Nobody (Wonder Girls song)
"Nobody" is a song performed by South Korean girl group Wonder Girls, from their first EP, . It was released as a digital download single on September 22, 2008 in South Korea. The song was written and produced by Park Jin-young and features a sample from the Italian trio La La's "Johnny Johnny." It immediately rose to prominence, becoming a top search term and ranking number one on various digital music sites. The song was recorded and released in four different languages: Korean, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese.
A live performance video of "Nobody" at M! Countdown was for some period of time the most viewed K-pop video on YouTube, until being surpassed on September 1, 2011 by the music video for "Gee" by Girls' Generation. The live performance was also the first K-pop video to reach 50 million views on YouTube. Billboard ranked the song #43 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.
Background and release
The single became very successful in the countries where it was released, entering charts in South Korea, China, and the United States.South Korea
The song first appeared on their first mini-album , including a remix and instrumental versions. The single became a smash hit on all Korean charts, and sold 4,648,973 digital downloads in South Korea alone.North America
The group's official Myspace stated that an English version of "Nobody" would be released in the United States sometime in 2009, serving as their debut single there, with JYP Entertainment confirming the release in June 2009. "Nobody" was released to iTunes on June 26, 2009 and to Amazon MP3 a day later. Wonder Girls have set up an official YouTube account and it includes the English version of music video itself.On the October 31, 2009 issue of Billboard Hot 100, the single debuted at number 76. Wonder Girls became the first South Korean group to enter the chart. By February 2012, the single had sold in excess of 120,000 copies in the United States of both digital and physical copies combined. The single became the best-selling physical single of the year in the United States, and topped the Year-End Chart of the Billboard Hot Single Sales which indicates the official physical singles chart. "Nobody" had sold over 78,000 downloads in the United States.
China
In 2010, Wonder Girls entered the Chinese market with the Chinese/Taiwan Special Edition, a greatest hits album containing thirteen of the group's biggest songs since debut. In addition to their hit songs, Chinese versions of "Tell Me", "Nobody", and "So Hot" were on the album. The compilation included DVD with three music videos: "Tell Me", "Nobody" and "So Hot".At the 2011 China Mobile Wireless Music Awards, Wonder Girls were awarded the "Top Gross Selling Digital Downloads" award in the foreign group category for 5,371,903 downloads sold of the singles "Nobody", "Tell Me" and "2 Different Tears".
Japan
In May 2012, Wonder Girls announced their official debut into the Japanese market with DefStar Records with a Japanese version of Nobody, "Nobody ～あなたしか見えない～", in a Japanese debut EP/DVD titled Nobody for Everybody, released on July 25, 2012. EP contained Japanese versions of their songs, while DVD included their music videos and live performances.Remixes
Various remixes of "Nobody" were produced for various award shows and end-of-year specials. At the 2008 M.Net KM Music Festival, the Wonder Girls performed a tango version and a disco version of "Nobody". The rest of the remixes debuted at the 2008 Golden Disk Awards, which showcased each Wonder Girl performing a short clip of a unique "Nobody" remix. On October 11, 2009, the official American remix of the song was released. The remix was done by famous American DJ Jason Nevins.Plagiarism and lawsuits
In March 2009, it was reported that both JYP Entertainment and Sony/ATV Music Publishing would be taking legal action against other Asian musical groups who had adopted or covered "Nobody" illegally. JYP Entertainment stated that groups and actresses in the People's Republic of China and Cambodia had been "recklessly copying" the group's songs, dances, and costumes.Promotion
South Korea
The Wonder Girls had their official comeback on the weekend of September 26–28, 2008, performing on KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Music Core, and SBS's 인기가요. At the end of October, the group briefly used the "Rainstone Remix" of the song. On 8 August 2015, they reprised this song with instrumental version in conjunction with their 2015 comeback as a 4 members band group at You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook.United States
For their American live television debut, they performed "Nobody" on The Wendy Williams Show, a FOX morning talk show. They also performed on a result show of FOX's So You Think You Can Dance.In 2014, "Nobody" was used in the film Penguins of Madagascar.
Japan
The first live performance of the Japanese version of Nobody was at the GirlsAward 2012 Spring/Summer by Crooz event in Tokyo. Wonder Girls were the only Korean group to be invited at the event as one of the performing artists, aside from opening act, Code-V.Music video
Korean and English
The music video begins with Park Jin-Young performing a Motown-style concert with the Wonder Girls as his backup singers. After the show, a couple of record executives give Park sheet lyrics to the song "Nobody", which he prepares to debut on his next show during the 1960s. Minutes before his show begins, Park is in the men's restroom using a toilet stall when he realizes that there is no toilet paper available. As he frantically calls for help, everyone on stage begins to wonder where he is as the show starts. The executives then motion the Wonder Girls to bring their microphone stands forward and take center stage. At the end of their performance, Park finally appears on stage to congratulate the group for their performance. While the song plays, the video becomes a montage of the group's career progressing to superstardom. At the end of the video, Park enters another toilet stall and sees that there is toilet paper available. Unfortunately for him, he pulls the last sheet off the dispenser and once again has to call for help.Japanese
The PV begins with Sohee holding a newspaper The New York Lines with the "wonderful" Wonder Girls as the front cover and an article titled "Nobody, the worldwide hit". Sohee in white shades folds the newspaper. Then, it reveals that the Wonder Girls are in an airplane. The screen pans from left to right, showing the members in neon dresses: Sunye in green, Hyelim in blue, Yoobin in orange, Yeeun in yellow, and Sohee in pink. As the airplane side slides down, the member walk out from the stairs to be greeted by paparazzi. The girls walk past the paparazzi forward to a stage. The back of the stage slides closed. Yoobin begins with "it'll never change" and the song begins with the girls dancing with their microphone stands. After Sohee's second verse and during Yeeun's chorus, it pans out to show a black-and-white TV showing the Nobody music video. A family is watching and dancing to Nobody in one room and switches to another room with two ladies dancing along. The TV is zoomed in to see the girls in changed dresses and hairstyles. The girls are in upgraded golden dresses similar to the ones in their 2008 version. The stage changed to have a live band, a pianist to the left, and four background singers to the right. The song continues with Yeeun and Sunye sharing the chorus leading to Yeeun's high note, then Sunye's ad libs. The song ends with Yoobin's rap and a pose with the microphones.Track listing
;Korean EP;US digital download
- "Nobody "
- "Nobody"
- "Nobody"
- "Nobody"
- "Nobody"