On June 2, 2020, VICTON released the single album Mayday along with the music video for their track of the same name. Mayday was the group’s second single album, the first being 2018’s TIME OF SORROW, and features the title track along with an instrumental version. While the concept photos that the group released showed the seven members in colorful suits surrounded by flowers, “Mayday” and its music video were a far cry from that beauty.

The Music Video

The music video for “Mayday” picks up where previous music video “Howling” left off. In “Howling,” VICTON are seen in a desolate, dystopian-like setting, but the video focuses mostly on the group’s incredible choreography as they express the feeling of losing a lover, though trying to remain optimistic that they’ll return. At the very end of the video, Seungwoo is seen falling backwards, and he lands face down in an abandoned building (that may be familiar to any STAYs reading this) at the beginning of “Mayday.”

Between cuts of Seungwoo laying on the ground, we see flashes of a woman in a purple dress and the other members in a flowery setting before he’s able to stand up. Once he’s up, Seungwoo is seen looking up towards the moon that’s floating just above his head, along with some asteroids and other planets. This is when the track begins to play, almost a minute into the music video, and Seungwoo and Seungsik switch places.

While “Mayday” still places an emphasis on the group’s choreography over an actual plot like “Howling,” there is still a slight plot here. If “Howling” was the dystopia, then is “Mayday” the utopia? Or is it purgatory? Is that why there are brief moments of the group surrounded by flowers as they make their way through the building? Why are there women standing on the floor above them, watching the group dance? Who are the people running back and forth across the hallway of the building during Hanse’s verse, and who is the woman in the purple dress?

There’s no doubt that the music video is beautiful, but it leaves plenty of questions unanswered that, unfortunately, don’t seem to be answered by the music video for “What I Said.” 

The group later released their choreography practice video three days after the release of the album.

The Comeback Performance

VICTON had their comeback for “Mayday” on the June 4, 2020 episode of M!COUNTDOWN. To open the performance, the group was seen heading down dark hallways holding flashlights, a nod to a scene in the music video that they later performed during the comeback stage, before making it onto the stage. The stage design was set to look like an abandoned building, though it resembled the “Howling” music video more than it did anything seen in “Mayday.” The members wore outfits from the “Mayday” video, and during the chorus, sparklers went off above and behind them.  

The Legacy

During their two weeks of promotions for “Mayday,” VICTON earned their third-ever music show win on the June 9, 2020 episode of The Show. Their previous two wins came on November 12, 2019 with “Nostalgic Night” and on March 17, 2020 with “Howling,” the latter being their first win promoting as a seven-member group, as Seungwoo was under contract with former boy group X1 during “Nostalgic Night” promotions.

Mayday peaked at No. 3 on the Gaon Weekly Album Chart and No. 8 on the Gaon Monthly Album Chart. Title track “Mayday” peaked at No. 5 on the Gaon Weekly Download Chart, and was the group’s first track to appear on the Billboard U.S. World Digital Song Sales Chart, where it peaked at No. 23.

“Mayday” is currently the group’s music video with the most views, with just about three million more views than their most recent release “What I Said” and five million more views than the track’s predecessor, “Howling.” The track is also VICTON’s most streamed song on Spotify. For a track that was only promoted for two weeks, it sure did make its presence known and left a lasting impression on K-Pop fans.