"Twice" was solely written by Kirby Lauryen, while co-producing along with Sandy Chila and instrumentation from H. Amarr. On May 10, 2018, Aguilera posted a video on her Twitter account in which she teased the release of a song from her then-upcoming eight studio album, Liberation, stating that she loves the song's "raw vocal quality" and the "spiritual emotion and tone" it conveys. The track was released for digital download and streaming as the first promotional single from Liberation on May 11, 2018 by RCA Records. Musically, "Twice" has been described as a soulful ballad with a length of four minutes and two seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is performed in the key of F Minor with a moderately slow tempo of 75 beats per minute. Aguilera's vocals span from E3 to F5.
Critical reception
Jon Pareles from New York Times said that "Twice" "mournfully ponders sin, forgiveness and redemption", while Chuck Arnold from New York Post described the song as a "haunting piano ballad". Furthermore, Arnold felt that Aguilera displayed "softer, more subtle shades of her delivery" in order to demonstrate "what a great singer can do when it’s all about the song — and the voice". Nicholas Hautman of Us Weekly stated that "Twice" is Aguilera's best song since "Hurt", noting its "contemplative and stripped-down nature". Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph considered that Aguilera sounded "like a one-woman Fleetwood Mac" and praised "her rich low notes fluttering effortlessly up to falsetto with no loss of control". During a review for Liberation for PopCrush, Bobby Olivier called "Twice" "a sparse and pensive track" and described the intro of the song as "harmonic". Althea Legapsi from Rolling Stone opined that the lyrics contemplate "the duality that can be found with love", and Mike Nied from Idolator deemed the singer's voice, calling it "as strong as ever before".
Visuals video
Although the song was never promoted with an official music video, a conceptual visual video—created by Aguilera and her team—was released on May 11, 2018. It was meant to express the singer's thankfulness for her fans' support, and contains a spiritual, naturalist theme: Aguilera is seen submerged in water, and those scenes are followed by close-ups of flowers. Aguilera called the visuals "personal" and believed they "set a tone behind the feel of the music as a kind of backdrop". She said the video was shot because she "felt inspired by the themes of duality and inner struggle in 'Twice'".
