INCHEON, South Korea—The girl group TWICE are back on tour.

After capping their world tour “Ready to Be” at Nissan Stadium in Japan in July 2024, TWICE—composed of Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu—have kicked off their latest tour, “This is For,” with two sold-out nights at Inspire Arena in Incheon, South Korea. 

At the center of it all is a 360-degree stage that offers never-before-seen angles to their performances—all for “ONCE” (their fans) to enjoy all over the world. 

The concerts come on the heels of their newly released fourth full album, also dubbed “This is For.” As in the album, beats from the intro track “Four” also usher in the beginning of the show, which features the giant LED screen in the middle displaying “TWICE THIS IS FOR” in big, bold letters in the midst of strobe lights. 

The escalating beats eventually transition into the opening number, with TWICE’s explosive performance of “This is For,” the album’s title track, back-to-back with “Strategy,” the title track of their mini-album released last December. (It was also recently featured in “KPop Demon Hunters,” Netflix’s most-watched original animated film of all time.) 

‘Old school’ meets fresh TWICE 

As expected of any TWICE concert, the set list is a mix of old and new songs from a decade’s worth of discography—and as always, the girls find something fresh to offer. Even with concert set list mainstays like “I Can’t Stop Me,” “Fancy,” or “Feel Special,” TWICE somehow still find a way to make the old feel new. This time, it’s the live band arrangement, combined with choreographies enhanced specifically to cater to the 360-degree stage that sets the performances apart from previous concerts. 

For this tour, TWICE also debut new stages for much-awaited classics, such as “Make Me Go” and “Hell in Heaven” (both released in 2020). “Gone,” a powerful rock ballad written by TWICE member Dahyun and featured in the 2022 mini-album “Between 1&2,” is also part of the set list, with Nayeon and Jihyo engaging in an epic sing-off toward the end of the performance. It is one of the many noteworthy moments in the two-hour concert comprising more than 30 songs spanning TWICE’s 10-year career.

For the encore stage, TWICE take it a bit slower, bringing out soft favorites from their younger years: “After Moon” from their 2018 mini-album “Yes or Yes,” and “You in My Heart” from their debut studio album “Twicetagram,” which was released in 2017. While singing, the girls are lifted aboard carts and “flown” closer to interact with their fans at the third and fourth levels of the arena.   

But as much as some of the songs are nostalgic, many tracks from the newest album also make it to the set list. Performance stages for unit songs “Battitude” by Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo and Mina, and “Dat Ahh Dat Ooh” by Sana, Jihyo, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu are filled with hip and cool choreography made more interesting by the new combination of members, much to the audience’s delight. 

Original solo stages

Each of the nine members perform an original solo song in this tour—a first in any TWICE concert. The shows in Incheon unveil brand-new stages featuring Nayeon’s “Meeeeee,” Jeongyeon’s “Fix a Drink,” Momo’s “Move Like That,” Sana’s “Decaffeinated,” Jihyo’s  “ATM,” Mina’s “Stone Cold,” Dahyun’s “Chess,” Chaeyoung’s “In My Room,” and Tzuyu’s “Dive In,” showcasing a wide range of vocal and performance styles in the group. 

The lifting platforms also make a comeback in this tour, adding extra flair to the stages of new songs, such as “Mars” and “Right Hand Girl” and their flirty, sexy choreography. High-energy performances for “Set Me Free,” “The Feels” and “Cry for Me,” refreshed with new live band arrangements and lighting special effects, are also complemented by the chill tracks “Options,” “Moonlight Sunrise,” and “I Got You,” which all showcase the girls’ vocal prowess.

When the time comes for them to sing their all-time fan favorites “What is Love?,” “Yes or Yes,” and “Dance the Night Away,” TWICE transform the stage into a playground, as they run across the extended stages and the main stage to greet and interact with as many fans as possible. On the first night, Jihyo runs around with a giant inflatable Candybong (TWICE’s official light stick) and plays with it alongside the other members. 

For “What Is Love,” the girls sit squeezed together on a raised platform in the middle of the stage. It’s a warm and tender moment—one of the few in the show where the members are huddled close. Given the spacious stages that the girls have had to negotiate throughout the night, moments like these where they demonstrate the genuine, comfortable closeness that makes TWICE truly endearing are what their ONCE look forward to the most.

Golden ending

The burst of golden confetti bathing the standing crowd and the girls on stage makes for a memorable ending to the night’s fantastic set list, as TWICE take it up a notch with back-to-back performances of “Feel Special” and “One Spark.” 

But the night is never truly over until it’s over. As the girls prepare for an encore, the audience is kept busy by a series of dance challenges, in which eager dancers among the crowd share the spotlight and are focused on the big screens while dancing to TWICE songs old and new. 

The cheers get even louder when TWICE bring out the iconic encore wheel—a well-loved innovation carried over from previous concerts that decides what song the girls will sing during their encore.

But this time around, they just sing songs directly requested by the audience, such as “Talk that Talk,” “Do It Again,” and “BDZ.” As a final surprise, the girls take their fans way back with a 2025 version of the legendary “TWICE song,” which once served to introduce the members by means of a quirky song—eliciting the loudest fanchants from old-timers in the audience and coming around full circle in style.

In many ways, the shows are a journey through TWICE’s career—the perfect preview to the rest of the 6th World Tour, as well as their 10th anniversary celebrations. In fact, one of the post-concert surprises the girls dropped for their fans was the trailer of their 10th anniversary documentary, “TWICE: One in a Million,” which will premiere in October in cinemas worldwide.

As the girls approach their tenth milestone together, some may ask: What else is there for TWICE?  

So far, they have also performed their first shows in Japan at Kyocera Dome in Osaka, debuting new stages featuring tracks from their upcoming 6th Japanese album, “Enemy.” Once again, it’s a demonstration of TWICE’s determination to always offer something novel to their fans in the form of new music, choreographies and arrangements. It’s safe to say these first few shows are just a taste of what’s to come. For their fans all over the world (including this writer), it feels like they’ve only just begun.

TWICE’s “This is For” tour is coming to the Philippines in October. They are also scheduled to play more shows this year in Japan (Aichi, Fukuoka, Tokyo), Macau, Singapore, Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand.