Lovey-Dovey (T-ara song)

"Lovey-Dovey"
Japanese regular edition
Single by T-ara
from the album Funky Town and Jewelry Box
ReleasedJanuary 3, 2012 (2012-01-03)
GenreK-pop • Nu-disco • Dance-pop
Length3:35
LabelCore Contents Media, EMI Music Japan
Songwriter(s)Shinsadong Tiger, Choi Kyu-sung, Shoko Fujibayashi (JP)
Producer(s)Shinsadong Tiger, Choi Kyu-sung
T-ara Korean singles chronology
"We Were in Love"
(2011) 		"Lovey-Dovey"
(2012) 		"Day by Day"
(2012)
T-ara Japanese singles chronology
"Roly-Poly"
(2012) 		"Lovey-Dovey"
(2012) 		"Sexy Love"
(2012)
Audio sample
"Lovey-Dovey"

"Lovey-Dovey" is a song by South Korean girl group T-ara from their fourth extended play Black Eyes (2011) repackage, Funky Town (2012). It was released as the lead single on January 3, 2012. A thirty-second teaser of "Lovey-Dovey" was unveiled at the end of their "Cry Cry" music video, with a full one-minute teaser released on November 30, 2011.

Written and produced by Shinsadong Tiger and Choi Kyu-sung,[1] "Lovey-Dovey" is an electropop song with strong beats, and the instrumental features the use of cowbells and scratching. The song is described as being influenced by the "trendy club music popular in Europe and the United States".[1][2] The lyrics are about the protagonist feeling lonely without, as well as seeking for, their love interest.

"Lovey-Dovey" reached number one in South Korea as well as number one on the Billboard K-pop Hot 100 chart. Five music videos have been produced for the song, but only three of the five were released. The first version is a continuation of their earlier "Cry Cry" drama music video, the second features a zombie concept, and the third follows the group traveling and promoting around Tokyo, Japan. The song won a total of thirteen number one awards on various South Korean music shows: four on Music Bank, four on Music on Top, three on Inkigayo, and two on M! Countdown.

Background

"Lovey-Dovey" was written and produced by Shinsadong Tiger and Choi Kyu-song. It was revealed on an episode of MBC's K-pop Star Captivating the World that Junhyung of Beast helped suggest song titles and other ideas to Shinsadong Tiger while he was working on the song.[3] In early October 2011, it was reported that T-ara would be promoting "Lovey-Dovey" for their comeback album in November.[4] It was originally decided that the group was to promote both "Cry Cry" and "Lovey-Dovey" at the same time, however, because the two songs had completely different concepts, they made a last minute final decision to promote "Lovey-Dovey" after promotions for "Cry Cry" were over.[5]

Music videos

T-ara's management agency Core Contents Media announced that a total of three music video directors will be involved in the production of five music videos for "Lovey-Dovey",[6] including "drama"; "dance"; and "club" versions.[7] However, only the "drama" version has been released; with the additional "zombie" and "Tokyo" versions, out of the five. Another version was produced for the Japanese remake of "Lovey-Dovey".

In the "zombie" version, everyone was having a party when a young woman enters the bathroom and puts on her lipstick and then a zombie enters the place and kills her. As more club members get murdered with some women screaming, a security guard tries to keep the zombies out by shutting the hinged bars. But they later break in about to kill T-ara who's in the middle of their performance after the bridge. The scene then transitions into the afterlife where the murdered ones dance with T-ara during the rest. It ends with the two survivors who meet in the mess and he takes her home.

Reception

Critical reception

Katherine St. Asaph of Popdust included "Lovey-Dovey" on their 'Weekend Playlist' at number seven, describing the song as "... the exact midpoint between today's dance and latter-day disco, with an infectious curtsy of a chorus and vocal burbles."[8] Spin ranked it number 12 in their list of the top 20 K-pop singles of 2012 while Popkultur included it in their list of the 82 best K-pop songs of all time.[9][10] Northwest Asian Weekly placed it at No. 4 on its The 10 Best Asian Pop Songs in 2012.[11] Named "a certified floor-filler at clubs", NME ranked at first on its list of best T-ARA songs to date in 2024 praising everything from production to choreography and highlighting how the grow managed to truly cement themselves as "The queens of strobe-lit dance floors".[12]

Commercial performance

In Korea, the song debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart,[13] making it their third consecutive number one—including their collaboration with labelmate Davichi. "Lovey-Dovey" made its debut on the Billboard K-pop Hot 100 at number 20 on the issue dated January 14, 2012,[14] and then climbed to the top of the chart the following week; making it their second consecutive number one. The song spent three weeks at number one on the chart and seven weeks in the top ten. At the end of 2012, "Lovey-Dovey" was downloaded more than 3,700,000 times in South Korea, making it the second most-downloaded song of 2012 on the Circle Digital Charts behind Psy's Gangnam Style and the most downloaded girl group song of 2012.[15] The song was used in the Korean drama Rooftop Prince.

