What Is Love? (Twice song)

Did You Know?

• The Japanese version of "What Is Love?" was pre-released as a digital single on February 7, 2019, with lyrics by Risa Horie.
• The song was first performed on Music Station Super Live on December 21, 2018.
• Twice's second compilation album #Twice2 includes both Korean and Japanese versions of the song.

Composition

Park Jin-young wrote and composed "What Is Love?", with arrangement by Lee Woo-min "collapsedone". JYP Entertainment described the song as about love imagined through books, movies, or dramas, featuring a bright melody and uptempo dance beat with trap elements. Billboard's Tamar Herman noted its retro electro-pop styling, addictive choral hook, digital quirks, sparkling chimes, and staccato percussion over a bubblegum melody.

Music video

The music video portrays Twice members as characters from famous films, including Nayeon as Mia from The Princess Diaries, Jeongyeon and Sana as Molly and Sam from Ghost, and others from La Boum, Pulp Fiction, Romeo + Juliet, Love Letter, La La Land, and Léon: The Professional. It includes choreography scenes, a sleepover watching movies, and a "commercial break" with Acuvue product placement. The video ranked fourth on YouTube's 2018 Most Popular Music Videos list in South Korea and fifth on Japan's Top Trend Music Videos. In February 2023, it became Twice's first music video to reach 700 million views.

Commercial performance

The song debuted atop Gaon's Digital Chart and Billboard Korea's Kpop Hot 100, and peaked at number 3 on World Digital Song Sales and number 6 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100. It placed 29th on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 year-end chart and 14th in Top Streaming Songs. "What Is Love?" surpassed 100 million streams in October 2019, earning a Platinum streaming certification from the KMCA, and received a Silver streaming certification from the RIAJ in April 2020. It re-charted in 2021 after going viral on TikTok, with over 1 million videos using the song.