Severely (song)

"Severely" (Korean: 지독하게; RR: Jidokhage; also translated as "Fiercely") is a song by South Korean idol rock band F.T. Island. It was released on January 31, 2012, under FNC Music and serves as the lead single of the band's fourth mini-album Grown-Up. A rock ballad, the song was written by Han Seong-ho, and composed by Kim Do-hun and Lee Sang-ho.

"Severely" peaked at number three on South Korea's national Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100, spending two consecutive weeks at its peak on both charts. The song earned F.T. Island three consecutive wins—dubbed a "Triple Crown"—on JTBC's music television program Music on Top, in addition to two wins on Mnet's M Countdown and one win on Seoul Broadcasting System's (SBS) Inkigayo.

"Severely" is a slow-tempo rock ballad.^[1] The song was written by Han Seong-ho, composed by Kim Do-hun and Lee Sang-ho, and arranged by the latter; it was composed in the key of E major using common time with a tempo of 71 beats per minute.^[2][3]

On January 27, 2012, F.T. Island released a music video teaser for "Severely". The full music video was released on January 31, 2012, which starred lead vocalist Lee Hong-gi and AOA member Kim Seol-hyun, a trainee of FNC Music at the time, as his love interest.^[4][5] The music video begins with Lee in a church where he mourns the death of his love interest. After exiting the building, he returns to the past and is given a second chance at saving the woman's life at the cost of his own.

Beginning on February 2, 2012, F.T. Island initiated promotions for Grown-Up by performing "Severely" and "We Hope to Become Lovers" on Mnet's music television program M! Countdown.^[6] The band also performed the songs the following days on Korean Broadcasting System's (KBS) Music Bank,^[7] Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation's (MBC) Show! Music Core^[8] and SBS's Inkigayo.^[9] On February 9, "Severely" earned its first K-Chart win on M! Countdown.^[10] F.T. Island won a second time on February 23.^[11] They won JTBC's Music on Top on February 15,^[12] February 22,^[13] and February 29, the latter of which earned them a Triple Crown for their third consecutive win on the show.^[14] On February 26, the band won Inkigayo's Mutizen.^[15] F.T. Island's final promotional performance was held on Inkigayo on March 18, 2012.^[16]

With one eligible charting day, "Severely" entered at number 76 on South Korea's national monthly Gaon Digital Chart for January.^[17] On the chart dated January 29 – February 4, 2012, it debuted at number four on the weekly Gaon Digital Chart, shifting 334,140 downloads and 827,392 streams within its first week of release.^[18][19][20] The song rose to its peak at number three the following week, where it remained for two consecutive frames before descending to number eight.^[21][22][23] For the month of February, the song ranked at number three.^[24] By the end of the year, "Severely" was the 24th most-downloaded song with 2,291,448 units and the 81st most-streamed song with 15,206,652 streams domestically.^[25][26] It ranked number 65 on the year-end Gaon Digital Chart.^[27]

On the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100, "Severely" debuted at number 35.^[28] On its second week, the song rose to number four.^[29] It peaked at number three the following week, where it remained for two consecutive weeks before falling to number ten.^[30][31] On the year-end chart, "Severely" ranked at number 39.^[32]