The seven song record is their 14th mini-album. It includes tracks like 80s beat inspired track “Kiss My Troubles Away”, two versions of “Strategy” (one featuring Megan Thee Stallion, one without), “Sweetest Obsession”, a track spoiled by the members at their ninth anniversary fan meeting earlier in October, and a Christmassy, winter themed song “Magical”.  The album also includes “Keeper”, a track written by member Kim Dahyun. Following its release, the album has reached a peak of no.40 on the UK iTunes albums chart, with each song charting on the UK K-pop albums chart, including “Strategy feat. Megan Thee Stallion” which has peaked at no.2.

“Strategy” Songs iTunes UK K-pop Charts Peak Positions

2. “Strategy feat. Megan Thee Stallion”

6. “Strategy”

8. “Magical”

12. “Sweetest Obsession”

13. “Like It Like It”

74. “Keeper”

75. “Kiss My Troubles Away”

Strategy features Twice’s signature catchy sound whilst exploring a new, more mature sound. The addition of Megan Thee Stallion, in what is Twice’s first ever lead single featuring another artist, is seamless – her vibe and sound fitting the song perfectly, still bringing a rap that is inherently what she’s known for.

Twice are a nine member Korean girl group formed through the survival television show “Sixteen” and created by JinYoung Park, founder of Korean entertainment company JYP Entertainment. The members in age order are Im Nayeon, Yoo Jeongyeon, Hirai Momo, Minatozaki Sana, Park Jihyo, Myoui Mina, Kim Dahyun, Son Chaeyoung and Chou Tzuyu. After a successful debut with debut mini-album “The Story Begins” and lead single “Like OOH-AHH”, Twice solidified their status in Korea with the release of their second mini album “Page Two” and the viral hit “Cheer UP”. The song was their first PAK (Perfect All Kill, a term used when a song reaches number one on all of the popular real time charts in real time) and produced the viral “Shy Shy Shy” meme. The achieved the same with lead singles “TT” (2016), “Knock Knock” (2017) and “Yes or Yes” (2018). The group have an extensive discography in both Korean and Japanese, boasting 14 Korean mini albums and three full albums and five full Japanese albums.

Twice have conquered the South Korean and Japanese music scene for ten years at this point, and they’re already record breakers in the US. For their most recent tour, “Ready To Be World Tour”, they performed to sold out crowds in London’s O2 Arena, marking the first shows they ever performed in Europe.

With their success in their home country, and the home country of Japanese members, Momo, Sana and Mina, and the success in the US in recent years, the group undertake promotions in all three countries for album releases. Their newest release, “Strategy” marks their first English title track, hinting at their marketing towards a more global music market, and bringing in Megan Thee Stallion for their second collaboration (the first being Twice’s feature on the Mamushi remix released earlier this year), will they achieve their highest charting song in the UK so far? Up to now they featured heavily on the official albums download chart with eleven entries since 2019, but have not yet had a top ten entry into the official UK singles chart. Megan Thee Stallion has featured on the Hip Hop and R&B charts and the album charts with a top 40 album, and this year had the viral song “Mamushi feat Yuki Chiba”.

An anomaly, as a group so active in their tenth year, Twice do not look like they’re slowing down. Just this year they’ve had three group releases and multiple solo works and subunit activities for Japanese member trio MISAMO.

Twice activities this year

With you-th – Twice 

NA – Nayeon (Member solo)

Dive –  Twice (Japanese full album) 

AbouTzu – Tzuyu (Member solo debut)

Haute Couture – MISAMO (Mina, Sana, Momo – Member subunit)

Strategy – Twice

They’re heavyweights in the music markets of South Korea, Japan and the US, play to sold out audiences in almost every continent in the world, and they’re simply masters of performance. They’re known for the synchronised in their dancing , catchy lyrics, powerful vocals and smooth rapping that fits their style. But will this translate to higher levels of success in the UK music scene?

After their albums release on Friday (December 6), the album and all of the songs from it have featured on UK iTunes chart. As of December 7, “Strategy” was no.1 on Korea’s real time daily physical albums chart (Hanteo), beating “Rosie“, by Rosé, which was highly anticipated and released on the same day. Will they finally have their big break in the UK music charts?

American rapper Megan Thee Stallion, Nigerian singer Burna Boy and US artist Doja Cat are all set to join the already star-studded line-up, with headliners including the likes of Tyler, the Creator, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. If you want to see a full list of the line-up, you can go to the festival’s website here.

