Ready to Be World Tour

Lore & Background

By the time the 'Ready To Be' tour rolled out, TWICE had already cemented a particular kind of magic in live performance: the ability to make a stadium of tens of thousands feel like a single, breathing organism. Their choreography—built on the philosophy of 'feel-special' energy—was designed so that every beat landed in the audience's chest before it reached the ears. The 2023 tour amplified that philosophy to its fullest expression, with stage designs that shifted between intimate, almost conversational moments and full-scale pyrotechnic crescendos.

The 'Ready To Be' era itself carried a thematic weight for the group. After years of being framed by outsiders as 'the girl group that smiles,' the members leaned into a narrative of self-determination and collective strength. On stage, that translated into moments where the choreography deliberately broke from their usual synchronized precision into something rawer, more individual, before snapping back into unity. Fans noted the contrast as a sign of artistic maturity without sacrificing the infectious joy that defined their earlier concerts.

The tour also became a touchstone for the fandom, 'ONCE,' whose organized light-stick displays and synchronized chants had become a fixture of K-pop live culture. Several cities saw record-breaking attendance for a girl group concert in that venue's history, and the group's encores—often extending well past the scheduled end—became a ritual fans specifically traveled to witness.

In Their Own Story

The house lights in Seoul dimmed to a deep amber, and for three seconds the arena was silent except for the hum of ten thousand phone screens lifting into the dark. Then a single synth note—low, almost subsonic—rolled through the floor and into the soles of every shoe in the front row. Jihyo stepped to the lip of the stage, hands in her pockets, and said nothing. She didn't need to. The crowd already knew the next four words. They screamed them back before the track even dropped, and the stage lights exploded into a wall of hot pink and white that turned the ceiling into a second sky. Somewhere in row forty, a fan's phone recorded the moment her best friend cried, and neither of them wiped their eyes until the encore. By the time the last confetti cannon fired, the floor was slick and glittering, and nine girls were bowing so low their foreheads nearly touched the stage, breathing hard, laughing, alive.

Reader's Guide

TWICE 5th World Tour 'Ready To Be' (2023)

The tour opened in Asia, with Seoul shows anchoring the run at a major dome venue, followed by dates in Bangkok, Taipei, and Tokyo. Each Asian stop featured a slightly tailored setlist, with localized fan interactions and city-specific intro videos that became a signature of the group's touring style.

The North American leg carried the tour to Los Angeles and New York, where the production scaled up to include a rotating center stage and a full LED backdrop. The setlist blended the new 'Ready To Be' material—featuring the title track and album singles—with crowd staples like 'Feel Special,' 'What Is Love,' and 'Cheer Up.' The encores consistently ran long, with the members taking requests from the audience and delivering ad-lib commentary between songs.

Europe and Australia rounded out the schedule, with shows in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Melbourne. The European dates were noted for their tighter acoustic arrangements on ballad sections, while the Australian leg featured a particularly elaborate finale with synchronized drone-light effects above the stage.

What distinguished this tour from TWICE's previous world runs was the emphasis on narrative arc within a single set: the show was structured in three 'acts' that moved from high-energy pop to reflective mid-tempo pieces and back to a full-throttle closer, giving the concert the feel of a short story rather than a song list. The choreography also incorporated new lifts and formations that pushed the members' physicality further than in 2019, and the group's on-stage banter—particularly the playful rivalries between Nayeon and Jeongyeon or Sana and Tzuyu—gave the tour a warm, unscripted texture that fans replayed in clips for months afterward.

Did You Know?

• The 'Ready To Be' tour is TWICE's fifth world tour, making them one of the few K-pop girl groups to complete five full international concert series.
• The tour supported the 'Ready To Be' album, which marked the group's first full album release in several years and signaled a new creative chapter.
• TWICE's live performances are famous for their 'feel-special' choreography philosophy, where every movement is designed to be physically felt by the audience, a concept that became even more pronounced on this tour.
• The group has been active since their 2015 debut, making the 2023 tour a milestone that spanned nearly a decade of continuous global touring.