"Forever" () is a song recorded by South Korean girl group

Aespa Aespa ( ; , stylized in Letter case#All lowercase, all lowercase or as æspa) is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group consists of four members: Karina (South Korean singer), Karina, Giselle (singer), Giselle, Winter ...

. Originally released as the group's second digital single on February 5, 2021, by

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 ...

, it was later included on the group's second extended play ''

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. ''daughter'' or ''girlfriend'' regardless of age, ...

'', released on July 8, 2022. A remake of the song of the same name by

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 ...

as a part of SM's holiday album ''Winter Vacation in SMTown.com'' in 2000, "Forever" is a mid-tempo R&B

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 ...

with an

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

sound and warm lyrics about promising forever to a loved one. An accompanying music video for the song was published simultaneously with the single's release. The winter-inspired video follows Aespa in a winter wonderland in a snow globe with snow falling outside. The song debuted at number eleven on the US

World Digital Song Sales The World Digital Song Sales chart (formerly World Digital Songs) is a weekly record chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Established in 2010—its first issue was dated January 23—as one of 21 genre-speci ...

chart, becoming their second entry overall and received generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

Background and release

On January 29, 2021, SM Entertainment announced Aespa would be making a comeback with "Forever", which is a remake of a single by

, released for SM Entertainment's holiday album ''Winter Vacation in SMTown.com'' in 2000. On February 1, 2021, concept photos were released for Karina and Ningning. The following day, concept photos were released for Winter and Giselle. "Forever" was released for

digital download Digital download may refer to: *Downloading, the processing of copying data to a computer from an external source *Digital distribution, a method of downloading software or audio-visual media as opposed to buying it at a traditional point of sale * ...

and

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

as a digital

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on February 5, 2021, by

Composition

"Forever" was written and composed by

while production was handled by

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 ...

. The song has been described as a mid-tempo R&B

with an

sound and

string instruments In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...

playing in the background. In terms of

musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...

, the song is composed in the key of

D-flat major D-flat major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B and C. Its key signature has five flats. The D-flat major scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in w ...

, 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 184 beats per minute. At four minutes and fifty-eight seconds long, it is the longest song in Aespa's catalogue. Lyrically, it tells the story of a wintry romance and promising forever to a loved one. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' described it as "departure from both the image and sound" Aespa presented in their previous single "

Black Mamba The black mamba (''Dendroaspis polylepis'') is a species of highly venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. It is native to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. First formally species description, described by Albert Günther in 1864, it is ...

Critical reception

"Forever" received generally favorable reviews from

. In a three-star review of "Forever", ''

''s Ruby C said that the quartet added a "feminine touch" to their rendition. "The remake manages to do justice to the original, and may even be a little more believable, thanks to Aespa's sweet, girlish charms", she added. Writing for ''Hypebae'', Ye-eun Kim described "Forever" as a "fresh, love-themed track" that shows a "completely different side of the virtual hybrid K-pop group". Irene Chou of ''

The Brown Daily Herald ''The Brown Daily Herald'' is the student newspaper of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Established in 1866 and published daily since 1891, The ''Herald'' is the second-oldest student newspaper among America's college dailies. It ...

'' called it "a soft ballad's late-winter feel" and praised the group's "impressive" vocals atop the "flawless execution of eye-catching choreography".

Music video and promotion

In the lead-up to the release of "Forever", the group released photo and video teasers for the track, which served as a promotional tool for their return. An accompanying music video was uploaded to SM Entertainment's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on February 5, 2021, and has accumulated more than 46 million views on the platform. The video was directed by the production company Sunnyvisual. Portrayed in a winter style, the visual depicts Aespa in a winter wonderland in a snow globe with snow falling outside. In one scene, the ae versions of the group are looking at their human versions from outside the snowglobe. On February 6, 2021, Aespa released the "Cozy Winter Cabin" version performance video. In the video, the Aespa members are sitting in a cozy cabin as the snow falls outside. On February 8, the "Glitter Snowball" version was released. On February 10 the group released the "Romantic Street" version. During the group's attendance at the Second World Cultural Industry Forum (WCIF), Aespa performed the single along with "

" and " Next Level" on a stage combing AR and XR technologies.

Track listing

* Digital download / streaming # "Forever" () – 4:58

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from

Melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to ''Cucumis melo'', commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the p ...

. Studio * SM Big Shot Studio –

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 ...

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 ...

, engineered for mix, mixing * Studio-T – recording * Sonic Korea – mastering Personnel *

– vocals, background vocals *

– lyrics, background vocals, recording, digital editing, composition, arrangement, music and sound supervisor, directing, mixing engineer, mixing * Sam Lee – bass, guitar * K Strings – strings * Shim Sang-won –strings arrangement, conducting * Oh Seung-geun – recording * Oh Se-young – recording assistant * Cheon Hoon – mastering * Shin Soo-min – mastering assistant

Charts

Release history

References

{{Aespa 2021 songs SM Entertainment singles Songs in Korean Aespa songs Songs written by Yoo Young-jin