"Spicy" 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 ...

for their third extended play '' My World''. It was released as the EP's lead single 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 ...

on May 8, 2023.

Background and release

On February 16, 2023,

Lee Sung-soo Lee Sung-soo (; also spelled Lee Sung-su; born November 3, 1979) is a South Korean music production director and A&R executive. He is the chief A&R officer of SM Entertainment. He was formerly the CEO of SM Entertainment and SM Entertainment U ...

released a 30-minute video stating: "

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 ...

was the reason why Aespa's music has been delayed" and that the group was supposed to release new music on February 20. He added that Soo-man wanted to start "injecting environmentalist motifs of tree-planting and sustainability into songs", which were eventually later scrapped as they "did not fit the world of Aespa" and made the group "upset". On March 16, SM Entertainment announced that Aespa would release a record in early May. On April 17, it was announced that the group's third EP, ''My World'', containing six tracks, would be released on May 8. On April 24, the track listing was released via their official website with "Spicy" announced as the lead single. On May 6, a music video teaser was released. The song was released alongside the EP and its music video on May 8. On September 15, a remix version by Nitepunk was released.

Composition

"Spicy" was written by Bang Hye-hyun ( JamFactory), composed and arranged by Ludvig Evers (Moonshine), and Jonatan Gusmark (Moonshine), with Emily Yeonseo Kim, and Moa "Cazzi Opeia" Carlebecker participating in the composition, and Jinbyjin participating in the arrangement. It was described as an "

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

, and

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 ...

song characterized by "intense synth-bass sound nddynamic beat rhythm". "Spicy" was composed in the key of

B minor B minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative major is D major and its parallel major is B major. The B natural minor scale is: Changes need ...

, 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 115 beats per minute.

Music video

The music video, directed by 725 of SL8 Visual Lab, was released alongside the song on May 8. It portrays Aespa as high school students, with scenes depicting them getting ready for to throw a party and exploring the city.

Commercial performance

"Spicy" debuted at number six on South Korea's

Circle Digital Chart The Circle Digital Chart, previously known as the Gaon Digital Chart, is the music industry standard record chart ranking the 200 most popular singles in South Korea. It provides rankings on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, which is based on ...

in the chart dated May 7–13, 2023. It ascended to number two in the chart dated May 21–27. In Japan, the song debuted at number 71 on the ''Billboard Japan'' Hot 100 on May 17, ascending to number 64. On the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

Streaming Chart, it debuted at number 48 on May 22, ascending to number 43 the following week. In Singapore, the song debuted at number 22 on the RIAS Top Streaming Chart in the chart dated May 12–18. It also debuted at number 17 on the RIAS Top Regional Chart in the chart dated May 5–11. In Vietnam, it debuted at number 27 on the ''Billboard Vietnam'' Hot 100 on May 18. In Hong Kong, it debuted at number 24 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hong Kong Songs The Hong Kong Songs is a record chart that ranks the best-performing songs in Hong Kong since February 2022. Published by ''Billboard'' magazine, the data are compiled by MRC Data based collectively on each single's weekly digital streaming and d ...

on May 27. In Taiwan, the song debuted at number 14 on the ''Billboard'' Taiwan Songs on May 27. In the United States, the song debuted at number six on the ''

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 ...

on August 26. In New Zealand, it debuted at number 34 on the

RMNZ Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded Mus ...

Hot Singles on May 15. Globally, the song debuted at number 160 on the ''Billboard''

Global 200 The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF), the global conservation organization, as priorities for conservation. According to WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a "relatively large unit of land or w ...

, and number 77 on the ''Billboard'' Global Excl. U.S on May 20. It ascended to number 70 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200, and number 42 on the ''Billboard'' Global Excl. U.S in the following week.

Promotion

Prior to the release of ''My World'', on May 8, 2023, Aespa held a live event called "Aespa 'My World' Countdown Live" 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 ...

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, and IdolPlus to introduce the album and its songs, including "Spicy", and to communicate with their fans. The group subsequently performed on four music programs in the first week:

Mnet M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

's ''

M Countdown ''M Countdown'' () is a South Korean music program broadcast by Mnet from the CJ E&M Center Studio in Sangam-dong, Mapo District, Seoul. It features appearances by popular music artists who also perform live on stage. First hosted by Leeteuk ...

'' on May 11, 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 May 12, MBC's ''

Show! Music Core ''Show! Music Core'' (), or simply ''Music Core'' is a South Korean music television program broadcast by MBC. It airs live every Saturday at 15:30 (KST). The show features some of the latest and most popular artists who perform live on stage. I ...

'' on May 13, 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 May 14. On the second and final week of promotion, they performed four music programs: ''M Countdown'' on May 18, ''Music Bank'' on May 19, ''Show! Music Core'' on May 20, and ''Inkigayo'' on May 21, where they won first place for all appearances.

Track listing

* Digital download / streaming – Original # "Spicy" – 3:17 * Digital download / streaming – Remixes # "Spicy" (Nitepunk remix) – 3:10

Accolades

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

'' included "Spicy" in their list of the 15 K-Pop Songs That Took 2023 By Storm.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from EP's liner notes. 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 ...

* SM Starlight Studio – recording, digital editing * SM Blue Ocean Studio – mixing * 821 Sound – 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 ...

– vocals, background vocals * Bang Hye-hyun – lyrics * Jonatan Gusmark (Moonshine) –

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 ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

* Ludvig Evers (Moonshine) – composition, arrangement, synthesizer, programming * Moa "Cazzi Opeia" Carlebecker – composition, background vocals * Emily Yeonseo Kim – composition, vocal directing, background vocals * Jinbyjin – arrangement,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

, synthesizer, programming * Lee Min-kyu – recording, digital editing * Jeong Yu-ra – recording, digital editing * Kim Cheol-sun – mixing * Kwon Nam-woo – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Aespa Aespa songs 2023 songs 2023 singles Songs in Korean SM Entertainment singles Songs written by Cazzi Opeia South Korean synth-pop songs South Korean pop songs Dance music songs