“Dance the Night Away” is the first track and the lead single of Twice’s third reissued album titled Summer Nights. “Dance the Night Away” was also released as a single, and this single was released at the same time as the reissued album, which was on July 9th, 2018. This reissued album consists of nine songs. The Japanese version of this song was released about seven months later after the release of the initial version, which was on March 6th, 2019, in Japan. This song served as one of the ten tracks from their second Japanese album titled #Twice2. There are two versions of the song in the #Twice2 album, the Japanese version is the fourth track and the initial version in Korean is the ninth track of the album. The song was promoted with the release of the song teasers, the song preview, the Summer Nights album tracks preview, the D-day comeback video, the music video, the dance video, and lastly, their live performance in various K-pop music programs, their live concerts, and their fan events. You can see the music video, here.
The song teasers for “Dance the Night Away” were released twice; you can see those teasers here.
The song preview and the album’s new tracks preview can be seen, here.
They also released the D-day comeback video. You can see the video, here.
The dance videos were also released. They were released twice and were shot in different places. The purpose of these videos was to show the dance choreography of the song. You can see those dance videos, here.
This song was a huge success at that time. It has won many times in music programs awards. Also, it has been certified three times and charted five times in various weekly music charts. Until July 21st, 2021, this song has been heard by many people more than 110 million times on Spotify. Many people have made covers of the song and they have performed it in public places. The pre-chorus part of this song is considered by people as an iconic part. The dance choreography at that part includes them holding hands and doing a paired dance with each other. The footwork choreography at the chorus part also gained a lot of praise from many people, because of their very good synchronization while singing live. There are many other K-pop artists who remember that choreography and have done dance covers of the song. Last month, specifically on June 10th, 2021, M Countdown, one of the programs on the Mnet K-POP station, held the MCD Dance Challenge. The dance challenge on that day was dancing to this Twice song. Many rookie K-pop groups joined the challenge, like Ghost19, Woo!ah!, TO1, Girls in The Park, and many more.
Background of “Dance the Night Away”
Before the official announcement was made, it had already been revealed to the public that Twice would release their new single on June 7th, 2018. The official announcement was released on June 18th by JYP Entertainment, the agency of Twice. They announced that Twice would make a comeback with a new single titled “Dance the Night Away”. On the same day, they also dropped a poster that read: “Dance the Night Away” with the group logo. There was no member in the poster; it was just a beach picture with a night sky full of stars. Nine days later (June 27th), Twice shared their first group photo. The next day, on June 28th, they shared the first batch of their individual teasers. This first batch of these photo teasers consisted of two photos from each member: a close-up photo and a full-body photo. As usual, they released the individual teasers three-by-three, starting from their oldest members, which are Nayeon, Jeongyeon, and Momo. On the same day, they released the tracklist poster for the Summer Nights album. They also revealed that the title track of this album is this song, and this song was written by Choi Wheesung. The next day again, on June 29th, they kept releasing the individual teasers from the three younger members, which are Sana, Jihyo, and Mina. They also released the second tracklist poster for the reissued album. Lastly, the three youngest members’ (Dahyun, Chaeyoung, Tzuyu) individual teasers were released on June 30th. On the very next day, on July 1st, they released a new set of the group photo teasers. On July 2nd, they revealed the first video teaser, and this is the no-name teaser (the usual teaser). Starting from July 3rd until July 5th, they were releasing the second batch of every member’s individual teasers three-by-three each day. The second video teaser was released the next day, on July 6th; the teaser is called the Dance Version Teaser. On the same day, they also revealed their album preview. The song preview was released on July 7th, right the next day after the album preview. They also released the new tracks preview, the D-day comeback video, and the group poster again on July 8th. This was just a day before their comeback and their album release. This is their last group poster for promoting this song.
Story of “Dance the Night Away”
This song was composed by Anne Judith Stokke Wik, Jonatan Gusmark, Ludvig Evers, Cazzi Opeia, Oh Seungeun, and Andreas Baertels. Gusmark and Evers also arranged this song. It has also been revealed in one of their tracklist posters that Choi Wheesung wrote the song. The lyrics for the Japanese version were made by Osanai Eri. This song is about how to enjoy the summer holiday, by spending time dancing, listening to the sound of waves, partying all night long, shouting out loud, jumping up high, and dancing all night long. This song was described as a fresh tune to enjoy the summer weather and emphasize the group’s youthfulness. A Billboard music critic, Tamar Herman, described the song as a groovy pop song with thumping bass, bright horns, and blaring synths beat.
MV of “Dance the Night Away”
The music video of “Dance the Night Away” was released at the time when the reissued album was released, which was on July 9th. 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 was filmed in Okinawa Beach, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Just like the song’s theme, the music video has a beachy and summer concept. The nine members are featured as castaways who wash up on a beach, so they are dressed in beach outfits. After two months, the music video has recorded 100 million views on YouTube. Until July 23rd, 2021, the music video has more than 290 million views on YouTube.
“Dance the Night Away” Performance
The girls promoted this song in various K-pop music programs, such as M Countdown on the Mnet K-POP station, Music Bank on the KBS World TV, Show! Music Core and Show Champion on the MBC Music station, and Inkigayo on SBS. They also performed this song in various music awards and K-pop festivals, such as the Mnet Asian Music Awards, The Fact Music Awards, and KCON LA in August 2018 in Los Angeles, California, United States of America (USA). You can see their performances by clicking the videos below.
Even though the promotion period was over, they still continued performing this song after several years at various events related to K-pop, like M2 × Genie Music Awards (MGMA) in 2019, The Fact Music Awards in 2019, SBS Gayo Daejeon in 2019, Music Bank in 2020, and M Countdown in 2020. Recently, in June 2021, they performed this song at their Twice Dreamday Concert at Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan. You can see their performances at these events by clicking the videos below.
“Dance the Night Away” 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 when this song was promoted through various music programs. You can see the table below for the song’s wins in music shows. This song was listed on YouTube Rewind as The Top 10 Most Viewed Music Videos of 2018. In that Rewind list, this song ranked 7th out of 10 South Korean Music Videos released in 2018. This song had also won an award as the Song of The Year in July at the 8th Gaon Chart Music Awards in 2019. This song has been certified three times by recording industries in South Korea and Japan. You can see the table below for the song’s certifications.
