The Wonder Girls (Korean: 원더걸스) are a South Korean girl group. Their producer and manager is singer-songwriter Park Jin-Young and the Wonder Girls are signed to his talent agency, JYP Entertainment.[2] Each of the five original members were selected through auditions. Debuting in early 2007, they became popular in the fall of that year with the song "Tell Me." They have scored three consecutive #1 hit singles: "Tell Me", "So Hot", and "Nobody". In 2008, they won two Daesangs ("Artist of the Year" Awards).
The group began their entry into the American market in 2009, with lead single "Nobody"; the single became the first song by a Korean group to enter the Billboard Hot 100.
History
007–2008: Debut, The Wonder Begins, and The Wonder Years
As a group, the Wonder Girls were introduced through the program called MTV Wonder Girls which was filmed and directed by MTV. The first four episodes outlined the characteristics and profiles of each member and showcased their schedules for the day. Not long after selecting Ye Eun as the fifth member, the Wonder Girls had their showcase in the MTV Studio. In the showcase, they performed a cover of "Don't Cha" by thePussycat Dolls and their own songs, such as "Irony" and "미안한 마음" ("It's Not Love"). Sun Ye did the solo by singing Destiny's Child's "Stand Up for Love" while Hyuna showed off her dancing skills with a solo dance. The other three members — Ye Eun, Sun Mi and So Hee — performed a cover of Janet Jackson's "Together Again".
The Wonder Girls officially debuted in early 2007 on MBC's 쇼! 음악 중심 ("Show! Music Core"), singing "Irony", the hip-hop single from their debut mini-album, The Wonder Begins. The mini-album sold 11,454 copies in 2007.[8] The Wonder Girls official fanclub was established, with the name of "Wonderful". Additionally, the group did several showcases in China after receiving Chinese lessons.[9] Throughout the rest of 2007, however, members of the Wonder Girls were beset by various injuries and health problems. On June 25, Sohee was sidelined for a month after tearing aknee ligament falling off a motorcycle during the filming of 뜨거운 것이 좋아 ("I Like It Hot").[10] The remaining four members continued performing until late July, when Hyuna was removed from the group by her parents due to their concern over her health—in particular, chronic gastroenteritisand fainting spells.[3] In the autumn of 2007, Good Entertainment, the talent agency sent their trainee Yubin to JYP Entertainment as a replacement for Hyuna. She made her debut three days later in the group's live performance of "Tell Me" on Music Bank .[11]
Their first full-length album, The Wonder Years, was released the following week with "Tell Me." Due to the last-minute addition of Yubin, the album version does not contain her part. However, the performance version of the song was reworked to include a bridge with rapping by Yubin. The single was a hit and reached number one on various Korean television and internet music charts, including KBS's Music Bank.[citation needed] The choreography for the song was simple and widely imitated: by October, many fan performances of the dance circulated on video sharing sites such as YouTube and Daum,[12] including one by a group of policemen who were eventually profiled on SBS's Star King. The dance became so popular it was known as the "Tell Me Virus" and earned them the title of 'Korea's Little Sisters'.[citation needed] Videos of the dance came from fans in France and the Philippines, and the song also went to Number 1 in Thailand.[3]
The Wonder Girls had an extensive promotional schedule for their album and in late 2007 they began performing the second single from the album, "이 바보" ("This Fool"). They made numerous appearances on variety and game shows, sang live on radio, at music festivals, on music shows, and in special joint performances with other groups such as Big Bang andGirls' Generation. MTV has also aired three seasons of The Wonder Life, a reality TV series starring the girls. The Wonder Girls returned to Korea in spring of 2008. In May a picture of each member was released over five days starting with Ye-eun and ending with Sohee. A preview track from the upcoming single was then released. There were rumours that past member Hyuna would be returning to the group; JYP Entertainment confirmed that this was not the case.[13] Their new single, "So Hot", was released on May 22, 2008; the song topped online charts soon after.[14][15] They then performed in mid-2008 on MBC's Music Core, performing "So Hot" and "This Time". The full single was released soon after containing the title track, the rap version of "Tell Me", "This Time", and "You're Out". Due to vocal cord problems, Yubin temporarily lip-synched her parts under doctor's orders.[15]
The full music video for "Nobody" was released in the early autumn of 2008, and the single was digitally released at the same time. They performed the following weekend on Music Core, Music Bank, and Inkigayo. The song went to #1 on KBS' Music Bank, staying there for four consecutive weeks,[16] and also won Cyworld's "Song of the Month" award in September and October 2008.[17] Like "Tell Me", "Nobody" also sparked a dance craze.[18]
At the 2008 MNet KM Music Festival Awards, the Wonder Girls won three awards, including "Song of the Year" and "Best Music Video" for "Nobody", and "Best Female Group".[6] The group also won an award at the 2008 Golden Disk Awards for high digital sales.[19] At the 18th Seoul Music Awards, the Wonder Girls won the Daesang ("Artist of the Year" award) for "Nobody", along two other awards.[5]
In February 2008, the Wonder Girls joined their producer Park Jin-young for his month-long concert tour through Korea and the United States (including New York City and Los Angeles) as special guests, and took the opportunity to film the music video for "Wishing on a Star" while in New York City.[20] Park had stated that the concerts were also meant to be a showcase for his other protégés, such as Min, G-Soul, and Lim Jeong Hee.[21] They were also selected as a top girl group by Virgin Media, which put them amidst girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls, Girls Aloud, and Danity Kane.[22] At the end of 2008 the Wonder Girls had earned ₩12 billion (equivalent to $9 million US) as a group.[23]
2009: American debut
The Wonder Girls tour started on February 28, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Wonder Girls, along with mentor JYP, then held concerts in the United States, visiting Los Angeles on March 5, La Mirada on March 6, and New York City on March 8.[24] They also performed for a small crowd at MTV Iggy on March 10. The group then returned to South Korea, holding concerts in late March in Seoul and Busan.[25] This tour was documented in the M.net reality show Welcome to Wonderland.
