ITZY is nominated for Best Female Performance (Group) for CAKE, while RINGO is nominated for Best International Song by a Korean Artist (Japanese). Support ITZY’s CAKE and RINGO, songs and performances by clicking here to vote today.

Ahead of their official comeback on 8 January 2024 with their second studio album, ITZY has pre-released the single BORN TO BE. This upcoming comeback will be ITZY’s first return with a four-member lineup, after it was announced that LIA would not be part of this comeback due to anxiety. It also follows on from the group’s CAKE comeback in July of this year and their more recent Japanese single RINGO.

BORN TO BE attempts to become the group’s most powerful and bombastic sound yet, based on the visual aspect of this release (more on that in the music video and performance aspects of this review). And while I do hear it during certain parts of the song, I just don’t think BORN TO BE gets there. I personally thought the song was rather tame. Sure, the instrumental was busy and loud (though it was very clear to me that it was typical and lacked originality), and ITZY’s delivery at times alludes to a powerful undertaking. But I felt something was holding back the song from realizing its full potential. To me, a more innovative instrumental could have resolved some that. For example, I was waiting for some added vibrancy and intensity to kick in during the final chorus to make everything at the end feel more enhanced. That would have made BORN TO BE‘s ending to be more satisfying to end on. Also, I wished the chorus was less monotonous with its ‘Born To Be’ repetitive hook. I felt that really dulls the song down quite a bit. But it isn’t all bad news for ITZY. The shoutier moments of BORN TO BE felt like a statement, and I actually like the stillness (relative to the rest of the song) that the pre-chorus brought to the track. The vocal backing in the instrumental break was actually refreshing and different to the usual synth-only dance breaks we get. Overall, I definitely think more can be done with BORN TO BE.

The music video goes for a darker than usual concept for this performance centric music video. But I also like its simplicity. It might not be apparent, given the different visual effects utilized in the video and the amount of dancers present in video. But when you start breaking it down, there really isn’t much. The room is literally dark, with post-production used to apply a limited yet cool set of visual effects that plays out above the members/dancers. LCD screens are below the members as the ‘floor’, which at times was lava or just a white foundation for the group and dancers to perform and ‘pop’ out on. Minimal lighting was also used – there was enough so that you can see the members/dancers, but not enough such that the background feels like it is darkness. At a certain point, red carpet was introduced along with a rock formation that some of the members danced upon, just to give some form of height and depth to the video (otherwise, the video would have been very flat). I like it, simply because all of the above works well together with the song to show us what was intended out of BORN TO BE.

Performance looks amazing. The synchronisation at the pre-chorus is probably my highlight, simply because the angles at which their arms are at make it super difficult to achieve. The sheer volume of dancers (alongside ITZY) makes the chorus looks epic. And the dance break was awesome to watch. We might just have a contender for the 2024 KPOPREVIEWED Awards already.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8.5/10
Performance – 10/10
Overall Rating – 8.1/10