2012: International promotions, TaeTiSeo and Girls & Peace


On January 12, 2012, the group attended the Golden Disk Awards, held in Osaka, bringing home two awards; the "Digital Bonsang" and the highly coveted "Digital Daesang". A week later, on January 19, 2012, they attended the Seoul Music Awards, and brought back two awards, the "Bonsang" and "Popularity" awards. The group also won two awards from the Gaon Chart Awards, winning the Album Of The Year for the fourth Quarter and Oricon "Hallyu Singer" award.

Girls' Generation perform "The Boys" at the LG Cinema 3D World Festival, 1 April 2012.
Their appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman and Live! with Kelly on January 31, 2012, and February 1, 2012, where they performed remixes of the English version of "The Boys", marked the first time that a Korean musical act has performed on each of the shows.They also performed on the French show, Le Grand Journal, on February 9, 2012, after it was announced that they were to release "The Boys" on February 13, 2012, through Universal Music Group’s Polydor Records in France. In the same month, Forbes Korea reported the year's list of the "Top 40 Power Celebrities". Girls' Generation ranked number one on the list, thus making them the most powerful South Korean girl group and female celebrity. Figures for the groups total earnings for 2011 were released in March, 2012. The group placed first among their label, earning over 100 billion won, or, approximately, $88.56 million USD. April 2012 saw the formation of Girls' Generation-TTS, or simply "TaeTiSeo", a subunit composed of members Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. The subgroup released their first mini-album, Twinkle, on May 2.The group continued promotion throughout the month, performing on variety shows and at the Hallyu Dream Wave Concert. "Twinkle" debuted at number 126 on the Billboard 200, selling over 3,000 copies and making it the highest charting K-Pop album on the chart at the time. By July, 2012, the album had sold 140,000 copies in its native country, and a further 24,000 copies abroad. On May 20, 2012, the group performed with their label-mates at the Honda Center in Anaheim, as part of the first date of SMTown Live World Tour III. The tour will continued to Tokyo, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

"Paparazzi" was released on June 27, 2012 which serve as the lead single from their second Japanese-language album. Paparazzi proved to be another successful release for the group, debuting atop the Japanese Hot 100, selling over 92,000 copies in its first week, becoming their second best first week opening, following the 102,000 debut of Mr. Taxi, a year prior. "Paparazzi"'s release, boosted the groups total single sales in the country to over 647,000, according to SoundScan Japan. That same month, the group won "Best Album of the Year" for their debut Japanese album at the 2012 VMAJs. It was announced on July 3, 2012, that the group was to release official stamps the following month, commemorating their 5th Anniversary. A total of 14 stamps were produced, which included autographed album covers. This marked the first time a celebrity had made a contract with Korea Post to produce stamps. Within an hour of the stamps' issuing, over half of the available stamp sheets had already sold out. On August 10, 2012, it was revealed that the group was to release a Blu-ray/DVD videography entitled "Girls' Generation Complete Video Collection".

Performing in Singapore, November 2012
"Oh! / All My Love Is For You", the group's second double A-side single, and the second single from their second Japanese studio album was released on September 26, 2012, and featuring a Japanese remake of their 2010 single, "Oh!".Oh!, earned first place on Oricon’s Weekly Single chart, selling 66,000 copies in its first week. In addition, the group's Complete Video Collection reached number one on Oricon's Weekly DVD and Blu-ray charts, selling a collective 59,000 discs. They are the second artist to reach number one on all three charts in the same week. The group's second Japanese album, Girls' Generation II: Girls & Peace, was released on November 28, 2012. The album was preceded by the single "Flower Power", which is set to be released on November 21, 2012. Despite having a limited release, "Flower Power" sold 29,000 copies in its first week, peaking at number five on the Oricon Chart, the single also reached number six on the Japan Hot 100. Girls' Generation II: Girls & Peace sold 116,963 copies in its first week of release, ranking third on Oricon's Weekly Albums Chart. "Girls & Peace" has since been certified Platinum by the RIAJ, denoting 250,000 copies sent to Japanese retailers. The group released the 2011 Girls' Generation Tour DVD on November 30, 2012 which features footage from the 2011 concert tour of the same name. Due to their Japanese releases in 2012, the group ranked seventh among Japanese artists and as the top Korean artist in Japan in terms of monetary profit after generating over 4.3 billion Yen (US$51 million) in 2012.The group released the track "Dancing Queen", a remake version of Duffy's Mercy, on December 21, 2012.