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Five-member group ITZY made a royal comeback with their mini-album CHECKMATE on Friday, July 15, 2022. The album’s title track, SNEAKERS, has layered meanings that the girl group recently opened up about in an interview with Herald POP.
Ryujin, Lia, Yeji, Chaeryeong, and Yuna discussed the significance of the title track, SNEAKERS. From an audience perspective, it plays to a Cinderella-esque story. The members all dress up as royal and elegant, hinting at certain restrictions. Then, they come across sneakers that help them gain confidence, break boundaries, and run towards freedom.
Speaking about the song, group leader Yeji shared:
“The new song ‘SNEAKERS’ is a song with the message of running farther together to the moment you feel most free, wearing sneakers that make you feel good. We compared being free-spirited to sneakers, but we hope that those who listen to the song will find their own sneakers that make them feel free.”
ITZY dishes on SNEAKERS, what makes CHECKMATE different, and more
As their first release of the year, ITZY showed fans a new version of themselves with their fifth mini-album, CHECKMATE. The girl group’s previous release, Crazy in Love, became public in September last year and it consisted of the hit title track LOCO.
CHECKMATE continues the group's message and theme of confidence and power. The title track SNEAKERS, in particular, talks about running to the top carefree and making one's own way.
When Lia was asked which place she’d like to visit if she had the sneakers that could take her anywhere, the idol replied:
“I want to visit the modern era. I’m interested in it because it’s an era that appears frequently in movies, and I really want to experience what it’s like to live in that atmosphere.”
Additionally, the members also talked about what makes CHECKMATE different from their previous releases. One of the maknaes, Chaeryeong, mentioned that their strength lies in showing fans that there’s no limit to the concepts the girls can pull off.
“It (CHECKMATE) is full of colors that only ITZY can showcase from what fans like, what we wanted to try, and what we haven’t shown before. Through this album, I want to show that ITZY is a team with various charms!”
The mini-album received fairly positive response from fans. The SNEAKERS music video gave fans many things to talk about, but the outfits and Ryujin’s wink during her part stole the show. The video amassed 7.9 million views within 14 hours of its release.
More about the group
Meanwhile, ITZY’s CHECKMATE also helped them break their personal pre-order record. The group recorded 720,665 stock pre-orders on July 15, making them the fourth girl group to surpass the 700,000 mark of stock pre-orders, after aespa, BLACKPINK, and TWICE.
The SNEAKERS girl group will also be embarking on a world tour, titled the same as their latest album. It will kick off in Seoul on August 6 and 7, 2022. The girl group will then tour the US and perform at eight stops from October to November 2022. Additional dates for the tour will be announced later.
