History
Pre-debut
In 2001, the company held their first overseas casting auditions and discovered Han Geng in
Beijing,
China, who was chosen from among three thousand applicants.
[6] That same year, Yesung was discovered under Seoul's casting system. Sungmin and Donghae became trainees after jointly winning the first place in Best Outward Appearance in an SM-sponsored contest. In 2002, Heechul and Kangin were recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in
Los Angeles. Siwon was recruited in 2003 after being scouted at 16 in front of his high school, and Ryeowook in 2004, in which the latter was discovered through the Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition.
[7] In 2005, Shindong was selected. The last member, Cho Kyuhyun, was then discovered after winning third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005.
Not long after boy band
TVXQ's debut in 2003, news about Lee's unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread on the Internet. In early 2005, Lee confirmed the news and announced that an all-boy project group of twelve members would debut near the end of the year, promoting this singing group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia."
[8] Lee announced that that most members in this group were chosen because of their performing experiences as
actors,
MCs,
models, and
radio hosts prior debut. Heechul and Kibum were already established entertainers, and most of the other members had already made various kinds of appearances on television and media.
[9][10][11] Highly inspired by the rotational concept of Japan's girl group
Morning Musume, this group would also experience line-up changes, with new members replacing some selected members every year to keep the group constantly young and all-rounded. This concept was then newly introduced to the
K-pop market.
For a while the group was rumored to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm."
[12][a] However, before the group settled with their current name, SM simply referred to them as Junior, a representation of the members' young ages when they first became SM trainees.
[12] After the members' showcased their different talents to the company at a picnic, the company finalized their concept name to Super Junior. The group thereafter became officially
Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.
[7]
Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005.
[b] At the showcase, they performed various styles of
hip hop dancing. The group danced to
B2K's "Take It To The Floor." Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance away from the group, dancing to
Usher's "
Caught Up." However, the performance did not air on television until May 16, 2006 as a segment in the
Super Junior Show, the group's first television documentary.
2005–2006: The Super Junior project
Super Junior 05 debuted on
SBS's music program
Popular Song on November 6, 2005, performing their first single, "
TWINS (Knock Out)." A
digital single with "TWINS (Knock Out)", "You are the one", and three additional tracks were released online on November 8. A physical
CD single was scheduled to be released the following week but a more complete album,
SuperJunior05 (TWINS), was released on December 6, 2005 instead. Their debut album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at #3 in the monthly chart of December 2005.
[13][c] In that same month, they released "
Show Me Your Love," a collaboration single with TVXQ. "Show Me Your Love" became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling 49,945 copies that month.
[13]
In February 2006, Super Junior 05 began performances for "
Miracle", the second promotional single from their debut album. "Miracle" was the group's first single to peak #1 in online music charts of South Korea as well as the music charts of
Thailand, drawing interest from international markets.
[14] As promotions for "Miracle" came to an end, SM Entertainment began selecting new members for Super Junior's second line-up project, Super Junior 06. The company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate from the group. However, no members were taken out and a thirteenth member was added instead in May 2006. The line-up project has been abandoned since then, and the group became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05".
[15][16]
2006–2007: Don't Don and breakthrough success
On May 23, 2006, SM Entertainment revealed the thirteenth member Kyuhyun, who was discovered through a singing competition in 2005. They released their
single "
U" online for free download on May 25, 2006 in their official website. "U" had over 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and it ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server.
[17][18] The
physical single of "U" with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, 2006, eventually selling over 81,000 units.
[19] The single became one of Korea's most popular songs of the year, yielding #1 spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top music programs.
[20] By the end of the year, Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies, winning the title as Best New Group of 2006.
Super Junior's first sub-unit, the ballad-singing trio
Super Junior-K.R.Y., debuted on November 5, 2006 with a performance of
Hyena theme song "The One I Love" on
KBS music program
Music Bank.
[21] A second sub-unit arrived in February 2007 called
Super Junior-T. The trot-singing group released their first single "
Rokkugo" on February 23, 2007 and made a debut performance on
Popular Songs two days later.
[22]
Super Junior's second official album was intended for a late 2006 release, but due to
several accidental setbacks,
Don't Don was not released until September 20, 2007.
[23][24] Within the first three days of release, offline album sales for
Don't Don passed the 11,000 unit mark, debuting as #1 in all available offline charts. It finished the September monthly album sales as #1. 60,000 units were shipped by the first week of release and additional copies were printed.
[25] Although
Don't Don received rather bland reviews from critics, the album sold more than 160,000 copies by the end of the year, becoming the second best-selling record of 2007.
[26][27][c] The album also found success in
Taiwan; it broke the record for being the highest ranked Korean album on the G-music Combo Billboard Chart, surpassing the albums of TVXQ and
Shinhwa. Super Junior's album also ranked above Taiwanese boy band
K One, whose album debuted at #6.
[28][29]
Supported by the release of
Don't Don, Super Junior was nominated in seven separate categories at the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival that was held on November 17, 2007. Super Junior won three of those categories including "Netizen Choice Award" and "Mobile Popularity", being the biggest winner of the night. The group also won "Best Artist of the Year" (Daesang), termed by many as the highest recognition of the ceremony.
[30] Super Junior collected two more awards on December 14, 2007 at the 2007 Golden Disk Awards.
[31] Although defeated by SG Wannabe in winning the "Daesang", Super Junior won a "Bonsang" and the "TPL Anycall Popularity Award", which were reported as expected wins for the group by the media after the success of
Don't Don.
[31]
2008–2009: Beyond Korea and Sorry, Sorry
Main article:
Sorry, SorryOn October 2, 2007, SM Entertainment announced a third Super Junior sub-unit
Super Junior-M, a subgroup designated for the Chinese market.
