"Tonight" ( Korean: 투나잇) is a song by South Korean boy band BigBang released on February 24, 2011, through

YG Entertainment YG Entertainment () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment agency established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and conce ...

as the only single from the quintet's fourth

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

of the same name after a two-year hiatus. It was also the group's first Korean-language single since " Sunset Glow" in 2008. Written by members

G-Dragon Kwon Ji-yong (; born August 18, 1988), best known as G-Dragon (), is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur, known as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of K-pop". Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, G-Drag ...

and T.O.P, the song peaked at number one on the

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 ...

, and become one of the best-performing singles of 2011 in their home country.

Background and composition

Following a two-year hiatus where members explored and experimented with different sounds, BigBang returned to South Korea with their 2011 Big Show concert, showcasing songs from the then-unreleased EP. Though the group's previous extended plays contained songs that were heavily influenced by

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

, they opted to concentrate more on "warm rock music" for new materials. Released as the lead single, "Tonight" contained a "sophisticated electronic sound" paired with acoustic guitar. The song is "clearly grounded in

dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, 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 ra ...

" a genre the quintet is known for. The track is built over "fist-pumping beats and applause", features "heavily autotuned vocals" and concludes "with sudden silence and then picking up again as if returning for an encore."

Reception

''Billboard'' noted how "Tonight" was "more nuanced and sophisticated than many of ig Bang'sprevious club anthems," and hailed it "four-minute sonic journey" to one of the group's concerts. The magazine ranked it number ten on their list of BigBang's must-listen songs. ''KpopStarz'' choose it as one of BigBang's definite songs, while ''

Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers ...

'' named it one of the group's ten best songs, calling the single a "slick party anthem". "Tonight" debuted at number two on South Korea's

, at number one on the Download Chart and five on the Streaming Chart. On its second week, the single rose to a peak position atop the Digital and the Streaming charts, while remaining at number one on the Download Chart. Additionally, the single topped the Gaon BGM Chart upon release. By the end of 2011, "Tonight" was the eighth best-performing single of the year in South Korea, with over 2.3 million downloads sold. With over 23 million streams, the song was the tenth most streamed of 2011.

Accolades

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

References

External links

* {{Big Bang singles BigBang (South Korean band) songs YG Entertainment singles Songs in Korean Songs written by G-Dragon Songs written by T.O.P Gaon Digital Chart number-one singles 2011 singles 2011 songs South Korean dance-pop songs