"Set Me Free" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group

Twice Twice (; Japanese: トゥワイス, Hepburn: ''To~uwaisu''; commonly stylized as TWICE) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaey ...

. It was released as the lead single of their twelfth extended play '' Ready to Be'' on March 10, 2023. It is a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

song characterized by a

groovy ''Groovy'' (or, less commonly, ''groovie'' or ''groovey'') is a slang colloquialism popular during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It is roughly synonymous with words such as "excellent", "fashionable", or "amazing", depending on context. History The ...

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

bass line Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, dub and electronic, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played (in jazz and some f ...

, with lyrics revolving around the protagonists finding their own courage to confess their love to a crush. It was written by

Melanie Fontana Melanie Joy Fontana (born October 3, 1986)Joyce Cohen''New York Times'', December 26, 2004. is an American singer, composer and songwriter signed to Universal Music Group. Early life Fontana was born in Newington, Connecticut. She moved to New Y ...

, Marty Maro, Star Wars, Jvde and Lindgren who also handled the production. "Set Me Free" peaked at number 28 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200 and number 94 on South Korea's

Circle Digital Chart The Circle Digital Chart, previously known as the Gaon Digital Chart, is the music industry standard record chart ranking the 200 most popular singles in South Korea. It provides rankings on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, which is based on ...

. It also entered charts in Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam, and the top ten in Singapore and Taiwan. In the United States, the song debuted at number seven on the

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart.

Background

On February 3, 2023, the group officially announced the single release for March 10. Individuals concept photos, as well as the group's concept photos for the song, were released on their official YouTube account. In an interview with

KBS News The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) () is the national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in February 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters. KBS operates seven radio networks, ten television channels, a ...

Jeongyeon Yoo Jeong-yeon (; born 1 November 1996), known mononymously as Jeongyeon (), is a South Korean singer. She is a member of Twice, a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. Early life Jeongyeon was born as Yoo Kyung-wan on 1 Novem ...

revealed that they had been working on the song since the previous year.

Nayeon Im Na-yeon (; born September 22, 1995), known mononymously as Nayeon, is a South Korean singer. She became a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, under JYP Entertainment, in 2015 as a winning contestant of the reality survival televis ...

noted that the new song shows a different side of Twice, saying "Since this is our first comeback in 7 months and our first comeback in 2023, we prepared hard to show our fans a new side of us…I am excited because I think I will be able to show a different concept and performance from my previous work."

Composition

"Set Me Free" is a

track that takes a

retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...

approach, characterized by

, "simple yet powerful sound", and liberating lyrics. The lyrics revolve around the protagonists finding the courage to confess their love to a crush, with lines such as "I've been hiding how I feel for you forever" and "Now that it's off my chest there's room for you and me". Member

Jihyo Park Ji-hyo (; born Park Ji-soo on February 1, 1997), known mononymously as Jihyo, is a South Korean singer. She is the leader and vocalist of the South Korean girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. Life and career Early life ...

explained that "Set Me Free" holds the meaning of "Let's break away from everything that binds us and love freely, to our heart's content." The song was composed in the key of

F minor F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major is A-flat major and its parallel major is F major. Its enharmonic equivalent, E-sharp mi ...

with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

of 113 beats per minutes.

Music video

The music video alternates between two sets, a lonely planet in outer space where they perform the song's choreography and a soundstage designed to look like a small town. After the rap, a

false ending A false ending is a device in film and music that can be used to trick the audience into thinking that the work has ended, before it continues. The presence of a false ending can be anticipated through a number of ways. The medium itself might bet ...

is implemented, where the Twice's end screen (consisting of the logos of the group and their entertainment company JYP) is revealed to be shown on a cinema screen that the members watch. Mina explained the meaning behind the music video, saying "it captures the image of Twice becoming more free". She also explained that each member expressed a different kind of freedom.

Promotion

On February 20, a snippet of "Set Me Free" was revealed on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

before the song's official release. On March 4 and 5, Twice opened "Twice Pop-up Experience" in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to communicate and celebrate the release of "Set Me Free" with their fans, where they teased part of the song's choreography. Twice performed the song for the first time on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It is the seventh incar ...

'' on the same day of its release. The group also performed the song on the South Korean music programs ''

M Countdown ''M Countdown'' () is a South Korean music program broadcast by Mnet. The show features appearances by popular music artists who also perform live on stage. It is broadcast from CJ E&M Center Studio in Sangam-dong, Mapo District, Seoul. Bro ...

'', ''

Music Bank Music Bank may refer to: * ''Music Bank'' (TV program), a South Korean music program by KBS **''Music Bank World Tour The ''Music Bank'' World Tour is a worldwide live concert tour of South Korean music show '' Music Bank'' by the Korean Broa ...

'', ''

Show! Music Core ''Show! Music Core'' (), or simply ''Music Core'' is a South Korean music television program broadcast by MBC. It airs live every Saturday at 15:30 (KST). The show features some of the latest and most popular artists who perform live on stage. ...

'', and ''

Inkigayo ''Inkigayo'' ( ko, 인기가요; English title: ''The Music Trend'', previously ''Popular Song'') is a South Korean music program broadcast by SBS. It airs live every Sunday. The show features some of the latest and most popular artists who p ...

''.

Accolades

Track listing

*Remixes #"Set Me Free" (English version) – 3:01 #"Set Me Free" – 3:01 #"Set Me Free" (Lindgren remix) nglish version– 3:31 #"Set Me Free" (Lindgren remix) – 3:31 #"Set Me Free" (Tommy "TBHits" Brown remix) nglish version– 2:50 #"Set Me Free" (Tommy "TBHits" Brown remix) – 2:50 #"Set Me Free" ( ARMNHMR remix) nglish version– 2:58

Credits and personnel

Credits adopted from

Melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The ...

. * Twice – vocals * Stars Wars (Galactika) –

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

* Jvde (Galactika) – lyricist, vocals director * Melanie Fontana –

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, background vocals * Marty Maro – composer * Lindgren – composer,

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

, producer * Friday (Galactika) – vocals director * Nicole Neely –

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

* Lee Kyung-won –

digital editing Digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital ...

* Gu Hye-jin –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

* Im Chan-mi – recording * Curtis Douglas – mixing * Kwon Nam-woo – mastering * Haneul Lee – immersive mix engineer * Jung-hoon Choi – immersive mix engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{authority control Twice (group) songs 2023 singles 2023 songs Republic Records singles JYP Entertainment singles Disco songs Songs written by Melanie Fontana Songs in Korean