I Love You (2NE1 song)


"I Love You" is a song by South Korean girl group 2NE1 released on July 5, 2012. In Japan, it was released on September 19, 2012, as their third Japanese single. It was written and produced by long-time collaborator and fellow YG Entertainment labelmate Teddy Park, with additional writing by Lydia Paek.
The single debuted at number one on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100, marking the group's first number-one single on the Korean Billboard charts. It also topped South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart.

Background and promotion

"I Love You" was written by Teddy Park, who had written and produced much of 2NE1's previous material, including "I Am the Best", "Fire" and "Go Away". In a press release, YG Entertainment stated that, "Since their debut, they have always done hip-hop, electronic, reggae and R&B. It was time for them to challenge themselves and try something new."
On June 30, 2012, a 20-second teaser video of the group was released on SBS' Inkigayo. On the same day, member Dara posted a message to her Me2day, where she told fans, "To commemorate 2NE1′s release of the new track 'I Love You' on July 5th! Quiz on what genre it’ll be!!! I’ll give you a couple of hints so try guessing~ The correct answer will be revealed tomorrow night!!! ^^ Fighting! This song… is one that all ages will like! Hm… it doesn’t seem like a song 2NE1 would sing…!" The song combined electronic and trot music to create an entirely different sound and a new genre of music.
"I Love You" received its first promotional performance on SBS' The Music Trend on July 8, 2012 and again on July 15. The group was supposed to perform the song on M-Countdown but it was later cancelled after the death of member Minzy's grandmother. They made their appearance on the show the following week instead.
It was confirmed in July 2012 that "I Love You" would serve as the group's third official Japanese-language single. It will also serve as the accompanying song to 2NE1's Maybelline Japan endorsement campaign.
The single was released in two versions; limited edition which comes with DVD, and a regular edition which is a CD only.

Critical reception

The song received positive reviews from critics. Christopher Weingarten of Spin stated that the song was a "perfect summation of pop's present and future", and compared the production similar to that of David Guetta, especially the use of synths and "ghostly" background vocals, while also comparing the rap-style vocals to that of American singer Kesha.

Commercial performance

The song debuted at number 2 on the Gaon Digital Chart behind "Loving U" by Sistar. In its second week, "I Love You" reached the number 1 position and had sold over 950,000 downloads in 11 days, making 2NE1 the fourth fastest-selling Korean female artist of 2012, after miss A, T-ara and Wonder Girls. In only three weeks the song was downloaded 1,346,000 times. In its third charting week, "I Love You" dropped to number 3 on the chart, selling another 403,000 downloads. It became the best-selling song of July 2012. By 2013, "I Love You" was downloaded over 2.9 million times. The song ranked 6th on Gaon's Year-End Digital Chart for 2012.
"I Love You" also attained international success, charting at number 3 on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart and selling 5,000 copies in the United States. The song was played on the UK radio station BBC Radio 1., the first Korean song to do so.

Japanese version

The single debuted at number 3 on the Oricon Daily Singles Chart selling 10,646 copies. On the weekly chart, it charted at number 5. The song has sold 15,700 physical copies in Japan.

Track listing

Korean version

Japanese version

;Digital download
  1. I LOVE YOU ''

    Charts

ChartPeak
position
Gaon Singles Chart1
Gaon Karaoke Singles chart2
Billboard K-Pop Hot 100 chart1
Billboard Gospel Songs21

Oricon chart

Awards

Release history