TWICE And GFriend: Are The Two Rookie K-Pop Groups The New ‘Best Friends’ Pairing?

The K-pop industry is a growing phenomenon when it comes to the music industry in general. Because of many K-pop groups’ hard work and determination, they often become international household names. Girls’ Generation, EXO, Big Bang, 2NE1, and many others aren’t just well known in South Korea, but are also popular worldwide especially in China, Japan, the Philippines, and even the United States.

Behind the K-pop glitz, glamour, and popularity, however, there is a struggle, a competition that often produces more casualties than survivors. For every successful K-pop group, there are at least 10 groups who do not make it. April Kiss, A-Peace, New F.O., CHAOS, JQT, Keep Six, Han’s Band, Cleo, Swi.T, and M.I.L.K. are just some examples. This constant strife is enough to make K-pop groups stab each other in the back just to make it. Ironically, it often brings them closer together and some actually become “best friends.” Girls’ Generation and Sistar are probably the most popular “best friends” pairing most of the K-pop community knows about.

Now there seems to be another “best friends” pairing getting a lot of attention because both groups are technically rookies. Are the rookie girl groups TWICE and GFriend the new “best friends” pairing in K-pop?

The question that TWICE and GFriend are the new “best friends” of the K-pop industry was thoroughly enforced after the April 16 airing of Show Music Core. On it, TWICE made a special stage appearance to perform. Their song of choice was “Me Gustas Tu” (shown above). “Me Gustas Tu” is the song that made its original performers, GFriend, internationally popular especially after a video of a live performance on a wet stage, in which Yuju slipped quite a number of times while SinB took one big fall, went viral.

The K-pop community could have taken TWICE’s choice to perform “Me Gustas Tu” at face value as in they wanted to perform a popular song, one that is still very popular, for their fans. Yet with the fact that GFriend also made a special stage appearance that night and performed not their single “Rough” but “Like OHH-AHH” (attached below) makes it all the more peculiar. “Like OHH-AHH” is the song that made its original performers, TWICE, internationally popular albeit it being their only official song to date.

It cannot be happenstance that both TWICE and GFriend appear on the same show and perform the other’s hit song. The producers behind Show Music Core might have something to do with it, but it is possible that the members of both groups are, as mentioned earlier, the new “best friends” of K-pop. Their budding relationship probably started when they first collaborated earlier this year for the March 13 airing of Inkigayo.

Five members of TWICE along with four members of GFriend came together to perform “Gee” (attached below) which is the song that made Girls’ Generation into an international sensation. The collaboration was a huge success in which both Buddies (fans of GFriend) and ONCE (fans of TWICE) were extremely happy. Not only that, many Sones (fans of Girls’ Generation) were touched as it brought nostalgic thoughts of the “OT9,” a beautiful time when Jessica Jung was still a member of the group.

Despite the collaborations and the supposed happenstance, there is no confirmation that TWICE and GFriend are actually “best friends.” Nevertheless, fans of both K-pop groups love it whenever they are paired or performing off of each other. As a matter of fact, their “best friend” pairing has brought to life a new unofficial fan group name, the ONCEBuddies. If JYP Entertainment and Source Entertainment are smart, they’ll let the relationship between their popular rookie groups blossom into something the K-pop community will surely admire.

[Image via TWICE and GFriend’s Official Facebook Pages, Edited by Jan Omega]