Track listing

Japanese single:
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Lovey-Dovey" (Japanese ver.)Shinsadong Tiger, Choi Kyu-sung, Shoko FujibayashiShinsadong Tiger, Choi Kyu-sung 
Limited edition DVD:
No.TitleLength
1."Lovey-Dovey (Japanese ver.) Music video" 

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2012) Peak
position
Japan (Oricon)[16] 9
Japan (Japan Hot 100)[17] 11
South Korea (Gaon)[18] 1
South Korea (K-pop Hot 100)[19] 1

Year-end charts

Chart (2012) Position
South Korea (Gaon)[20] 7

Sales

Country Sales
South Korea (digital) 3,758,864[21]
Japan (physical) 23,623[22]

Accolades

Listicles

Year Publisher List Rank Ref.
2012 Spin Top 20 K-pop singles of 2012 12 [9]
2013 Northwest Asian Weekly The 10 Best Asian Pop Songs in 2012 4 [11]
2019 Popkultur The 82 best K-pop songs of all time 82 [10]

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations
Award ceremony Year Category Result Ref.
Annual Home Shopping Awards 2012 Top 10 Songs 2nd place [23]
Gaon Chart Music Awards Song of the Month – January Won [24]
Golden Disc Awards Digital Bonsang Won [25]
Digital Daesang Nominated
Mnet 20's Choice Awards 20's Online Music Nominated
Music program awards
Program Date
Mnet's M! Countdown January 12, 2012
January 19, 2012
SBS's Inkigayo January 15, 2012
January 22, 2012
January 29, 2012
JTBC's Music on Top January 19, 2012
January 26, 2012
February 2, 2012
February 9, 2012
KBS's Music Bank January 20, 2012
January 27, 2012
February 10, 2012
February 17, 2012

Release history

Region Date Format
South Korea January 3, 2012 Digital download
Japan May 2, 2012[26] Digital download
May 23, 2012[27] CD single

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Funky Town - MNET". Mnet. Retrieved May 1, 2012.[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ "티아라 '러비더비' 큐리 편 뮤비 무려 17분30초". November 23, 2011. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  3. ^ "용준형, 알고보니 티아라 '러비더비' 만든 주인공? : 네이트 뉴스". Sports Seoul. May 5, 2012. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  4. ^ "티아라, 신사동호랭이와 'lovey-dovey(러비더비)' 발표. 무슨 의미? : 네이트 뉴스". Nate. October 6, 2011. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  5. ^ Lee, Kyong-ho (November 7, 2011). "티아라, 18일로 컴백 앞당겨… '소시-원걸 넘을 도약점 될까?'". TV Daily. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  6. ^ "티아라 '러비더비' 뮤비, 감독 3명·5버전 제작". StarNews. December 5, 2012. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
  7. ^ Han, Sang-yeon (December 5, 2012). "티아라 ′러비더비′ M/V "감독 3명+5개 버전, 초호화 제작"". Asia Today. Asia Today Ltd. Archived from the original on October 18, 2019. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
  8. ^ St Asaph, Katherine (January 28, 2012). "The Popdust Weekend Playlist". Popdust. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  9. ^ a b "K-Pop Fizz Fizz: Life After PSY". spin.com. December 12, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  10. ^ a b "Die 82 besten K-Pop Songs aller Zeiten | Popkultur.de". popkultur.de (in German). November 20, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
  11. ^ a b "The 10 Best Asian Pop Songs You Might've Missed in 2012". Northwest Asian Weekly. January 3, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  12. ^ Chin, Carmen (July 29, 2024). "The 10 best T-ARA songs". NME. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
  13. ^ "Gaon Chart releases chart rankings for the 1st week of January + 2011 Total Album Sales". allkpop. 6Theory Media, LLC. January 12, 2012. Archived from the original on March 17, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  14. ^ Billboard Korea (January 18, 2012). "K-Pop Hot 100: T-ara Makes Giant Leap for Top Spot | BillBoard.com". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on February 14, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  15. ^ "2012 download". gaon.co.kr. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  16. ^ "CDシングル 週間ランキング-ORICON STYLE ランキング". Oricon Style. Oricon Inc. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  17. ^ "Japan Hot 100 | Billboard.com". Billboard. Prometheus Global. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
  18. ^ "Circle Digital Chart – Week 2 of 2012". Circle Chart (in Korean). January 8–14, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2023.
  19. ^ "Korea K-Pop Hot 100 Music Chart | Billboard.com". Billboard. Prometheus Global. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  20. ^ "Gaon Digital Chart: 2012" (in Korean). Gaon Digital Chart. Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  21. ^ "2012 Download Chart" (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  22. ^ http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/js/m/2012-05/more/4/ [dead link‍]
  23. ^ "김태우, 아이유가 싸이를 이겼다고? 홈쇼핑 뮤직 어워드 살펴보니 | 경제 : 네이트 뉴스". Herald Pop (in Korean). Nate. December 28, 2012. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  24. ^ "티아라 빅뱅, 은정-탑-대성 불참불구 음원상 수상(가온차트어워드)". Newsen (in Korean). February 13, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  25. ^ "[27회 골든] 티아라, 음원 본상 수상…"더 많은 사랑 부탁드려요"". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). January 16, 2013. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  26. ^ "iTunes - ミュージック - T-ARA「Lovey-Dovey (Japanese ver.) - Single」". iTunes. Apple Inc. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  27. ^ "Amazon.co.jp： Lovey-Dovey [Japanese ver.](初回生産限定盤)(DVD付): T-ARA: 音楽". Amazon.co.jp. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2012.