K-pop girl band Loona (styled as LOOΠΔ) dropped a new music video at 4:00am ET (6:00 p.m. KT) on Tuesday for “Butterfly,” its latest single and the title track of repackaged album [x x] (originally called [+ +], read as “plus plus”). It’s the group’s long-awaited comeback music video, Korean pop culture website Soompi reports, following the August release of their second single, “Hi High.”
The group’s fandom flooded Twitter hours before the music video went live while rallying different fan groups (some of whom call themselves “Orbits”) to make #Loona_Butterfly and #Loonaiscomingback gain momentum for the music.
Both hashtags became top U.S. trending topics early Tuesday.
https://twitter.com/lipysoul/status/1097781708169060353
#LOONA_BUTTERFLY is trending #1 Worldwide! Congrats, our first goal is complete 🦋
— loona stats 🌙🏹🚀🌻🍎 (@loonastats) February 19, 2019
Keep using the tag!#LOONA #이달의소녀 pic.twitter.com/dTPlU7a0xn
https://twitter.com/hagsoul/status/1097767478334287873
https://twitter.com/pastryvivi/status/1097785738337402880
There’s an actual checklist of goals, guys. The band wants worldwide trending topics, millions of YouTube views, and iTunes attention.
Dont forget our goals@loonatheworld #LOONA_Butterfly #LOONAIsComingBack pic.twitter.com/oDkGttX6sE
— #AlwaysWithHaseul (@rizchaprincessa) February 19, 2019
The visually compelling video matches the song’s catchy beat and most notable verse, “Fly like a butterfly,” which even trended on Twitter at one point. Give it a watch below.
The video caption accompanying the video includes a myth-like introduction of how the group—made up of HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul, YeoJin, Kim Lip, JinSoul, Choerry, Yves, Chuu, Go Won, Olivia Hye, and ViVi—was formed by Blockberry Creative (called BBC by fans).
As the Daily Dot reported last year, Loona is a reverse-engineered K-pop group, “due to the unique way its 12 members were revealed. Rather than debuting as a full group, members have been slowly revealed with single albums, starting in October 2016 and finishing [in March 2018] with its final member. The group is also split into three sub-units based on when they were introduced, and the latest unit, Loona yyxy, released a song on May 31 featuring Grimes.”
(The same report involved how the latter caused a branch of the Loona fan base to target Elon Musk—showing you just how vocal the stans can get.)
Shortly after the music video was released, Twitter erupted with stans praising everything from the choreography and visuals to the message and the “representation” showcased in the clip.
can we talk about how visually stunning the mv is like this is IT #LOONA_BUTTERFLY pic.twitter.com/Kar4VSW7UK
— loona pics (@Ioonapic) February 19, 2019
THE CHOREO ✅
— key🪽 (@ilyviseul) February 19, 2019
THE SETS ✅
THE SONG ✅
THE CHOREO ✅
THE HASEUL ✅
THE MESSAGE ✅
THE MELANIN ✅
THE DIVERSITY ✅
THE BEAUTY ✅
AHHHHH LOONA 👑 #LOONA #LOONA_BUTTERFLY #LOONAisComingBack #이달의소녀
https://twitter.com/ikran/status/1097810738348023809
https://twitter.com/maamhyejoo/status/1097796648892125185
https://twitter.com/ehatchin/status/1097793497250304000
There were updates on YouTube views, with encouragement to “keep streaming.”
In just half an hour, #LOONA_BUTTERFLY is already at 100k views!!! #LOONA #이달의소녀 @loonatheworld pic.twitter.com/3MXhljh2Gq
— closed (@INTL_LOONA) February 19, 2019
100K views in 30min for #LOONA_BUTTERFLY!
— loona stats 🌙🏹🚀🌻🍎 (@loonastats) February 19, 2019
Keep streaming https://t.co/77mncDFGaJ#이달의소녀 pic.twitter.com/xUACWf8A3N
A lot of fans posted lengthy, almost reverential interpretations of the music video. Some call it a “powerful” message of “women empowerment,” “inclusion,” and “diversity.”
https://twitter.com/TRlVlAMONOS/status/1097789863674499073
https://twitter.com/glowc/status/1097789553480531968
alright the song slaps,, + the choreography the outfits the aesthetics,, incredible. but can we talk about the diversity of women in the music video,, and how they are telling all women to “fly like a butterfly”,, that’s empowering. i ain’t even a stan but damn loona snapped https://t.co/R7dG8ZQSTr
— u⁷ (@happinesspjm) February 19, 2019
they included so many different races, religion, skin colors, no matter what the shapes n sizes and telling them to fly like a butterfly,, LITERALLY WHOS DOING IT LIKE LOONA????? #LOONA_BUTTERFLY pic.twitter.com/bGptsD13cP
— MOVED CHECK PINNED! (@yoonjinz) February 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/mxgafuse/status/1097786182606278657
https://twitter.com/eurimaeji/status/1097795997483204608
tell me, who’s doing it like loona? who has the concept like loona? who has the rich and deeper lore like loona? who has the musical contrast like loona? who has a mv with many diverse WOMEN shown respectfully without appropriation? answer!!!#LOONA_BUTTERFLY
— salaah (@ruIe8am) February 19, 2019
female empowerment, representation and diversity combined with a beautiful unique song and an incredible cinematography. when they said it was something never done in kpop, they truly meant it. we all are LOONA! 🦋 #LOONA_BUTTERFLY pic.twitter.com/kc0RoV09e1
— 🌸 store open! (@hanavbara) February 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/orbitjms/status/1097786144677335040
Fans believe “we are all Loona.”
https://twitter.com/Ioonagay/status/1097786393932324865
https://twitter.com/iIIustrous/status/1097791967113621504
“Loona … encourages us to be [ourselves] and ‘fly like a butterfly’; they aimed this for the world,” @lossianlulette tweets.
https://twitter.com/lossianlulette/status/1097798913614991362
https://twitter.com/kjheejin/status/1097793890889990145
https://twitter.com/botterflyyy/status/1097799729692401664
Even the backdrop has meaning: “The black rocks/mountains reminds me of HaSeul’s MV. Maybe they are in HaSeul’s cold heart and trying to warm it up and encourage her to love herself and fly like a butterfly,” @bchillii theorizes.
https://twitter.com/bchillii/status/1097796561550028800
Whether or not you understand the meaning of the music video and most of the lyrics, you can’t deny it’s the perfectly upbeat #TuesdayMotivation track to get you “flying like a butterfly” through this week. Just maybe don’t be like @loveletter3gp, who tweeted, “I’m streaming #Butterfly at my workplace because I want my boss to hear it too.”
IM STREAMING #BUTTERFLY AT MY WORKPLACE BECAUSE I WANT MY BOSS TO HEAR IT TOO#LOOΠΔ #LOONA #X_X #이달의소녀 #LOONAIsComingBack #LOONA_BUTTERFLY @loonatheworld pic.twitter.com/wQGZTNi0Yl
— 🚫inactive (@loveletter3gp) February 19, 2019
