Girls (aespa)

Digital
Apple Music
Kwangya ver.
Real World ver.
Girls ver.
Target Exclusive ver.
Rocket Puncher ver.
Armamenter ver.
Xenoglossy ver.
E.d Hacker ver.

Girls

Type

Mini

Artist

aespa

Released

July 8, 2022

Format(s)

CD, download, streaming

Recorded

2020–2022

Genre

Hip hop, dance, pop, ballad

Length

19:28 (physical)
30:44 (digital)
34:53 (Apple Music Edition)

Label(s)

SM Entertainment

Distributor(s)

Dreamus (South Korea)
Warner Records (International)

Release chronology
Previous	Next
"Life's Too Short"	"iScreaM Vol.18 : Girls Remixes"

Girls is the second mini album by aespa. It was released on July 8, 2022 with "Girls" serving as the album's title track.

"Illusion" was pre-released on June 1, 2022 while "Life's Too Short" was released as their first English single on June 24, 2022.^[1]

The physical album comes in 8 versions, including 4 individual versions of each member: Kwangya, Real World, Girls (Digipack), Target Exclusive, Rocket Puncher (Karina digipack ver.), Armamenter (Winter digipack ver.), Xenoglossy (Giselle digipack ver.) and E.d Hacker (Ningning digipack ver.).

Background[]

On the midnight of June 1, 2022, the group released a video through their social networks revealing that the title of their second mini album would be Girls and would be released on July 8, 2022.^[2] Later that day, it was aespa had signed a contract with American label Warner Records for their global promotions, becoming the first K-pop group to do so. To mark the beginning of the partnership, the group would release "Life's Too Short" as their debut English single.^[3]

Release[]

On June 1, 2022, the group unexpectedly released the track "Illusion" as a pre-release track.^[4]^[5]

Composition[]

The title track "Girls" is described as a dance song with a strong bass and rough synth sound. The song's lyrics will show a real battle with Black Mamba, and will tell a new story with nævis, in a more mature way.^[6]

"Lingo" is described as a dance song with an unexpected development, like energetic drums and a country sound that contradicts the bass sound. The lyrics contain the unique charms of the aespa members, who "create their own language" away from the public eye and prejudice, and "ICU" as a mid-tempo ballad that combines the sweet sound of an acoustic guitar with a beautiful melody on the piano.^[7]

Promotions[]

The group began the promotions for the album on the same day as its release on ABC's Good Morning America as part of the 2022 Summer Concert Series where they performed the title track "Girls", "Life's Too Short" and the already established hits "Next Level" and "Savage".^[8]

They also performed the title track "Girls" and the b-side "Illusion" on several music shows such as M Countdown and Show! Music Core.

Commercial performance[]

On June 8, 2022, it was reported that the album has surpassed 1 million physical pre-orders, making aespa only the second girl group in history to achieve this feat.^[9]^[10] By July 7, pre-orders for the album reached over 1.6 million copies, the highest pre-order number ever recorded for a K-pop girl group.^[11]

Hanteo reported that Girls sold a total of 806,891 copies in its first day of release, making it the highest first-day album sales by a female artist on Hanteo. With only first day sales, the album already has the highest first week sales for a female artist.^[12]

The album made its debut at #1 on the Circle Album Chart with 1,426,487 copies sold for the week of July 3 to July 9.^[13] Aespa is now the second girl group to have an album surpassed 1 million copies.^[14]

Hanteo reported that Girls sold 1,126,068 copies in the first week of release. It is the best selling album by a girl group on Hanteo and the first album by a female artist to surpass 1 million copies sold in a week.^[15]^[16]

Girls debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200. It also debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart with 56,000 equivalent album units sold.^[17] Girls has spent three weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, making it aespa's first album to do so.^[18]

Circle Chart reported that Girls sold 1.645,255 copies, making it the best selling girl group album on Circle.^[19]

Merchandise[]

On June 18, 2022, four deluxe box set versions were made available through SM Global Shop.^[20] On September 2, additional official merchandise was made available through the SM Global Shop.^[21]