Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

The basement level of JYP training building, inside the TWICE practice room.

The nine members had just finished their morning group practice and dispersed into several small circles to rest on the floor.

3MIX sat together in tacit understanding. After sitting down, Yoo Jeongyeon took out her phone and casually opened the YouTube app, but her gaze paused for a moment as soon as she entered the homepage.

Then, Yoo Jeongyeon looked up at Lim Nayeon and Park Jihyo beside her and said, "Oppa's new song is really popular this time."

"Yeah, it was trending on Naver this morning. I didn't expect such a good response," Park Jihyo nodded in agreement.

Before they arrived at the practice room in the morning, there was already a trending topic on Korean websites about Kang Yeon's new song: "Kang Yeon's new song MV surpasses 500 million views in 18 hours".

"It's more than good, look, it's even on the trending topics list." Yu Dingyan held up her phone and pointed the screen at the other two.

Park Jihyo and Lim Nayeon looked over upon hearing the sound, and just as Yoo Jeongyeon had said, Kang Yeon's new song MV was featured on YouTube's homepage.

"Wow, it's already over 700 million views?!" Park Jihyo exclaimed in surprise after taking a closer look.

If this trend continues, wouldn't we easily break 1000 million today?

"This is too fast?!" Lim Nayeon also opened her mouth slightly, looking at the skyrocketing number of views with surprise.

"Do you think it's because it's an English single, which is more easily accepted by overseas audiences, thus attracting more listeners?"

Yu Dingyan put down her phone, thought for a moment, and then shared her understanding.

"That seems to be true. Even if they bought YouTube promotion, the reason they have such high viewership is definitely because many foreigners like them."

Park Jihyo listened to Yoo Jeongyeon's analysis and showed a look of sudden realization.

They weren't complete novices who knew nothing, but they also knew very well that even if they spent money on paid promotions on YouTube, it would be impossible to reach this number of views so quickly.

Then, as if she had thought of something, Park Jihyo said uncertainly, "So, do you guys think it's possible for oppa to become popular overseas too?!"

Yoo Jeong-yeon shook her head: "Who knows? But I have a feeling this song will definitely be a hit."

"I feel the same way. I wonder what the ranking of oppa's song is on Melon now?"

As Park Ji-hyo spoke, she took out her phone and browsed the Melon app, intending to check the current daily chart ranking of Kang Yeon's new song.

The moment she clicked on it, her eyes widened, and she exclaimed, "They're already in first place!"

"Qinjia?!"

Lim Nayeon leaned closer to take a look, somewhat incredulous, and exclaimed in surprise, "This is rising way too fast?!"

They had seen it in the morning, but they weren't number one then; they were ranked nineteenth.

Yoo Jeongyeon leaned closer, stared at the chart for a few seconds, and exclaimed, "It seems that oppa's song really has a lot of fans. Even in China, so many people are listening to it."

The results were so good that they almost felt unreal to her.

While 3MIX was chatting, in another corner of the practice room, Mina was wearing headphones, holding her phone and sitting quietly watching the flashing images on the screen.

The video playing on the screen is the music video for "That's What I Like".

This is the umpteenth time that Mina has watched it.

And every time the video reaches 44 seconds, as soon as Jiang Yan's upper body is shown in beach shorts, she quickly presses the pause button.

She would stare at the video for ten or so seconds without blinking before continuing to play it.

However, when the video showed Jeon Hyosung in a bikini, Mina subconsciously looked down at herself.

The gap seems quite large.

Mina frowned slightly, a hint of worry flashing through her mind.

……

With the release of the UK singles, overseas performance soared, and it also boosted the performance in South Korea on the same day.

But this is just the beginning. Less than 40 hours after the song was released, it had over 1500 million views on YouTube.

Moreover, this growth trend has not slowed down and has great potential.

Not only did it achieve the number one spot on major South Korean music streaming sites, but it also topped the singles charts in more than forty countries on iTunes.

But that's no longer the point.

On Spotify's global singles chart, "That's What I Like" has entered the Top 100 and has reached number 94 on streaming.

Because of this song, Jiang Yan's name came into the view of overseas audiences outside of China and South Korea.

"Wait, who sings this song? Yan Jiang? That's a completely unfamiliar name."

"Is the singer Asian? Or of Asian descent? The quality of their vocals makes me think they're a white person."

"The production quality of this song is very high, but when I checked the producer list, I found out that he did it all by himself! That's insane! He's a genius!"

"Is this a new singer? Has anyone provided any background information about him?"

"OK, can someone recommend some of this guy's other work? I absolutely love his voice!"

"YouTube recommended him to me. I was going to skip it when I saw that the cover was an Asian face, but after listening to 30 seconds of it, I decided to add it to my playlist directly."

Why haven't I heard this song on the radio? I haven't even seen it on the billboards?

"..."

On Twitter, more and more users in Europe and America are starting to discuss the song and its artist.

In particular, everyone was shocked when they learned that the singer and producer of the song were the same person.

They were amazed by Jiang Yan's vocal prowess and his creative talent.

Asians can actually create works with this kind of quality?! And today isn't April Fool's Day.

But they have to admit that the song is right up their alley.

Since it's a good song, there's no reason to boycott it without cause.

Of course, there are also racial knights who have spoken out on Twitter, but their voices are not enough to warrant attention.

Then, in just one week, "That's What I Like" successfully surpassed 3000 million views on YouTube.

And it also topped the iTunes global music video chart that week.

As more and more casual listeners tuned in, some overseas music bloggers on YouTube also started making related reaction videos.

These reaction videos have also attracted many new listeners to join the fandom.

These phenomena have naturally attracted the attention of some music media outlets.

Spotify's official Twitter account even posted a separate tweet about it.

Recently, we've noticed that an Asian singer, Yan Jiang, is gaining worldwide attention, which has surprised us greatly. We will continue to follow this singer closely.

In addition to Spotify, YouTube's Twitter account also posted a separate tweet announcing the song's current stream count.

All these feedbacks from various channels are proving one thing.

That is, Jiang Yan gained international recognition because of this song.