on its release day.[18] It also ranked number 2 on the weekly Oricon Singles Chart with 229,326 copies sold.[19] It topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 with 288,502 copies sold, 3,451 downloads, and 2,213,588 streams recorded from July 22–28, 2019.[20]
The Korean version of "Breakthrough" was released on September 23, 2019, as the seventh track of Twice's eighth extended play (EP) Feel Special as a special gift for fans. The Korean lyrics were written by Olivia Choi.[22][23]
^Lee, Se-ul (May 19, 2021). "트와이스, 1억뷰 이상 MV 17개…여성 그룹 역대 최다 기록 [공식입장]" [TWICE, 17 MVs with over 100 million views... Highest record in female group history [Official position]]. Xports News (in Korean). Retrieved December 10, 2021.
^"DA PUMP&TWICE、『Mステ』SPダンス見どころ解説". Oricon Music (in Japanese). Oricon ME inc. July 5, 2019. Archived from the original on October 17, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
