Paparazzi (Girls' Generation song)

 

"Paparazzi" is the fourth Japanese single by South Korean girl group Girls' Generation, taken from their second Japanese album, Girls & Peace. It was released as the album's lead single on June 27, 2012, with an accompanying music video being released on June 14, 2012. Paparazzi continued the group's success in Japan, reaching number one on Oricon's Daily Single chart, ultimately debuting at number two on the weekly single chart with sales of over 92,000 copies, and managed to reach the number spot atop the Japanese Hot 100.

Background and release

 "Paparazzi" was written by Swedish songwriters, Fredrik Thomander and Johan Becker, and produced by American producer, Miles Walker. Junji Ishiwatari provided additional writing. Prior to the single's announcement, members Tiffany and Jessica spoke of the group's new material. Tiffany, on DJ Isak's radio show, "K-Poppin'", said that she had been "in and out of the studio [..] prepping for some new material." Jessica also spoke of new material with Elle Girl magazine, "[Our] Japan album will be released sometime in the second half of the year. We're working hard on it."

A teaser video of "Paparazzi" was released by SM Entertainment on May 29, 2012, on their official YouTube channel. The Japanese TV show Zip! quickly aired the same teaser, followed by a 22-second audio teaser of the song. Teaser images of the group were released in the week following.

Music video

Background

The music video for "Paparazzi" was said to be the largest music video that Girls' Generation had ever done at its filming. The set built for the video contained over 30,000 light bulbs, and the buildings used needed a week to complete with 120 people hired to do the work. Additionally, 300 people were cast in the video.
A total of 5 versions of the video were filmed, the highest amount for any video in Girls' Generation history. This includes close-up versions of each of the nine girls. S.M. Entertainment released a one minute long music video teaser for the video on May 29, 2012.
"Paparazzi" had its initial premiere in Shibuya, a district of Tokyo, on June 10, 2012, at 7PM JST. The music video, along with a Dance Version, was released to the public on YouTube on June 15, 2012 at 0:00AM JST. The videos received over 4 million views within two days of its upload, and over 9 million by the end of the week. Another dance edit was released on June 22, 2012, entitled "Dance Edit Gold"; it features the girls inside the ballroom set.