TWICE has opened up about how the group’s nine members came to renew their contracts with longtime label JYP Entertainment.
It was first announced last month that all members of the K-pop girl group had renewed their exclusive contracts with JYP before they expire this fall. “TWICE, who played a crucial role in establishing JYP’s status, and JYP, who became a reliable source of support for TWICE growing into a representative group of K-pop girls, agreed, based on this trust, to renew contracts with confidence in a better future,” the label said in its statement at the time.
In NME’s new cover and ahead of their new mini-album ‘Between 1&2’, which was released today, the girl group opened up about the conversations they had before they unanimously renewed their contracts with the company.
“It was actually decided just a few days before it was reported to the media,” TWICE leader Jihyo revealed. “We talked about it [contract renewals] and, of course, the conversation was not the easiest. It is related to our individual lives. It decides our individual future.”
Although all members of TWICE understood the gravity of their decision and how it would affect their lives for years to come, everyone agreed to remain as a group. “Of couse, [the process of renewing our contracts] it was hard, and making the decision was even harder, but in the end we decided to stay together,” Jihyo added.
Elsewhere in the interview, TWICE talked about their creative evolution and growing involvement in writing their music. “In the beginning, a lot of the things we sang were given to us, done by someone else,” Dahyun said. “As we put out more albums, our involvement got bigger and bigger.” Read the full cover story here.
‘Between 1&2’, which was led by title track ‘Talk That Talk’, was released today (August 26), marking the group’s first domestic comeback in 2022. It is also the follow-up to their third studio album TWICE, ‘Formula of Love: O+T=<3'. This record, which arrived in November 2021, was led by the title track 'Scientist' and also included the group's first English-language single 'The Feels'.
