OURBIRTHDAY is the next newly debuted group to feature as part of Rookie Week. They are a seven-member group under INNIT Entertainment (a label under JYP Entertainment) that debuted in August with SQUEEZY, the lead single from their debut album, Our Birthday. Their lineup consists of Cho Hyejin, Kuk Chorok, Shin Hyewon, U, Baby, Achiraya, and Kilala.

SQUEEZY ended up being another song that became quite an earworm for me. I don’t think that was exactly my first impression of the song, but the repeat listens since its release have made me realise how catchy SQUEEZY is, particularly the chorus. This chorus itself is made up of nonsense English lyrics that rhyme with one another. It is repetitive, but the fast-paced delivery and the instrumentals help lessen the repetitiveness and make the centrepiece more fun. Moving on, a lot of SQUEEZY‘s elements (instrumental, delivery etc.) fall somewhere between bubble-gum pop and retro hip-hop territory. The marketing for the debut dubs this a new hybrid genre of WHIP-HOP, which is a very cheesy and saccharine way of describing that niche in-between blend of genres mentioned above. I also now realise that the start of SQUEEZY‘s bridge might have been OURBIRTHDAY’s take on Hearts2Hearts RUDE!‘s bridge. The narration at the beginning literally calls back to the earlier song’s viral moment. However, both the producers and OURBIRTHDAY made it their own by extending it with lyrics that felt like they fit the broader SQUEEZY song.

The music video sees OURBIRTHDAY participate in a retro cooking show. But along the way, the group makes a mess, creates chaos in the kitchen, and is also caught cheating by ordering takeout. However, they end up defeating the proper chef (and blowing his mind with whatever they concocted), but most importantly, they win the audience’s attention. From there, they branch out into other television shows and become more viral as the music video continues. The ending is ambiguous, but I have two theories. The first is that they are reintroduced as the main stars of the retro cooking show (probably to defend their title), while the second is that their viral fame was all a dream and what we see is actually the start of the music video again.

The performance is very bubbly and bright, and the members were expressive and energetic. Both of these made SQUEEZY a fun, vibrant performance to enjoy.

Song – 8.5/10
Music Video – 8/10
Performance – 8/10
Overall Rating – 8.3/10