''Lay 02 Sheep'' is the first

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by Chinese rapper

Lay Zhang Zhang Yixing (born Zhang Jiashuai ; ), known professionally as Lay Zhang or simply Lay, is a Chinese singer and actor. After participating in the Chinese talent show ''Star Academy'' in 2005, he became a member of the South Korean-Chinese boy ...

. It was released on October 7, 2017 in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

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 ...

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 album features ten tracks in total, including the two singles " I Need U" and "

Sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

Background and release

On September 21, Lay and S.M. Entertainment released teaser images for the album on different social media platforms. On September 25, the single "I Need U" was released as Lay's gift to his grandparents' on their 50th wedding anniversary. On September 27, it was confirmed by S.M. Entertainment that Lay will be releasing his second album ''Lay 02 Sheep'' on October 7, 2017. Lay was a producer and personally executed the composition, arrangement and lyrics writing of all the songs as well as the directing of the music videos. On October 6, 2017 S.M. Entertainment released a teaser for the music video of "Sheep". ''Lay 02 Sheep'' was officially released on October 7 (Lay's birthday) through online stores.

Singles

The music video for "I Need U" ranked #1 on Billboard's

Weibo Live Chart. In 12 hours, it hit more than 26 million views online, consecutively being the major 3 music chart's winner. "I Need U" charted in 17 countries and ranked #1 on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

in 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Portugal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Hong Kong, China and more.

Promotion

On October 7, Lay performed a flash mob of "Sheep" in

Sanlitun Sanlitun () is an area of the Chaoyang District, Beijing containing many bars, restaurants, and stores. It is a popular destination for shopping, dining, and entertainment. The area has been under almost constant regeneration since the late 2 ...

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 ...

. The album premiere, "2017 Zhang Yixing Showcase" was held at the

Beijing National Aquatics Center The Water Cube (水立方), fully a.k.a. the National Aquatics Centre (), is a swimming center at the Olympic Green in Chaoyang, Beijing, Chaoyang, Beijing, China. The Water Cube was originally constructed to host the aquatics competitions at ...

on October 12. On October 21, Lay kickstarted the first stop of his "Lay 02 Sheep Signing Promo" at Hongqiao Art Centre, Shanghai. The second wing of his "Lay 02 Sheep Signing Promo" continued at Shenzhen on October 29. On November 5, the "Lay 02 Sheep Signing Promo" was wrapped up at Changsha, Hunan. He subsequently performed the song at the reality talent show, ''The Next Season 2'' on

Dragon TV Shanghai Dragon Television or Dragon TV (), commonly nicknamed the Tomato Channel () based on its logo, is a provincial satellite TV station. It launched in October 1998 as " Shanghai Television" but changed its name to Dragon Television on Octob ...

which he guested''.'' On December 31, Lay performed "Sheep", "Boss" and "Mask" on Hunan TV's Year End Concert.

Commercial performance

On its first day of digital sales, the album broke 5 records on

QQ Music QQ Music () is one of three Chinese freemium music streaming services owned by Tencent Music, a joint venture between Tencent and Spotify, now majority owned by Tencent. , the service is set to reach over 700 million users with an estimated 120 ...

: Gold (¥250,000 in 30 seconds), Double Gold (¥500,000 in 45 seconds), Triple Gold (¥750,000 in 52 seconds), Platinum (¥1 million in 1 minute 10 seconds) and Diamond Record (¥5 million in 9 hours 11 minutes). The album later broke a Double Diamond (¥70 million) record on May 3, 2018. The album entered iTunes Worldwide at #9, being the first Chinese singer to enter iTunes Worldwide Top 10 Albums list. Within 2 hours, the album ranked #1 on iTunes in 10 countries including Japan, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and more.

Billboard China ''Billboard'' China () was a Chinese online music magazine founded by Vision Media Group on September 5, 2016. It served as the Chinese version of ''Billboard'', also featuring independent coverage of both Chinese and international music conte ...

ranked the lead song, "Sheep" at #2 on the Top 10 Chinese Songs of 2017.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales

Release history

Awards

References

External links

"I Need U" music video
on

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 ...

"Sheep" music video
on YouTube {{Authority control 2017 debut albums SM Entertainment albums Lay Zhang albums 2017 in Chinese music