RaeRae’s verdict: i-dle made a breakup song where the emergency response is five women, a Paris safe house, and permission to talk trash about the ex. “Girlfriend” has a chorus simple enough to sound childish until the members start swearing in a group chant. Soyeon wrote it in 2022. Releasing it after all five renewed their contracts turns that old friendship song into a current mission statement.
Release File
- Artist: i-dle
- Members: Miyeon, Minnie, Soyeon, Yuqi, and Shuhua
- Song: “Girlfriend”
- Music video released: May 9, 2025
- Album: We are, released May 19, 2025
- Lyrics: Soyeon
- Composition: Soyeon, Pop Time, Daily, and Likey
- Arrangement: Pop Time, Daily, and Likey
- MV director: Kim In-tae of AFF
- Choreography video released: June 2, 2025
A Girlfriend Is the Friend Who Answers the Phone
The song uses “girlfriend” in the friend sense. A woman has been hurt by a boyfriend, and the group answers with company, gossip, drinks, and the promise that her girlfriends are better than him.
English allows that word to carry romantic ambiguity, and the chorus does not rush to remove it. Listeners who hear a queer declaration are not hallucinating the grammar. The official description centers friendship after a breakup, while the hook leaves enough room for fans to sing it toward whichever woman they mean.
That openness makes the song livelier than a strict empowerment lecture. It is a group chant people can use for friendship, flirtation, or the exact moment a terrible man gets removed from the group chat.
Soyeon Kept a 2022 Song Until the Group Caught Up
Soyeon said the song was written in 2022 and felt better suited to 2025. The timing matters. i-dle renewed with Cube Entertainment in late 2024, removed the old parenthetical “G” from the group name in May 2025, and opened the We are era by emphasizing the five-member unit.
A chorus declaring “we are i-dle” could have been a generic name check in another year. Here it sounds like a contract-renewal answer. They stayed, they renamed themselves, and the first pre-release says the women beside you may be the relationship worth protecting.
The song was waiting in a folder. The context finally gave it teeth.
Pop Time Builds a Cheerful Threat
Pop Time, Daily, and Likey arrange the track around bright electro-pop percussion, bouncing bass, brass-like bursts, and a sing-song hook that recalls early-2010s K-pop. The sound is almost playground simple.
That simplicity lets the vocal colors do the work. Minnie opens with smoke in her tone. Miyeon adds clean pop brightness. Yuqi’s low voice gives the joke weight. Shuhua delivers the blunt English lines with dry force. Soyeon steers the rhythm and makes the conversational phrases land like decisions.
The instrumental does not chase a giant drop. It keeps moving like friends pulling somebody out of bed, choosing an outfit, and refusing to let the night end in self-pity.
The Chorus Is Dumb in the Useful Way
“Your girlfriend is better than a boyfriend” repeats until it becomes a rule. There is no intricate metaphor to unpack. The hook is built for five voices, fan chants, and the moment a crowd realizes it already knows the next line.
The risk is obvious. Repetition this blunt can feel like a slogan pasted over better verses. The members’ different deliveries prevent total flattening, especially during the closing sequence when each voice attacks the same declaration differently.
The censored streaming version also loses some bite. The uncensored line about not caring about love is the punch line. Replacing the profanity with “buck” turns adult frustration into a deer problem.
Paris Becomes a Breakup Protection Program
Kim In-tae’s video places the group in Paris, but this is not a luxury postcard about staring at the Eiffel Tower. The members operate like an underground service for women with bad exes. A distressed friend finds allies, the group tracks the man, and the city becomes their territory.
The cinematography uses streets, interiors, nighttime color, surveillance energy, and quick character scenes to make the five women feel like a team with assignments. Paris supplies freedom and romance as expected, then the story turns romance into the problem being cleaned up.
That premise fits i-dle’s long habit of treating men in music videos as disposable plot equipment. “TOMBOY” used dolls and a kidnapping. “Girlfriend” makes the operation feel less theatrical and more like a service women quietly recommend to one another.
Five Members Play Five Kinds of Accomplice
Soyeon reads as the planner. Minnie brings noir glamour that belongs naturally in the Paris setting. Miyeon can look perfectly respectable while participating in something suspicious, which is always useful. Yuqi adds physical comedy and blunt confidence. Shuhua delivers cool disdain like the ex has already been judged and found boring.
The video gives each member an identifiable temperament instead of five versions of “woman in fashionable coat.” Their differences make the friendship credible. Real friend groups do not respond to disaster with one synchronized personality.
The man barely matters. Correct. This is a story about the response team.
The Choreography Video Removes the Detective Story
The June 2 choreography video answers what the MV deliberately obscures. With the Paris plot gone, the viewer can see a dance constructed around thumbs-up gestures, linked formations, conversational handoffs, and five people repeatedly closing ranks.
The point choreography is intentionally accessible. This is not an athletic showcase. The members step, gesture, trade center, and use expressions to sell the lyric. The movement looks like a friend group retelling the breakup with increasingly disrespectful reenactments.
That ease fits i-dle better than forcing them into anonymous precision. Their performance strength has always been individual character inside a shared concept. “Girlfriend” lets character remain visible.
The Formation Work Supports the Meaning
Many sections begin with one member exposed and the others arriving around her. The structure makes support literal. Center changes feel like passing the story from one girlfriend to another.
The thumbs-up move is slightly ridiculous and therefore correct. It turns “better” into a gesture anybody can copy without dance training. More complex choreography might have looked impressive and said less.
The camera stays wide enough to document spacing, then moves closer when expressions carry the joke. The video earns its separate existence because it reveals a performance argument the narrative MV only hints at.
The Group Name Change Lands Inside the Song
The 2025 rebrand from (G)I-DLE to i-dle was framed as removing a gender label and opening the name. “Girlfriend” complicates that neat explanation in a good way. The group removes the “G,” then releases one of its most explicitly woman-centered songs.
Dropping a label did not require dropping female solidarity. The members can reject a limiting category while still making music about women choosing women, in friendship or otherwise.
The chant “we are i-dle” carries both ideas at once. They define the group themselves, and the definition is collective.
What Worked
- Soyeon’s old song gained sharper meaning after the five-member renewal and rebrand.
- The hook leaves room for friendship and queer readings without breaking either.
- All five vocal colors remain easy to identify.
- The Paris MV gives the breakup-support message an actual plot.
- The choreography video turns solidarity into formations and accessible gestures.
What Needed a Better Alibi
The chorus repeats long enough to test its own charm. One bridge with a specific detail about the terrible ex would have made the story more personal and given the final chant a new reason to return.
The clean version also damages the punch line. If the concept is adult women rescuing a friend after a breakup, let them use the adult word.
RaeRae’s Final Verdict
“Girlfriend” is i-dle turning a contract-renewal era into a friend-group promise. The production is bright, the hook is blunt, and the video treats Paris like headquarters for removing disappointing men. The choreography then shows exactly how five different performers close ranks without losing their personalities.
The boyfriend had a song. The girlfriends had a plan.