"Imaginary Friend" is a song recorded by South Korean girl group

Itzy Itzy (; Japanese language, Japanese: イッチ; stylized in all caps) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group consists of five members: Yeji (singer), Yeji, Lia (South Korean singer), Lia, Ryujin (rapper), Ryujin, Chae ...

for their ninth extended play ''

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

''. It was released as the EP's second single by

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 ...

on October 15, 2024.

Background and release

On July 9, 2024, JYP Entertainment announced that Itzy would be releasing a new record in October 2024. On September 13, the agency confirmed that the group's ninth extended play ''Gold'' would be released on October 15. The track listing and promotional schedule were also released on the same day, with "

" and "Imaginary Friend" announced as the lead singles. On October 7, together with five tracks from the EP, the preview for "Imaginary Friend" was released. The song was released alongside the extended play on October 15. The music video teasers for "Imaginary Friend" were later released on October 23 and 25. The English version of the song was released on October 25. On October 28, the music video was released.

Composition

"Imaginary Friend" was produced by Ryan S. Jhun alongside James Daniel Lewis who contributed to the composition and arrangement, with Sorana Pacurar participating in the composition, and Jun Seo and Hwan Yang participating in the arrangement. It was described as a

pop-dance Dance-pop is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developi ...

song that combines vintage pop guitar, acoustic band sound, and vocal harmonies with mellow tones.

Promotion

Following two weeks of promotion for "Gold" on music programs, promotion for "Imaginary Friend" began. Itzy performed on two music programs in the first week of promotion: KBS's ''

Music Bank ''Music Bank'' () is a South Korean music program which airs every Friday at 17:15 KST on KBS2. the show is also broadcast in more than a hundred countries through KBS World. Episodes are filmed at the KBS New Wing Open Hall in Yeouido-dong, Ye ...

'' on November 1, and SBS's ''

Inkigayo ''Inkigayo'' (; English title: ''The Music Trend'', previously ''Popular Song'') is a South Korean music program broadcast by SBS. It airs live every Sunday. The show features some of the latest and most popular artists who perform on stage. ...

'' on November 3.

Credits and personnel

Credits 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 * JYPE 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 ...

* 821 Sound – digital editing * Alawn Music Studios – mixing Personnel *

– vocals * Perrie – background vocals * Sorana Pacurar – background vocals,

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 ...

* Ryan S. Jhun – lyrics, composition,

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, programming * James Daniel Lewis – composition, arrangement, programming * Jun Seo – arrangement, programming * Hwan Yang – arrangement, programming * Uhm Se-hee – recording * Im Chan-mi – recording, digital editing * Kwak Bo-eun – recording * Yue – digital editing * Kim Min-hee – digital editing * Alawn – mixing

Release history

References

{{Itzy Itzy songs 2024 songs 2024 singles Songs in Korean JYP Entertainment singles Republic Records singles