"Tell Me" is a song by South Korean girl group Wonder Girls, from their debut album, The Wonder Years (2007). It was released as the lead single from the album on September 13, 2007, through JYP Entertainment. Written and produced by Park Jin-young, the song samples Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts" (1986) written by John Mitchell. "Tell Me (Rap version)", which features Yubin's self-written rap verse, was added as a B-side to their second physical single "So Hot" in May 2008.

"Tell Me" was a major commercial success in South Korea, topping all online and offline charts. It spent six non-consecutive weeks in the number one position on KBS's Music Bank and achieved a triple crown at SBS's Inkigayo. The song gained significant attention throughout South Korea for its choreography, which was widely imitated and featured on various online video sites.^[2]

"Tell Me" was voted the Song of the Year at the Melon Music Awards and Sports Korea Awards in 2007, and was voted the number one most popular song of the year on Gallup Korea. It was named one of top 10 greatest K-pop songs of all time by Melon and Rolling Stone for sparking a "hook song trend" in K-pop.

Background and release

"Tell Me" is a fast-tempo song about a girl who has fallen in love. A highlight of the song is an exclamation of surprise, "어머나!" (Eomeona!, similar in meaning to "Oh, my goodness!) sung in the pre-chorus by member Sohee.

When producer Park Jin-young first introduced the song to the group, the Wonder Girls felt that the song was too different and would not be successful. However, once they were used to the song, they eventually believed it could be a strong single. The song was promoted with an updated version of the song, titled "Tell Me (Rap version)", which is the first release from the group to feature member Yubin following Hyuna's departure. On September 5, 2007, Yubin made her debut in the group's live performance of "Tell Me" on Music Bank.^[3]

"Tell Me" was initially planned to be the second English single for the group, as a follow-up to "Nobody".^[4] "Tell Me" did not see a release as a single in the United States, but an English version of the song was featured on their second extended play 2 Different Tears which was released on May 15, 2010.^[5]

Versions

The original version of "Tell Me" is featured on the group's debut album The Wonder Years and features vocals from the original line-up consisting of Min Sunye, Park Yeeun, Ann Sohee, Lee Sun Mi and Kim Hyuna. Due to the last-minute addition of rapper Yubin to the group, her rap is not on the album version, and a version titled "Tell Me (Rap Version)" was made to include Yubin's vocals. This version was included as a B-side on the group's maxi-single So Hot (2008). The song was later re-recorded for the Japanese release of their greatest hits album WonderBest (2012) and features the band's third line-up consisting of Min Sunye, Park Yeeun, Ahn Sohee, Kim Yubin and Woo Hyerim, with previous members' vocals removed. "Tell Me" was recorded by the Wonder Girls in 3 languages: Korean, English, and Mandarin-Chinese.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture

The choreography for the song was simple and widely imitated: by October, many fan performances of the dance circulated on video sharing sites such as YouTube and Daum,^[6] including one by a group of policemen who were eventually profiled on SBS's Star King and performed both in front of and with Wonder Girls.^[7] This was dubbed the "Tell Me Syndrome" and led the girls to be named "Korea's Little Sisters". Many celebrities, including Shin Hye Sung, Super Junior's Kim Heechul, Nam Hyun Joon and Hong Kyung-min, also sang and danced to the song at their own fan meetings. The song was labelled a "pop phenomenon" by the San Francisco Chronicle, and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen stated that the dance clips were among his favorites on the website.^[2] Furthermore, on the December 28, 2007 edition of Music Bank, Big Bang joined Wonder Girls for a performance that included both "Tell Me" and "Lies".^[8]

The song has also been covered by other K-pop artists, including in full by Girls' Generation on the July 4, 2008 edition of Music Bank. This was one half of a song trade where both groups covered one song by the other group, with Wonder Girls also covering "Kissing You" on the same show.^[9] Sistar also performed a dance cover of the song on MBC's Star Dance Battle on February 3, 2011.^[10] On May 25, 2016, JYP labelmates Twice covered the song at an open concert. On December 24, 2022, NewJeans covered "Tell Me" at the SBS Gayo Daejeon.^[11]

Accolades

Legacy

Tamar Herman of Billboard called the song the most influential song in Wonder Girls' career, writing that it "went viral as YouTube was just beginning out and resulted in a dance craze in South Korea based around the single's easy-to-learn choreography".^[26] In 2014, Mnet included "Tell Me" in their list of "Legend 100 Songs", a list of some of the most influential songs in Korean music history.^[27] In the same year, Star News named the track one of the ten best digital hit songs in South Korea.^[28] In a survey involving 30 Korean music critics published by The Dong-a Ilbo in 2016, it was chosen as the second best female idol song by both the public and music experts in the past 20 years.^[29]

In a ranking conducted by 35 Korean music critics and industry professionals curated by Melon and newspaper Seoul Shinmun in 2021, "Tell Me" was named the ninth best K-pop song of all time. Music critic Hwang Seon-yeop said that "If I were to pick the most important event in the chronicle of K-pop, I think I could say without hesitation that it was the 'butterfly effect caused by this song'". Hwang added the song symbols "the starting point of the so-called 'hook song' trend, which uses addictive repeating phrases and emphasizes the importance of 'choreography' in idol pop. [...] This is a work that defined the concept of K-pop and opened up its revival in earnest."^[30] In 2023, Rolling Stone named it the tenth greatest song in the history of Korean pop music, writing that "Wonder Girls established a blueprint of catchiness with 'Tell Me,' one of K-pop’s first modern 'hook songs' and one of the first to spark a dance craze".^[31]

Release history