The festival will take place across three different venues; London’s Crystal Palace Park, Finsbury Park and Birmingham’s NEC, the latter of which was last involved with the festival back in 2014. Artist ASAP Rocky is set to start things off at Crystal Palace Park, and it’s an especially significant event for his UK fans, what with it being his first concert in the country for six whole years.

Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and SZA will be headlining the following week at Finsbury Park, with a historic all-female line-up taking place. It will also be a significant moment for SZA, being her first-ever UK headline festival appearance.

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Other significant artists making an appearance include British rapper Dave, who recently was awarded Best Hip Hop/ Grime/ Rap Act at the 2022 BRIT Awards. Despite Storm Eunice forcing him to make some changes to his touring schedule, he should be back in the full swing of things this July when he headlines at the Birmingham NEC. Last year, the headlining acts included the likes of Future, Skepta and Migos.

If you can’t make it to any of the shows, no worries; the BBC has you covered. BBC Radio 1Xtra will be airing the performances, as well as giving us exclusive interviews, so you’ll be getting the best of both worlds either way. Some of the station’s DJs will also be given the opportunity to host stages and perform their own sets across the festival’s duration. It’s the first time Wireless Festival has worked with the station, but we can hope it’s a promising sign of things to come.

If you’re interested in getting tickets, best act fast. They’ve gone on sale today already, having started at noon, but you can get there quick by following this link.

GO, GO, GOOO ‼️

General release tickets AND payment plans are now on sale! Click the link below for tickets!

Reading https://t.co/MXzhTR5eks
Leeds https://t.co/tL6GPBM1J0 pic.twitter.com/wbErSVYvBC

— Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) December 10, 2021

You can, however, get hold of tickets for the few other remaining days at each of the festivals. The Friday for Reading, or the Saturday for Leeds, with headliners Dave and Megan Thee Stallion, is still very much available for you to get your hands on. The dual headliners will share their day at the festival with Polo G, the immensely talented Little Simz, viral sensation Glass Animals, and industry newcomer PinkPantheress. A few other names are also attributed to the day with many more to be announced in the future.

The final day of the Reading Festival, or the first day of the Leeds Festival, also has day tickets available. So, if you’re in the mood for a genre-hopping day between the politically charged energy of Rage Against the Machine, and 2010’s chart-topping machine Halsey then today is the day for you. The pair will be backed by artists that really highlight the musical, political, and gender diversity of the festival this year. Experimental hip-hop duo Run the Jewels will hit the main stage after Eurovision’s offering this year Måneskin. Bastille and Chloe Moriondo join the line-up as the direct antithesis of the former artists.

As mentioned before, tickets to the Reading’s Saturday, Leeds’ Sunday, could prove to be quite expensive to bad now that the day tickets and festival weekend have sold out. Co-headliners Arctic Monkeys, and Bring Me the Horizon prove that British guitar music is far from dead, and anyone that says otherwise is just too ignorant to bother talking to. Wolf Alice, Fontaines D.C., Enter. Shikari, and Wilkinson round out the festival day.

You can try and get tickets to the remaining days here, if you already have tickets then you can just kick back and listen to this specially curated playlist from the festival themselves. Covering all the top tracks of the big names announced so far.

IT’S FINALLY HERE!! Here are your first 30+ artists for #RandL22 @ThreeUK & @Barclaycard pre-sale tickets on sale now for 48 hours
General release tickets 9am on Friday! Visit link below for more info! #AD #PaidPartnership #RandL22 pic.twitter.com/2K8cWW93Ho

— Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) December 8, 2021

Some of the six headliners that have been announced are no surprise to anyone. There had already been rumours of Arctic Monkeys’ inclusion, so much so that Melvin Benn (Managing Director of Festival Republic) even responded to them, saying “Arctic Monkeys are a law unto themselves and when they decide next to play live is beyond me, if I’m honest.” The band were last seen performing live in the UK back in 2018, and this will be the third time they have performed at the festivals, all coming amid the probable release of a new album next year, following up 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Also, Rage Against The Machine’s inclusion is hardly a surprise, what with the group having been scheduled for the 2020 festivals before covid forced its cancellation.

As for the other acts, Halsey has been in the news recently, what with her fourth album last Summer (titled If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power), as well as being announced the winner of the BandLab NME Awards’ Innovation Award. Megan Thee Stallion is a multi-Grammy-winning artist who notably contributed vocals for Cardi B’s hit song WAP, and is expected to be releasing new material next year.

