Through the Night (IU song)
IU's minimalist ballad achieved a Perfect All-Kill and lasting chart presence.
"Through the Night" is a song by South Korean singer-songwriter IU, released as the lead single from her fourth studio album Palette on March 24, 2017. It marked her return to music and became her 14th number-one single in South Korea, extending her record over idol groups with nine each. The song has never fallen out of the major South Korean music charts as of March 2022 and is the third best-selling single in the country since 2010.
Quick Facts
- Album
- Palette
- Released
- March 24, 2017
- Genre
- Ballad
- Label
- Fave
- Composer
- Kim Je-hwi; Kim Hee-won
Facts from the source article.
Background and composition
IU began releasing teasers for the song in the same week of its release, with the first set of images on March 20 showing her in traditional Korean clothing. A teaser video featuring snippets of her voice and set in a traditional Korean home was released two days before the song. "Through the Night" is a minimalist ballad emphasizing IU's vocals over instrumentation, described as warm yet apprehensive, and delves into acoustic and folk genres. Written by IU and composed and produced by Kim Je-hwi and Kim Hee-won, the song runs four minutes and thirteen seconds in the key of E-flat at 79 beats per minute in common time. Lyrically, it discusses missing someone through the night, with a narrator afraid their love interest will disappear and secretly confessing love while wishing pleasant dreams.
Commercial performance
Upon release, the song shot to the top of the Instiz iChart and achieved a Perfect All-Kill, hitting number one on all major South Korean music sites simultaneously. It was IU's eighth career Perfect All-Kill, twice as many as any other artist at the time. In its first week, it placed second on the Gaon Digital Chart for the week of March 19 to 25, rising to number one the following week to become IU's 14th number one in South Korea. On April 6, it achieved a Triple Crown by taking number one on the Gaon Combined Digital Chart, Online Download Chart, and Online Streaming Chart. The song sold 183,168 downloads in its first week and 208,241 in its second week, with 7,694,321 streams in its first full week. By December 7, it surpassed 2 million downloads on Gaon, one of the fastest songs to do so. By the end of 2017, 2,181,372 downloads had been sold, making it the second best-selling song of the year, and it accumulated 134,048,681 streams. It also debuted at number one on Gaon's Mobile and Background Music charts. In the 2017 year-end charts, it placed second on the digital, download, and streaming charts. The song accumulated over 300 million streams in South Korea by December 2021.
Music video
The music video for the song, directed by Rae-kyung Lee, came out at the same time as the track. It starts with a shot of a traditional rural home, with birds chirping in the background, and shows IU turning the pages of a book. The music kicks in when a cassette tape is pressed, creating a vintage atmosphere. Throughout the video, IU is alone in the traditional house, dressed in period clothing, and at times sings into an old-fashioned microphone. This stillness mirrors the song’s theme of loneliness. On Instagram, the director answered fan questions about the props, explaining that the book was a first edition from 1950 by Dong-Joo Yoon, titled "The Sky, The Wind, The Stars and The Poetry." It was picked because its vertical writing fit the old-timey look. The set was also filled with objects from the 1950s and 1960s, as IU admires that mise-en-scène. The video has surpassed 100 million views, making it the second most popular Korean music video by a female soloist in 2017.
Live performances
IU performed "Through the Night" on music shows only once, on the April 23 episode of Inkigayo, where the song had won the previous week. She also performed it on the 104th episode of Picnic Live Season 2 and on Yu Huiyeol's Sketchbook. The song was first performed at an award show at the 2017 Melon Music Awards, where her performance was widely praised alongside her performance of "Dear Name." She also performed it at the 32nd Golden Disc Awards alongside "Can't Love You Anymore" and "Autumn Morning." IU has presented the song at various concerts and musical festivals, where its popularity frequently led the audience to sing along, which she often encouraged.
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