"Wake Me Up" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group Twice. It is the group's third Japanese maxi single, featuring three other tracks. The song was pre-released as a digital single on April 25, 2018, and the CD single was released on May 16 by Warner Music Japan.
The single surpassed 200,000 sales in its first week, making Twice the first foreign artist in Japan to achieve this for three consecutive releases. It exceeded 500,000 shipments by May 28 and became the first single by a foreign female artist to be certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Contents
Background and release
On April 1, 2018, Twice announced the release of their third Japanese single titled "Wake Me Up", along with the news that Twice would appear in a television commercial for ABC-Mart and Nike Air Max. The commercial, featuring "Wake Me Up", began airing nationwide in Japan on April 5. The full song was first revealed on Tokyo FM's School of Lock! on April 24 and it was pre-released as a digital single on various online music portals the next day. The full music video was also released online on April 25.
Composition
"Wake Me Up" was composed by Atsushi Shimada, Louise Frick Sveen, and Albin Nordqvist, with lyrics written by Natsumi Watanabe. It was described as an upbeat dance song that "encourages people not to give up and keep going forward".
Music video
The full music video of "Wake Me Up" was uploaded online on April 24, 2018. It was directed by Jimmy of BS Pictures, the same team that produced Twice's previous music videos, "TT (Japanese ver.)" and "Brand New Girl". The music video ranked at No. 10 on 2018 YouTube's Top Trend Music Video in Japan, the third group's song on the list.
Promotion
"Wake Me Up" was first performed on Music Station on May 25, 2018. It was also performed during Twice 2nd Tour: Twiceland Zone 2 – Fantasy Park in Saitama and Osaka. On August 3, it was performed on a Music Station 2-hour special episode.
Commercial performance
The CD single debuted atop the daily ranking of the Oricon Singles Chart with 129,275 units sold on its release day, breaking Twice's record of the highest first day sales for Korean girl groups in Japan. It topped the weekly Oricon Singles Chart with 262,658 copies sold, while debuted at number 14 with 5,939 downloads on the Oricon Digital Singles Chart. It also topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100, recording 299,195 unit sales from May 14 to May 20, 2018. It was Twice's third consecutive release to surpass 200,000 sales in its first week, making the group the first foreign artist in Japan to achieve this.
It was also reported that "Wake Me Up" sold 471,438 copies in pre-orders, and it exceeded 500,000 shipments by May 28. On June 8, it became the first single by a foreign female artist to be certified Double Platinum by the RIAJ.
Content production
Credits adapted from CD single liner notes.
Locations
Recording
JYPE Studios, Seoul, South Korea
Mixing
Mirrorball Studios, North Hollywood, California ("Wake Me Up")
I to I Communications, Tokyo, Japan ("Pink Lemonade")
Mastering
Sterling Sound, New York City, New York
Personnel
JYP Entertainment staff
Warner Music Japan staff
Kaz Kobayashi – executive producer
Hayato Kajino – supervisor
Rie Sawaoka – supervisor
Naoki Takami – digital planning and marketing
Masayo Kuroda – product coordination
Japanese recording staff
Goei Ito (Obelisk) – music director
Yu-ki Kokubo (Obelisk) – recording director
Satoshi Sasamoto – Pro Tools operation
Design staff
Movie staff
Jimmy (BS Pictures) – music video director
Han Gui-taek – music video making and jacket shooting making movie director
Yu Yamaguchi (Warner Music Mastering) – DVD authoring
Other personnel
Atsushi Shimada – all instruments (on "Wake Me Up")
Kohei Yokono – all instruments (on "Pink Lemonade")
Twice – background vocals
Ikuko Tsutsumi – background vocals
Tony Maserati – mixing engineer (on "Wake Me Up")