However, not all the acts are as well established or experienced. Musical artist Dave will become the youngest headliner at the festivals, being aged only 23 (he’ll be 24 by the time of the performance). Speaking on the opportunity, he said “It’s a massive honour, especially to be in the company of other legends that are headlining …. I’m going to try and have the highest quality production value that I can.“

Also, Bring Me The Horizon have expressed their delight at the opportunity to headline, with frontman Oliver Sykes promising that “We’ll make sure it’s insane. I’ve always said that we’d play it when we’ve earned it, and it’s finally come. We have the songs, we have the bangers, and we might not be a household name but I know that we can put on a show that’s festival-headline quality.” Band keyboardist Jordan Fish remembers being in Reading’s mosh pit when he was 14, feeling that they’ve come “full circle“. However, the band have played Reading before after two other groups had pulled out. Sadly it didn’t go too well for them then, with them all being pelted by the audience (a surprisingly common occurrence at Reading & Leeds). However, this time they seem to have the confidence and experience to rise to the challenge, promising an exciting set for all fans.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday 10^th December from 9 am, and more information on getting them can be found here. If you want to read more details about all the acts headlining at the festival, you can look here.

The new project was announced on Instagram, captioned “My gift to my hotties 10/29“, “freestyles y’all been asking for plus a few unreleased songs from my archives to hold y’all over for the rest of the year“. In a description of the nature of this release, Megan Thee Stallion replied to a fan on Twitter saying “If it’s over an original beat it will be there”.

Megan Thee Stallion has had a busy year. since dropping her debut album late last year, she has released numerous freestyles on YouTube. Starting with “Southside Forever Freestyle” in February, she, later on, followed it up later that year with two freestyles, “Outta Town” and “Tuned In”, complete with visuals, in the same month. See her most recent freestyle, “Tuned In”, below.

In addition to these recent freestyles, she was recently involved in a collaboration with DJ Snake, Ozuna, and LISA of BLACKPINK, in a long-awaited track titled “SG”. A frenetic mix of different talents, the track mixes between Spanish and English over a high-energy beat. Within 12 hours, the track amassed an impressive 12 million views. Listen to “SG” below.

With her high work rate and, now with “SG”, a truly global appeal, Megan Thee Stallion’s new mixtape is sure to gain traction, especially as many of the freestyles are of a length optimised to TikTok, a platform she owes a significant amount of her success to.

To accompany the release of her mixtape, she is performing twice on the days before and after the project due date, one at the Rolling Loud festival in Queens, NYC, and the other at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA. See her ticket information here.

Wireless 2021 line-up has landed Final release tickets on sale 12pm Thursday 29th April Like and tag your mates for a chance to win 4x VIP weekend tickets to #Wirelessfest https://t.co/92uryjpvs7 pic.twitter.com/HReOu13tGC

— Wireless Festival (@WirelessFest) April 27, 2021

Future, Skepta, and Migos are billed to headline one night each over the three-day festival spanning September 10-12. In addition to the aforementioned headliners, other acts on this year’s festival bill include Meek Mill, Young Thug, AJ Tracey, D Block Europe, and Lil Baby. Singer Mahalia has called out Wireless for a line-up that was once again overwhelmingly male. Mahalia took to Twitter to express her concern writing: “Wireless back at it again with the penis fest. Whew I’m tired”.

wireless back at it again with the penis fest. Whew I’m tired pic.twitter.com/LVveysOmaL

— mahalia (@mahalia) April 27, 2021

Of the 49-act line-up there are only five female acts. Megan Thee Stallion is featured relatively low on the festival billing despite her success this year, which most recently included picking up three Grammy awards. Other women performing in this year’s festival include Yinka, Ivorian Doll, Darkoo, and Tiffany Calver. This isn’t the first time the festival has been under fire for its unbalanced line-up. Wireless faced a similar backlash in 2018 after booking just three female artists, which dropped to two after Cardi B was forced to pull out.

Wireless joins a slew of other summer festivals that have been criticised for their male-dominated line-ups including Reading and Leeds, Parklife, and Creamfields. Summer festivals are hoping to make a comeback this year following last year’s cancellations due to coronavirus.

Tickets for Wireless 2021 will go on general sale on Thursday (April 29) at 12pm from here, though there is exclusive access to tickets for Barclaycard customers from 12pm today.