Tropical Night (EP)

''Tropical Night'' (stylized in all caps) is an extended play (EP) marketed as the seventh single of Japanese boy band JO1. It also served as the second single for their third studio album, ''Equinox'' (2023). The EP single includes six songs and two instrumental tracks and was released by Lapone Entertainment in four editions on April 5, 2023. It features frequent collaborators such as Jung Ho-hyun, 1by1, Nmore, and Poptime, and the group's first collaboration with EDM artist Asher Postman. The EP single also includes the Japan Record Excellent Work Award winner "Trigger", as well as "We Good" and "Romance", theme songs for television series ', starring Syoya Kimata, and ''Blue Birthday'', starring Shion Tsurubo.

JO1 promoted the EP single by performing the lead track "Tiger" at the Hanshin Tigers vs. Hiroshima Toyo Carp match in Hanshin Koshien Stadium and attending international music events, such as KCON in Thailand and Dream Concert in South Korea. ''Tropical Night'' became JO1's seventh consecutive number-one single on the Oricon chart, while "Tiger" topped the ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 and marked the group's debut on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Trending Songs chart.

Background and release

Twelve days after making their debut performance on the NHK's annual New Year's eve musical show ''Kōhaku Uta Gassen'', JO1 announced that they would release a new digital song "We Good" as the theme song of the television series ', starring member Syoya Kimata, on January 19, 2023. On February 8, JO1 released the medium ballad song "Romance", which served as the theme song of the Japanese version of ''Blue Birthday'', starring member Shion Tsurubo and Airi Matsui, accompanied by the release of the recording video of the song on JO1's official YouTube channel. On February 15, JO1 announced that their next EP single, ''Tropical Night'', was slated to be released on April 5, 2023. The theme of the EP single is "the passion of pursuing a goal; the beauty of the youths who are passionately chasing after something". Its title was taken from the eponymous weather event and meant to capture an image of "dull night", which "comes as the aftermath of putting all of yourself into a work and feeling the pain and loss that hits when that work is done".

The EP single consists of a total of six songs and two instrumental versions, with "Tiger" as the lead track. The two limited editions each features four tracks and comes with a DVD bundle consisting a variety segment. The limited edition A features "We Good" and video ''JO1's Passion (Enthusiasm)'', while the limited edition B features "Romance" and video ''JO1's Passion (Memories)''. The CD-only normal edition comes with four unreleased songs and two instrumental versions. A special digital version consisting all six songs and an instrumental version of "Tiger" was also made available on the release day.

Lead track

The lead track "Tiger" was digitally released March 19, 2023. Co-produced by EDM artist Asher Postman, it debuted at number 45 on ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 and number 25 on Oricon Combined Single Chart, and eventually topped both charts during its release week. "Tiger" also became the first JO1's song that charted on ''Billboard'''s Hot Trending Songs chart, at number 13. The song was performed for the first time later on the same day at KCON 2023 Thailand, along with the Korean version of "Phobia" from their previous EP single. It was debuted in Japan the next day on ''CDTV Live! Live!'', followed by performances in various music shows, including '' Music Fair'', ''Venue101'', '' Utacon'', and South Korean ''M Countdown''. On March 24, the music video was released, with Jeon Ji-hoon served as the director.

Promotion

To commemorate the release of ''Tropical Night'', JO1 held the Tiger Jack campaign, in which the group would meet various "tigers". The campaign started on March 31, 2023, with JOChum, characters produced by JO1 members in collaboration with Sanrio, transformed into tigers. During the release day live streaming, the group was joined by a mascot of Shimajirō, the character from the children's anime series Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō. On April 19, JO1 performed "Tiger" to open the Hanshin Tigers vs. Hiroshima Toyo Carp match, held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Hyōgo, with members Issei Mamehara and Takumi Kawanishi acted as the first pitcher and batter.

To further promote ''Tropical Night'', JO1 performed songs from the EP single at domestic and international events, such as KCON 2023 Thailand, Mezamashi TV 30th Anniversary Festival, KCON 2023 Japan, 29th Dream Concert, Lapone Entertainment's first joint concert, Laposta 2023, and 2023 Dream Concert in Japan. They also performed "Trigger" on television music specials, ''Venue101 Presents JO1 Request Live'' and ''Kamioto - Kamigata Song Festival''.

Commercial performance

''Tropical Night'' debuted at number one on Oricon Daily Singles Chart with 228,203 copies sold. The EP single became the group's seventh consecutive number-one on the weekly chart with 304,864 copies sold, making it their fourth single that passed 300,000 copies sold within the first week. ''Tropical Night'' also topped the ''Billboard Japan'' Top Singles Sales chart with 416,473 copies sold and was certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan for more than 500,000 copies in shipments. It eventually ranked at number ten and twelve at Oricon and ''Billboard Japan'' mid-year single sales chart of 2023, respectively.

Track listing

"Tiger" and "Comma" are common tracks 1 and 2 for all editions.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{JO1, state=expanded
JO1 EPs
2023 EPs
2023 singles
Oricon Weekly number-one singles
Billboard Japan Hot 100 number-one singles