"Beautiful" is a song recorded by South Korean boy group NCT 2021, the project of NCT under the management of

SM Entertainment SM Entertainment Co., Ltd. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1995 by Lee Soo-man. It is one of South Korea's largest entertainment companies and has been responsible for fostering and popularizing the car ...

. The song was served as the second single of NCT's third studio album ''

Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

'', and it was released on December 14, 2021, same day of the release of the album.

Composition and lyrics

"Beautiful" was composed and arranged by brothers Yoo Han-jin and

Yoo Young-jin Yoo Young-jin is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer and vocal trainer formerly under SM Entertainment. He has produced and written songs for H.O.T., S.E.S, BoA, Shinhwa, TVXQ, CSJH The Grace, Super Junior, Girls' Generatio ...

, who also took part in writing the song lyrics. Member Johhny wrote the intro lyrics of the song, while

Taeyong Lee Tae-yong (; born July 1, 1995), known mononymously as Taeyong (stylized in all caps), is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is a member and leader of South Korean boy band NCT under SM Entertainment, having debuted ...

Mark Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

, Hendery and Jeno took each of their own rap lyrics. It was recorded at

's recording studio, SM Booming System, and was produced by Yoo Young-jin, group's long-time frequent collaborator. The song was composed in the key of C# major, with a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 128 beats per minute. Described as a

pop ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner. Ballads ...

R&B song features some "electronic synths, pop strings, drums and piano", the lyrics talks about "expresses positive energy with a warm message to those having a hard time that they are all special in their own ways". Throughout the song, NCT wants listeners to "stop comparing themselves to others because they’re beautiful just the way they are".

Music video

The music video, which was directed by Kim Ki-hyun and Kim Hyun-soo, was released alongside the song by SM Entertainment on December 14. It "follows members of the boyband going through a day in their life, before gathering at the end to perform the track while it snows". The filming locations for the music video are the Noryangjin Baseball Stadium in

Noryangjin-dong Noryangjin-dong () is a '' dong'' (neighborhood) of Dongjak District, Seoul, South Korea. The district is known as the location of Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market, one of the largest wholesale seafood markets in the country. See also * Ad ...

Dongjak-gu Dongjak District () is one of the List of districts of Seoul, 25 districts that make up the city of Seoul, South Korea. Its name was derived from the Dongjaegi Naruteo Ferry, on the Han River (Korea), Han River which borders the district to t ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

; Incheon International Ferry Terminal and

Songdo International Business District Songdo (), officially known as Songdo International Business District (Songdo IBD), is a smart city built on of reclaimed land along Incheon's waterfront, southwest of Seoul, South Korea. It is connected to Incheon International Airport by a r ...

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

; Icheon Hyundai Apartment in

Yongsan-gu Yongsan District (, ) is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea. It has a population of 231,685 (2020) and has a geographic area of , and is divided into 19 '' dong'' (administrative neighborhoods). Yongsan is located near Downtown Seoul, ...

; Royal X in

Gyeonggi Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a provincial-level ''special city'' since 1946. Incheon, ...

; and

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Promotion

To promote the song, NCT performed it at the SM Town Live 2022: SMCU Express at Kwangya, with other songs from their sub-unit.

Credits

Credits adapted from album's liner notes. Studio * SM Booming System –

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 ...

, mixing, engineered for mix,

digital editing In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic d ...

* Sonic Korea – mastering Personnel *

–

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

Lee Soo-man Lee Soo-man (, born 18 June 1952) is a South Korean business executive and record producer who is best known for being the founder of SM Entertainment, a multinational entertainment company based in Seoul. He has also been referred to as the "p ...

– producer * Lee Sung-soo – production director, executive supervisor * Tak Young-jun – executive supervisor * NCT 2021 – vocals,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John (given name), John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly ...

– lyrics **

– lyrics ** Hendery – lyrics ** Jeno – lyrics *

– producer, lyrics,

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

arrangement 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 orchestr ...

, vocal directing, background vocals, recording, mixing, engineered for mix, digital editing, music and sound supervisor * Yoo Han-jin – producer, composition, arrangement * Jeon Hoon – mastering * Shin Soo-min – mastering assistant

Release history

References

{{authority control 2021 songs 2021 singles NCT (group) songs SM Entertainment singles Songs written by Yoo Young-jin