Superhuman () is a song recorded by South Korean boy band

NCT 127 NCT 127 () is the first fixed and second overall sub-unit of the South Korean boy band NCT (group), NCT, formed and managed by SM Entertainment. They originally debuted on July 7, 2016, with their debut extended play ''NCT 127 (EP), NCT#127'', ...

, the Seoul-based sub-unit of SM Entertainment's unlimited boy band NCT. It was released on May 24, 2019, 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 ...

as the lead single from the group's fourth extended play, ''

We Are Superhuman ''We Are Superhuman'' (stylized in all caps as ''NCT #127 WE ARE SUPERHUMAN'') is the fourth Korean extended play (fifth overall) by South Korean boy band NCT 127. Originally confirmed concurrently during the release of their first Japanese st ...

''. The song's music video was one of the group's most viewed online video within 24 hours of release at the time, with 3.1 million views.

Background and release

On April 18, 2019, NCT 127 released a statement on the group's official

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

accounts simultaneously, announcing that their fourth extended play, We Are Superhuman, would be released on May 24, 2019. The initial teaser image that was released only included nine members of the ten-member group: Taeil, Johnny,

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 ...

, Yuta,

Doyoung Kim Dong-young (; born February 1, 1996), known professionally as Doyoung (), is a South Korean singer, actor, and host. He is a member of the South Korean boy band NCT (group), NCT through the sub-units NCT 127 and NCT DoJaeJung. Doyoung wa ...

Jaehyun Jeong Yun-o (; born Jeong Jae-hyun, February 14, 1997), known professionally as Jaehyun, is a South Korean singer. He is a member of the South Korean boy band NCT and its sub-units NCT 127 and NCT DoJaeJung. He made his solo debut on August ...

, Jungwoo,

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, and

Haechan Lee Dong-hyeok (; born June 6, 2000), known professionally as Haechan (), is a South Korean singer. He is a member of South Korean boy band NCT and its subunit NCT U alongside its fixed subunits NCT 127 and NCT Dream. Early life Haechan was ...

. Later that same day, it was announced that WinWin would not participate in this comeback, due to the fact that he was preparing to debut with

WayV WayV ( zh, s=威神V, hp=WēiShén V; ; an acronym for We are your Vision) is a Chinese boy band and the fourth overall sub-unit of the South Korean boy band NCT (group), NCT, managed by SM Entertainment, SM's Chinese sub-label, Label V. The gr ...

, NCT's Chinese sub-unit.

Promotion

A 30-second teaser for the music video was released on May 22, 2019, and featured close up shots of all the members as well as scenes from the music video itself. The official music video was released on YouTube two days later on May 24, 2019, at 12 AM KST. The group performed the song for the first time live on April 18, 2019, as the musical guests on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'' (making them only the third K-Pop group to perform on the show) and also performed it on an episode of ''

The Late Late Show with James Corden ''The Late Late Show with James Corden'' (also known simply as ''Late Late'') is an American late-night talk show that aired on CBS from 2015 to 2023. It is the fourth and final iteration of '' The Late Late Show'', and aired in the United Sta ...

'' that aired on May 14, 2019. NCT 127 started their Korean promotions for the single on May 24, 2019, on ''

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 ...

''. Additionally, they performed Superhuman on the ''

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 ...

'', ''

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. ...

'', and ''The Show''.

Composition

The song was written and produced by Korean producers TAK and 1Take, known for their hard-hitting, sledgehammer synths with a glitchy electro-dance base, and LA-based composer Adrian McKinnon, who has previously written songs for other SM Entertainment artists including:

SHINee Shinee ( ; ; ; stylized as SHINee) is a South Korean boy band formed by SM Entertainment in 2008. The group consists of four members: Onew, Key (entertainer), Key, Choi Min-ho, Minho, and Taemin. Originally a five-piece band, Jonghyun died on ...

EXO Exo (; stylized in all caps) is a South Korean-Chinese boy band based in Seoul formed by SM Entertainment in 2011 and debuted in 2012. The group consists of nine members: Xiumin, Suho, Lay Zhang, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen (singer), Chen, Chanyeol, ...

, and

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. Park Sung Hee, Lee Suran, JQ, Ameli, and Rick Bridges were responsible for the lyrics.

Critical reception

According to ''Billboard'''s Tamar Herman, "Superhuman" is a "vibrant"

complextro Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music and a subgenre of house music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 125–135 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including B ...

and

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

-oriented

electropop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...

track with a powerful, declarative chorus. ''

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

s Crystal Bell, describes the single as a "nu-disco song that pulsates with energy, from the isolated harmonies that open and close the track -- an old SM Entertainment flourish that groups like TVXQ, Shinhwa, and SHINee, have all employed -- to the ever-changing synths that progress with such vigor, and the deep, dirty groove that hammers into your soul. The track is shining, shimmering splendor, and the futuristic visual crackles with the same intensity."

Chart performance

"Superhuman" debuted at number 117 on

Gaon 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 ...

. Also, the song debuted at number 3 on the World Digital Song Sales chart, with one thousand downloads sold, becoming the group's seventh top-ten song on the chart.

Accolades

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Studio * SM LVYIN Studio (

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 ...

) –

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Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

operating,

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 * SM Big Shot Studio (Seoul) – recording * MonoTree Studio (Seoul) – recording * Jungle City Studios (

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) – recording * SM Booming System (Seoul) – digital editing * SM Concert Hall Studio (Seoul) –

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

, mixing * Sterling Sound (New York) – 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 *

– vocals * Park Sung-hee – lyrics *

Lee Seu-ran Lee may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lee'' (2007 film), Tamil-language sports action film * ''Lee'' (2017 film), Kannada-language action film * ''Lee'' (2023 film), biographical drama about Lee Miller, American photojournalist * ''L ...

– lyrics * JQ – lyrics * Ameli – lyrics * Rick Bridges – lyrics * TAK – producer,

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 ...

* Adrian McKinnon – composition,

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 ...

* 1Take – composition *

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 ...

– arrangement, digital editing, music and sound supervisor * GDLO – vocal directing, Pro Tools operating * Byun Jang-moon – background vocals * Lee Ji-hong – recording, Pro Tools operating, digital editing, engineered for mix * Lee Min-kyu – recording * Kang Sun-young – recording * Brendan Morawski – recording * Nam Koong-jin – vocoder, mixing *

Joe LaPorta Joseph J. LaPorta (born January 19, 1980) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey. Career LaPorta was born in New York and grew up there; he graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in ...

– mastering

Charts

References

{{NCT 127 2019 singles 2019 songs NCT 127 songs SM Entertainment singles Capitol Records singles