After the end of the tour, the Wonder Girls debuted a music video for "Now", a cover of Fin.K.L's single from their third album. Created for a commercial for LG, a version featuring only the dance was released online on April 9, 2009.[26] The Wonder Girls also started their official MySpace Music account.[4] The page confirmed that the group would launch in the United States with the official release of an English version of "Nobody" in the summer of 2009.
In June 2009, JYP Entertainment announced that the Wonder Girls would be joining the Jonas Brothers on the North American leg of the Jonas Brothers World Tour 2009.[27] The company also announced that "Nobody" would be the first English single, followed by "Tell Me",[27] and that an English album would be forthcoming.[28] It was later revealed that in order to concentrate on their American debut, both So-hee and Sun-mi dropped out of high school as it was not possible to attend while in the United States.[29][30]
The Wonder Girls released an English version of their single "Nobody" on June 26, 2009, just one day before the start of their tour with the Jonas Brothers. The Wonder Girls were initially signed on for 13 concert dates across the US, but they were eventually given the opportunity to join the Jonas Brothers for a total of 45 concert dates.[31] "Nobody" eventually made a debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2009, becoming the first Korean group to enter the chart.[32][33] The song also went on to top the Taiwan and Hong Kong music chart.[34]
2010: Line-up changes, International tour, and Television Series
On January 22, 2010, it was announced that Sunmi would be postponing her musical career to pursue an academic career; Hye-Rim (Lim), a JYP trainee, will take her place.[35][36]Sunmi continued as a member of the Wonder Girls through the month of February in order to complete scheduled events.
The Wonder Girls are currently preparing their debut English album, with half (6 tracks) to consist of English versions of Korean singles and the other half of brand new material, initially scheduled for release in February 2010.[7] They were also planning to have a headlining tour in January 2010;[7] however, due to the departure of Sunmi, plans for both the tour and the album were delayed.[37]
Due to the popularity of the girls in Asia and worldwide, the electronics brand Sony Ericsson chose the girls to be the ambassadors of Sony Ericsson in the Asia Pacific Region which will see promotional activities in South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan as well as Australia and New Zealand. After the announcement, the girls flew to Singapore where they held a press meeting performing their songs "So Hot", "Tell Me" and "Nobody".[38]
On April 5, 2010, the Wonder Girls announced a 20-show tour of the US and Canada, the Wonder World Tour, which will include fellow label mates 2PM who will be joining them for 9 confirmed dates in Washington DC, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Houston,Dallas, Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Francisco in conjunction with Live Nation,[39] with other dates yet to be confirmed. The tour is a combination of the English and Korean versions of their hits, covers of popular English-language song, and their new songs from their upcoming album, as stated by Yenny during their Ustream webchat with fans on April 17, 2010.[40] The first leg of the tour began in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2010.
On May 1, the Wonder Girls' performed at the Korean Music Festival at the Hollywood Bowl [41]
The Wonder Girls followed up their tour announcement with the unveiling of the newest single/EP, titled 2 Different Tears. The title track was recorded in three different languages: Chinese, Korean and English. The music video for 2 Different Tearspremiered on YouTube on May 15, 2010; it was shot in the Gyeonggi-do province of South Korea. The music video features Park Jin-Young and Korean-American comedian Bobby Lee. There are three versions of the music video : Korean, English andChinese.[42] Their album was released on the same day.
Between May 15, 2010 and May 31, 2010, the Wonder Girls returned to South Korea to promote the Korean version of 2 Different Tears. They had their comeback TV performance starting from M.Net's M! Countdown on May 22, 2010. On May 27, 2010, the Wonder Girls won their first #1 award for "2 Different Tears" on M! Countdown. The group wrapped up their last week of promotional activities in South Korea by performing on MBC's Music Core on May 29, 2010. During this two-week period, the Wonder Girls also appeared on several Korean variety and talk shows, including KBS's Win Win and Happy Together, as well as SBS's Family Outing 2 and MBC's Come to Play.
