"Starry Night" (Korean: 별이 빛나는 밤; RR: Byuli bichnaneun bam) is a song by South Korean girl groupMamamoo. It was released on March 7, 2018, as the second single from the group's seventh EP Yellow Flower, the first EP in a series of releases focusing on each member.[1] A dance-pop and Latin-inspired track, "Starry Night" was written by Moonbyul, Park Woo-sang, and Kim Do-hoon, with music and arrangement performed by the latter two. The song peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and earned the group their first-ever music recording certification, after surpassing 100 million streams according to the Gaon Music Chart.
Background and release
In January 2018, Mamamoo released the digital single "Paint Me", a precursor to their upcoming album project titled 'Four Seasons, Four Colors', in which the group would release four EPs, each focusing on one member and a corresponding season.[2] The next month, the group released the first teasers for the first EP in the series, Yellow Flower.[3] "Starry Night" was released as the second single from Yellow Flower on March 7, 2018, alongside the release of the EP itself.[4][5]
On August 7, 2019, the re-recorded Japanese-language version of the song was released as part of the group's debut Japanese album, 4colors, by JVCKenwood Victor Entertainment.[6] On September 15, 2021, an orchestral remix of the song was released as part of their debut compilation album I Say Mamamoo: The Best.[7]
Composition
Sonically a dance-pop and K-pop track, "Starry Night" is a dance track featuring "Latin-inspired strings."[8] The song is composed in the key of A minor and at a tempo of 124 BPM, running for three minutes and 31 seconds.[5][9]
Critical reception
"Starry Night" was met with positive critical reception upon release, with Hong Dam-young of The Korea Herald calling it "dramatic" and "dynamic."[4] CelebMix stated that it "confirmed and lived up to the expectations of the fans and the critics" in a year when many K-pop acts were experimenting with Latin music."[8]
Commercial performance
A commercial success, "Starry Night" debuted at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart, earning 44.7 million index points in its first week.[10] It remained at that position for four consecutive weeks, before dropping to number four for the issue dated April 7, 2018.[11] The song was the highest-performing song of March 2018, earning 219 million index points in that time frame.[12] It was the 13th highest-performing song of 2018 on the chart and was the fourth highest-performing song by a girl group, with over 818 million index points earned in 2018.[13] The song earned a further 77 million points in 2019.[14] "Starry Night" also peaked at number one on the Billboard Korea K-pop Hot 100 and number eight on Billboard World Digital Songs Sales.[15]
In November 2018, "Starry Night" earned the group their first platinum certification from the Gaon Music Chart and Korean Music & Content Association for surpassing 100 million domestic streams.[16] It was certified for 2.5 million digital downloads in July 2019.[17]
Music video
The music video was filmed in New Zealand, including at Bethels Beach in West Auckland (pictured).
The music video for "Starry Night" was directed by Won Ki-hong.[18] It was shot entirely in New Zealand.[19] Like with their music video for previous single "Paint Me", the music video was posted to both the group's official channel and the 1theK distributor channel.[20][21] As of February 2022, the music video has a combined total of 201.4 million views across both channels.
