“Signal” is a title track recorded by TWICE. The song and its music video were officially released on May 15th, 2017, by JYP Entertainment. “Signal” was the lead single from their fourth extended play album of the same title. The album and the title track were released prior to TWICE’s debut in Japan with the #Twice compilation album in June 2017. “Signal” was rather distinctive from any other TWICE previous song. The song sounds more pop-centered and neutral, and is also known as being ‘less catchy’ and experimental with its signature chant at the beginning.
Background of “Signal”
On May 1st, 2017, JYP Entertainment announced TWICE’s comeback with their fourth EP titled Signal, with the title track of the same name. A few days later, TWICE released their first and second teaser for their respective album and single.
JYP Entertainment uploaded the first MV teaser of “Signal” on May 12th.
TWICE’s “Signal” was written by Park Jin-young, in collaboration with Joe J Lee “Kairos”. It was TWICE’s first time to directly collaborate with the agency’s founder. The song is said to have an electro-pop genre with a slight hint of hip-hop. Lyrically, the song tells the story of a girl who becomes frustrated after sending many signals to hint at her feelings but stays unnoticed by the guy.
The music video was directed by Naive Production, which are also known to have produced other TWICE music videos. The “Signal” music video concept has a fiction-fantasy theme with green-headed aliens and TWICE members with their special superpowers. Sana’s is invisibility, Jihyo’s is x-ray vision, Nayeon’s superpower is time reversing, Jeongyeon’s is time freezing, Mina’s is hypnosis, Momo’s is super speed, Dahyun’s is self-duplication, Tzuyu’s is super strength, and Chaeyoung’s is telekinesis. At the end of the MV, all members are transformed into aliens. The video surpassed 100 million views on YouTube on August 30th, 2017. As of July 2021, the “Signal” MV has over 276 million views. Despite the large viewership, the video is also known for having over 300.000 dislikes. “Signal” was first performed on the stage of M Countdown on May 18th, 2017. The stage set was decorated with pink and all members were dressed in white, blue, and red.
Two weeks later, the song was performed for the second time in M Countdown.
Later, in December, TWICE performed the remix version of “Signal”. All of the members were looking so fierce in their all-black outfits, except for Nayeon and Chaeyoung who wore dark blue.
Other than stage performances, TWICE also performed “Signal” live on MBC’s radio program Tei’s Dreaming Radio.
After three years of being released, “Signal” was performed again as a part of the opening ceremony of the 2020 KBS Song Festival.
“Signal” Achievements
Shortly after release, “Signal” positioned at number 1 for two consecutive weeks on the Gaon Digital Chart and number 4 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 Chart. “Signal” won its first awards (Best Dance Performance and Song of The Year) at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
Weekly Charts
Year-end Charts
Award Nominations
Music Program Awards
“Signal” Critics
KNetz accused Twice that the “Signal” MV choreography has plagiarized Lovely’s “WoW”. The head and hand gestures are claimed to be similar. However, JYP has not yet spoken up about this issue.