In May 2010, eight more US cities and two Canadian cities were added to the second leg of the Wonder World Tour. In addition, it was announced that label mates, 2AM, would open for the Wonder Girls in San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Englewood, CO, Atlanta, and Chicago.[43] During this time, the Wonder Girls' American promotional activities continued to earn them recognition: popular concert venue House of Blues named them "Artist of the Month" for June 2010[44] while online concert authority Pollstar featured them in a special article titled "The Wonders of K-pop".[45]
On July 29, MTV Korea premiered a new Season of Wonder Girls, MTV Wonder Girls (Season 4), that introduces the Wonder Girls' everyday life in the United States, such as at their New York home and studio, and preparations for the upcoming MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010.[46] The MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010 was held at the Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach on July 31. The show has been broadcast on August 21 on MTV Asia.[47]
On July 30, M.net premiered a new show Made in Wonder Girls that take the viewers behind the scenes of the Wonder Girls their first American tour, Wonder World Tour, as well as their promotions in Singapore and Indonesia.[48]
On August 3, the Wonder Girls performed in Singapore's SINGfest 2010 at Fort Canning Park.[49] On September 3 The Wonder Girls Performed On Seattle For Aion.[50]
Despite having two weeks of promotion in Korea of "2 Different Tears" after their two year hiatus, Wonder Girls ranked highly in the end of the year charts. In Gaon Chart, in all four charts : 2010 Top 100 Album Sales, 2010 Digital Comprehensive Top 100, 2010 Top 100 Download, 2010 Stream Top 100. In 2010 Top 100 Album Sales, managed to rank 50th with 28,594 albums. In addition to be in the top 50, in Digital Comprehensive Top 100, ranked 6th with 612,819,160 downloads, in Top 100 Downloads, ranked 9th with 2,790,298 in sales, and finally, ranked 9th with 28,504,554 sales in Stream Top 100. [51]
2011: Official American debut album
Although it was stated "Nobody" was their official debut song into the American music market, Rainstone said it was a ”Until now, it has only been a practice game. The Wonder Girls will begin their real, full-scale American debut this year.” for their new full English album with new songs, which was supposed to be released in fall 2010, but then pushed back to January 2011. The album was once again pushed back to March/April or by June.
In January, more info was released about the American album. JYP Entertainment's CEO Park Jin Young (JYP) hinted on his Twitter account he wrote a new song for the girls while recording in his drama "Dream High". [52] He later tweeted that he isn't the only producer for this album. [53] In addition to this, Rainstone (Rhee Woo Seok) of JYP Entertainment, the songwriter behind the Wonder Girls' international hit, "Nobody", stated that the album was expected to have six to seven tracks. The girls are flying back and forth from South Korea and New York to record the songs. Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, the mind behind Michael Jackson (You Rock My World), Britney Spears (I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll), Lady Gaga (Telephone), Beyoncé (Déjà Vu), JYJ (Empty) and Se7en (Girls), and Claude Kelly, a singer-songwriter who’s worked with Miley Cyrus (Party in the USA), Britney Spears (Circus) and Jesse McCartney (Oxygen), were revealed to be heavily participating in the album. Also, the album will be released by one of the three major labels of America. [54]With the information released of the new album, the girls tweeted photos of recording with Claude Kelly in the studio. [55][56]
In February, Chinese distributor ‘Starsing Records’ unveiled the best-selling albums for 2010, which included American artists like Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, but also for the Wonder Girls‘ “Special Edition".[57][58]
During the 2011 Chloe Fashion Show in Shanghai, China, the girls held several interviews. Leader Sunye said it is unclear if they will add their Mandarin songs to the new album and it's possible for Mandarin album for their Chinese fans. Yeeun said she's interested in composing songs for this album. Yubin stated that they will be going for a bolder approach, in addition to that, they said that shall indeed raise the stakes in their dance music, but still have elements of retro.[59][60][61]
Members
- Yu Bin (유빈) (b. October 4, 1988 as Kim Yoo Bin (김유빈). [3] (Main Rapper, Vocalist)
- Sun Ye (선예) (b. August 12, 1989 as Min Seon Yeh (민선예), also known as "Sun". (Leader, Main Vocalist)
- Ye Eun (예은) (b. May 26, 1989 as Park Ye Eun (박예은), also known as "Yenny". (Lead Vocalist)
- So Hee (소희) (b. June 27, 1992 as Ahn So Hee (안소희). (Vocalist, Lead Dancer)
- Hye Lim (혜림) (b. September 1, 1992 as Woo Hye Rim (우혜림. (Vocalist)
Former members
- Hyuna (현아) (b. June 6, 1992 as Kim Hyun Ah (김현아) left Wonder Girls in late July 2007 [62] due to health issues involving chronic gastroenteritis and fainting spells.[3] She was later signed to Cube Entertainment and is currently a member of girl group 4minute.
- Sun Mi (선미) (b. May 2, 1992 as Lee Seon Mi (이선미), also known as "Mimi", postponed her career to continue her academic career. Because JYP has not announced an official departure, Sun Mi is considered by many to still be a member of the group. JYP also stated Sun Mi is welcome to continue her musical career anytime.
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