''Aboutzu'' (stylized as ''abouTZU'') is the debut

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) by

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese singer

Tzuyu Chou Tzu-yu ( zh, t=周子瑜, p=Zhōu Zǐyú; born June 14, 1999), known mononymously as Tzuyu (, ), is a Taiwanese singer based in South Korea. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. Tzu ...

of the girl group

Twice Twice (; Japanese language, Japanese: トゥワイス, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ''Tuwaisu''; commonly stylized in all caps) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon ...

. It was released on September 6, 2024, through

JYP Entertainment JYP Entertainment Corporation () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1997 by Park Jin-young, J. Y. Park. Operating as a record label, talent ...

and

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

. The EP contains six tracks, including the lead single "Run Away" and collaborations with Peniel of

BtoB B2B, B to B, or B-to-B may refer to: Sports * B2B, a controversial and short lived class in the 1979 Sidecar World Championship * Bay to Breakers, an annual footrace in San Francisco, California on the third Sunday of May * Budapest-Bamako, now t ...

and rapper pH-1.

Background

In 2023, the decision was made that Tzuyu would debut as a soloist, with recording and production beginning in February 2024. On August 2, 2024, JYP Entertainment released an opening trailer for ''Aboutzu'' to publicly announce Tzuyu's solo debut. Throughout August and early September, various teasers and other promotional content were distributed in anticipation of the EP's release on September 6. The official music video for the lead single "Run Away" came out on the same day as the EP. In an interview with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', also published on September 6, Tzuyu explained that she has long had the desire to release her own album and that she hopes listeners will learn more about her true personality through her music. Tzuyu was the third member of Twice to launch a solo music career, following

Nayeon Im Na-yeon (; born September 22, 1995), known mononymously as Nayeon, is a South Korean singer. She rose to prominence as a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, created by JYP Entertainment through the reality television show ''Sixteen ...

in 2022 and

Jihyo Park Ji-hyo (; born Park Ji-soo, 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. Jihyo released her debut exten ...

in 2023.

Title

The title ''Aboutzu'' is a combination of the English word "about" and the first three letters of the singer's name Tzuyu, symbolizing that the EP reflects all aspects of herself. The text "abouTZU" on the EP's cover art can also be read as "chouTZU" to represent her full name Chou Tzuyu.

Composition

The lead single "Run Away" is a

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

and

disco-pop Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes ...

song composed by Andrea Rosario, Elsa Curran, Davin Kingston, and Johnny Simpson, with lyrics written by

Park Jin-young Park Jin-young (; born December 13, 1971), also known by his stage names J. Y. Park and The Asiansoul or the initials JYP, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer, record executive, and reality television show judge. Park rose to s ...

. Pyo Kyung-min of ''

The Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' () is a daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the ''Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language, Korean-language daily. It is the oldest active daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. ...

'', reporting from a pre-release press conference, said that the song "features nostalgia-evoking piano melodies in the intro and a bold synth bass for the chorus, evoking a sound reminiscent of the late 2000s to mid-2010s". Next on the track list are collaborations with Peniel of

in "Heartbreak in Heaven" and rapper pH-1 in "Lazy Baby", before the EP continues with the solo tracks "Losing Sleep" and "One Love". Tzuyu wrote the lyrics for the final song "Fly", a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

that tells her own story.

Commercial performance

Pre-order sales of ''Aboutzu'' reportedly reached 467,500 copies worldwide. In South Korea, the EP debuted at number 3 on the

Circle Album Chart The Circle Album Chart, previously known as the Gaon Album Chart, is a record chart ranking the 100 most popular albums, extended plays and single albums in South Koreabased on their Record sales, physical sales. It is a part of the Circle Chart, ...

for the week ending September 7, with 284,844 copies sold. In the United States, the EP debuted at number 19 on the ''Billboard'' 200 for the chart dated September 21, with 24,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s, including 22,000 physical album sales as reported by the music data tracking firm Luminate.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from album liner notes. Musicians * Tzuyu – lead vocals * Sophia Pae – background vocals * Johnny Simpson – piano, keyboard, programming (track 1) * Davin Kingston – piano, keyboard (track 1) * Peniel – featured vocals (track 2) * Lostboy – keyboards, programming, guitars, bass, drums (track 2) * Marky Style –

instrumentation Instrumentation is a collective term for measuring instruments, used for indicating, measuring, and recording physical quantities. It is also a field of study about the art and science about making measurement instruments, involving the related ...

(track 3) * Shayon Daniels – instrumentation (track 3) * Nicci Funicelli – instrumentation (track 3) * pH-1 – featured vocals, background vocals (track 3) * Tre Jean-Marie – drums, bass, programming, synthesizer (track 4) * George Tizzard – guitar, drums, keyboard (track 5) * Rick Parkhouse – bass, programming, piano (track 5) * pdly – programming (track 6) * Kim Woo-sang – programming, piano (track 6) * Shiry – guitar (track 6) Technical * Sophia Pae – vocal directing for Tzuyu * Lee Kyung-won – digital editing (track 1) * Seo Eun-il –

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, re ...

(track 1) * Im Chan-mi – recording (track 1) * Lee Tae-seop – mixing (track 1) * Kwon Nam-woo – mastering * Shin Bong-won –

Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels as well as free-moving sound objects, interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horiz ...

mixing * Park Nam-joon – digital editing (tracks 4–6), Dolby Atmos mixing assistance * Lee Seon-yu – vocal directing for Peniel (track 2) * Gu Hye-jin – digital editing (track 2), recording for Tzuyu (tracks 2, 4–5) * Kim Dong-il – recording for Peniel (track 2) * Park Eun-jeong – mixing (track 2) * Im Chan-mi – recording (tracks 1, 4, 6) * Lee Sang-yeop – digital editing, recording for Tzuyu (tracks 3, 5) * pH-1 – recording for pH-1 (track 3) * Choi Hye-jin – mixing (track 3) * Eom Se-hee – mixing (track 4) * Im Hong-jin – mixing (tracks 5–6)

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{reflist JYP Entertainment EPs Republic Records EPs Korean-language EPs 2024 debut EPs 2020s Korean-language albums