ITZY to issue full-length Japanese album in second half of 2023

Girl group ITZY announced that its first full-length Japanese album will be released in the second half of this year.

The news was revealed as a surprise announcement during its Japanese leg of the world tour, “ITZY The 1st World Tour 〈Checkmate〉” on Feb. 22 and 23.

The girl group made its Japanese debut in 2021, two years after its Korean debut with the compilation album “What’z ITZY.” The album included five Japanese versions of the group’s previous lead tracks, “Dalla Dalla,” “ICY,” “Wannabe,” “Not Shy” and “In the morning.”

ITZY released two more EPs in Japan last year, “Voltage” and “Blah Blah Blah,” both featuring original Japanese tracks. The girl group was the highest-grossing rookie artist in Japan in the first half of 2022, according to Japan’s Oricon Charts.

The girl group will continue its first world tour in Hong Kong and Bangkok followed by a concert back in Korea in August and in eight different cities in the U.S. starting in October.

The five-member girl group, consisting of Yeji, Lia, Ryujin, Chaeryoung and Yuna, debuted in 2019 with the hit single “Dalla Dalla.” The girl group achieved its first win at a cable weekly music show only nine days after the release and took a trophy on a public network music show just 11 days after the release — a record for a girl group at the time. Other hit tracks from the girl group include “Wannabe” (2020), “Not Shy” (2020), “LOCO” (2021) and “Sneakers” (2022). 

Source: KJAD