"Umpah Umpah" is a song recorded by South Koreangirl groupRed Velvet for their seventh Koreanextended play', which acts as the second installment of ' trilogy. The song, alongside its vacation-themed music video, was released on August 20, 2019 as the lead single from Day 2, and subsequently the second single from the group's trilogy. Written by lyricist Jeon Gan-di and composed by Christoffer Lauridsen, Andreas Öberg and Allison Kaplan, "Umpah Umpah" is described as "an uptempo dance song with disco house rhythms", combined with the group's "lovely and cool vocals double the freshness". The lyrics, which have a swimming motif, tell someone who fell in love with the eyes and charms of the girls how to "breathe normally", using the phrase "umpah umpah" as if their love interest was to breathe while learning how to swim. Upon its release, "Umpah Umpah" received positive reviews from music critics for its bright, upbeat sound while some felt it was a "safe" return to the public-friendly sound of the group. The song also attained moderate success in its home country, peaking at number eighteen on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart while extending the group's consecutive top-ten string on BillboardWorld Digital Songs chart to fifteen, peaking at number nine in August 2019. It also topped the BillboardK-pop Hot 100.
Background and release
Following the release of The ReVe Festival's on June 19, 2019, those whom have purchased the "Day 1" physical version spotted several hints for Red Velvet's next installment via clue tickets provided in the package, one of which mentioned the phrase "Umpah Umpah". Shortly after the group's 5-year anniversary in early August 2019, it was reported that the girls would "make a speedy comeback", which was quickly confirmed by their label on the same day. On August 12, the group released an introduction video for its parental extended play, including a snippet from then-unknown title track, which was later confirmed to be "Umpah Umpah". After a string of photo teasers for each member, the song's music video was released on August 20, 2019, eighteen hours ahead of the EP's digital release.
Composition
"Umpah Umpah" was composed by Korean lyricist Jeon Gan-di, while the production was handled by Andreas Öberg, Christoffer Lauridsen and Allison Kaplan, the former of whom produced the group's 2016 single "One of These Nights" and 2019's Japanese single "Sappy". Musically, the song was described as an "uptempo dance song with disco house rhythms", combined with the group's "lovely and cool" vocals which "doubled the freshness". In addition to the funk influence by the electric guitar and several string instruments, the song also borrows elements from doo-wop music, mostly in the pre-chorus section of the song as the girls harmonize "umpah umpah" together. It was composed in the key of G major with a tempo of 120 beat-per-minute, and is the group's seventh single under the "Red" sonic concept and their third single with a summer-inspired concept. Lyrically, "Umpah Umpah" sees Red Velvet telling their love interest, who fell in love with the eyes and charms of the girls, how to "breathe normally", using the phrase "umpah umpah" as if their love interest was to breathe while learning how to swim. The rap section in the second verse of the song also referenced to some of the group's previous singles, such as "Dumb Dumb", "Red Flavor", "Happiness" and "Ice Cream Cake".
Music video
Prior to its release date, a video teaser titled "Road Trip: RVF Day 2 D-7" was uploaded to Red Velvet's YouTube channel on August 12, 2019 - which contains excerpts of the song. Following the release of the group's photo teasers, a highlight video for the song's pre-chorus section was revealed. After sharing another video teaser on August 19, 2019, the music video for "Umpah Umpah" was released on the following day, featuring the girls embarking on a summer vacation but ended up having "unexpected results" as the weather got rainy. The music video was released on August 20, 2019, ahead of the EP's release. It has since accumulated over 35 million views and 1.4 million likes on YouTube, as of May 2020.
Promotion
Promotion activities for "Umpah Umpah" were proceeded with the group performing on South Korean music programs including The Show, Show! Music Core, Music Bank, and Inkigayo. The members later revealed that due to limited time preparation, no additional performance for another album track was prepared. The group received a total of six music show wins for the song within the group's first week of promotion.
Commercial performance
Following its initial release, "Umpah Umpah" reached number one on 4 of the 7 major realtime charts in Korea, including Genie, Bugs, Naver, and Soribada, while reaching number three on Korea's largest music platform, Melon. The song then debuted and peaked at number eighteen on the Gaon Digital Chart for two weeks, becoming the group's fifteenth top twenty entry but their second lead single to miss the top-ten, following "Zimzalabim". It eventually placed 185th on the 2019's Gaon Year-End Digital Chart. The song fared better on Billboard's K-pop Hot 100 chart, debuting at number nineteen before reaching the top position for the next two weeks. It eventually became the group's second chart-topper following "Power Up", and their seventh consecutive top 10 single since the chart's re-establishment in December 2017. Additionally, the song debuted at number 9 on the US World Digital Song Sales chart, thus extending their consecutive top-ten string to fifteen entries on the chart.
