TWICE is a nine member, South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment through the 2015 reality show Sixteen. The group debuted on October 20, 2015, with their mini album: “The Story Begins”. Twice rose to fame in 2016 with their single “Cheer Up”. The song charted at number 1 on the Gaon Digital Chart and became the best-performing single of the year. It also won “Song of the Year” at two major music awards shows— the Melon Music Awards and the Mnet Asian Music Awards. Their third single “TT”, from their third mini album, “Twicecoaster: Lane 1”, claimed the top spot for four consecutive weeks. The mini album was the highest selling K-pop girl group album of 2016, which sold 350,852 copies by year-end. Within 19 months after debut, Twice has sold over 1.2 million units of their four mini albums and special album.
Twice debuted in Japan on June 28, 2017, under Warner Music Japan with the release of their first compilation album titled “#Twice”. The album debuted at number 2 on the Oricon Albums Chart, which sold 136,157 copies within seven days, the highest first-week album sales of a K-pop artist in Japan in two years. It was followed by the release of Twice’s first original Japanese maxi single titled “One More Time” in October. With over 250,000 unit sales, Twice became the first Korean girl group that earned Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for both album and CD single in the same year. Twice ranked third on Top Artist category of Billboard Japan’s 2017 Year-End Rankings.
