“Ditto” by NewJeans

“Ditto” reads as if it is romantic, though the lyrics don’t explicitly take it there and can also be (loosely) interpreted as being addressed to a close platonic friend or someone who is potentially so. More to the point is the vocalist’s desire to get closer to the addressee. 

By the looks of things, they’ve already established a relationship or, at the very least, eye contact with a smile. So the narrator is looking forward to building on that foundation, or it can be more accurately interpreted that she has been fantasizing about hooking up with this person she’s singing about/to. 

With that in mind, the title is indicative of her wish that he too feels the same.

And again, it is solidly inferred that said interest is a romantic one. For instance, in the first verse Danielle and the gang are idealizing the parties involved mutually “want(ing) somebody”. The pre-chorus implies that the vocalist is mustering up the courage to actually step to the addressee, which we presume wouldn’t be much of an issue if it were just someone she wanted to be friends with. 

The chorus proceeds to indicate that there’s some sort of an indirect back-and-forth going on between them, whereas the apple of her eye comes off as if he’s playing hard to get or is perhaps shy.

So we can conclude by firmly asserting that this is a love song. However, the vocalist(s) is but a teenager and moreover one from South Korea. Therefore the lyrics paint more of a puppy-love type of scenario as opposed to one that is adult-minded.

NewJeans

NewJeans is a K-pop act that just came out during mid-2022, doing so via the Hybe Corporation, the same company that backs BTS. However, NewJeans is more specifically signed to one of its subsidiaries, which is called ADOR. 

In fact this group is the first signee of ADOR, being an initiative of Min Hee-jin, a figure who has assisted in the blowing up of some of K-pop’s top female acts. And it is ADOR who officially put Ditto out on 19 December 2022.

NewJeans dropped their first EP, a self-titled project, in August of 2022. That outing proved to be a chart topper in South Korea which firmly placed the girls on the K-pop map. 

For the record, the members of NewJeans, in order of age (as of the release of this song), are as follows

• Minji (18)
• Hani (18)
• Danielle (17)
• Haerin (16)
• Hyein (14)

Success of “Ditto”

“Ditto” reportedly marks the first time NewJeans scored an All-Kill, i.e. the track simultaneously reaching number one on a number of different Korean and global music/streaming charts. 

That said, this song also topped the Vietnam Hot 100. It peaked at number 2 in Singapore. The song also reached fifth place on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales list. Furthermore, it charted in over a dozen nations overall, including making an appearance on the UK Indie Chart and Canadian Hot 100.

Credits for “Ditto”

Minji co-wrote this song alongside Oohyo, Cho Hyuil, Ylva Dimberg and the track’s producer, 250. 

For the music video, Shin Woo-seok was employed as the director, and the services of professional Korean actress Park Ji-hu and her colleague, Choi Hyun-wook were also utilized.