[32][33] While the creation of the subgroup created a brief
controversy between the fans and the management,
[e] Super Junior-M became a phenomenal success in China,
[34] having the opportunity to have two sold-out concerts in
Hong Kong,
[35] top weekly ratings with their appearance on variety programs,
[36] and becoming the idol group with the most endorsement contracts in China.
[37] With the absence of almost half of the members in Korea, a fourth Super Junior sub-unit was created that same year to prevent Super Junior from disappearing in the Korean music industry. With five members from
Super Junior-T and Yesung, they formed the subgroup,
Super Junior-Happy. Super Junior-Happy released the
EP Cooking? Cooking! on June 5, 2008, and promotions ended on September 7, lasting for four months. In November 2008, Super Junior-T returned, this time as a singing group in
Japan, called SuperJunior-TxMoeyan; this group added Moeyan, a famous two-woman comedy group in Japan.
[38] "
ROCK&GO", a Japanese-language version of "Rokuko", debuted at #19 on the Oricon Daily Charts
[39] and jumped to #2 three days later.
[40]
Super Junior's first major tour,
Super Show, commenced on February 22, 2008 in
Seoul.
[41][42][43][f] The tour covered three countries and had shows on six different cities, including
Bangkok,
Shanghai, and
Beijing.
[33][42][44] From July 8 to July 9, 2008, Super Junior held their first fan meeting in Japan, at the
Nippon Budokan in
Tokyo, as a celebration for the grand opening of their official
Japanese Homepage, which was launched on April 1, 2008.
[45] 12,000 tickets to the fanmeeting were all sold out in several days. The group released a compiled Japan single the following day, entitled "
U/TWINS", which includes the Japanese version of "U" in the limited release, to complement the event. The single peaked at #4 on Japan's Oricon Daily Chart in its first day of release, and dropped down to only four places in its second. The single broke a new record for being the first Korean single to have made within top 10 on Japan's Oricon Weekly Chart.
[46] On August 2, 2008, Super Junior expanded their routes to Genting Highlands, Malaysia, being one of the top guest performers at the
MTV Asia Awards 2008 along with other international performing artists such as
OneRepublic and the
Jabbawockeez.
[5] They are the third SM artist to win Favorite Artist Korea at the MTV Asia Awards after
Kangta of
H.O.T and
BoA, and the second musical group to win the award after
JTL in 2008.
[5]
Super Junior's third album,
Sorry, Sorry, was released on March 12, 2009 with acclaimed reviews.
[47] The title single of the album, "
Sorry, Sorry" was digitally released on March 9, 2009.
[48] In less than a week after preorders were announced, over 150,000 copies were pre-ordered.
[49] Sorry, Sorry was their first album to debut at #1 on the Hanteo Charts, and it sold over 29,000 copies the first day, defeating
Seo Taiji's record of 25,000.
[1] Promotions for the album started March 13 with the performance of "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" on
Music Bank.
[50] Two weeks later, "Sorry, Sorry" became the number one song of the week on the same program.
[51] During the group's performance on music program
Popular Songs on March 15, ratings went up to as high as 14%, the highest in recent years.
[52] From March to May, "Sorry, Sorry" collected a total of ten #1 awards with consecutive wins in Korea, having the single becoming a national and international success.
[53][54] After only a month of release, the album became South Korea's best-selling album of 2009.
Sorry, Sorry was also a critically and commercially successful hit in other Asian countries, opting the group to become the only overseas representative for the second time at Taiwan's annual
Golden Melody Awards. "Sorry, Sorry" was also #1 for a record-breaking 37 weeks in Taiwan.
Sorry, Sorry was a best-selling Korean-language album in Taiwan,
[55] Thailand, China, and the Philippines, in which the latter listed the album to be the first
K-pop album to reach #1 in music charts from the country.
[56] Super Junior won three awards in the 1st MNET Asian Music Awards - Overseas Viewers Award, Mobile Popularity Award and CGV Popularity Award despite not attending. Super Junior's
Sorry, Sorry won Daesang at the 2009 Golden Disk Awards.
2010: Bonamana and vast Asian popularity
On May 6, 2010, the teaser for their fourth studio album,
Bonamana, was released through SM Entertainment's YouTube page. The full music video of the
lead single of the same name was released on May 12 and full album was released on May 13 in South Korea. The album was released by the group with only 10 members, without
Han Geng who has terminated his contract with SM Entertainment,
Kibum who is involved in acting career and
Kangin who had enlisted himself in to the Korean army.
[57] Their fourth album had also broken a personal record for the group by having over 200,000 pre-orders. On May 14, Super Junior had their comeback stage on
KBS Music Bank, performing title track "미인아 (Bonamana)" and "나쁜 여자 (Boom Boom)".
On May 17, 2010, music video for the song, "Victory Korea", which was used for the
2010 FIFA World Cup was released through SM Entertainment's YouTube page.
[58] Super Junior’s World Cup song ‘Victory Korea’ set to cheer the S.Korean team in the top 16 garners interests overseas. A poll was recently done on American site ESPN for the Best World Cup Song. There were 11 songs shortlisted for the poll including Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’, K’Nann’s ‘Wavin’ Flag’, Akon ‘Oh Akrica’ etc, to which the song "Victory Korea" by Super Junior was voted #1 with over 90% of the poll.
[59] "Victory Korea" features a sample mix from "Sorry, Sorry," with a similar dance done by the members of Super Junior-Happy in the music video.
On June 28, 2010, Super Junior released their repackaged album with three new tracks - "No Other", "All My Heart", "A Short Journey" - and the remixed version of "Shake It Up!". "A Short Journey" was composed by
Donghae and the lyrics were written by
Eunhyuk. "All My Heart" was composed by Leeteuk and SJ-M member Henry. On July 2, 2010, Super Junior had their first live performance of "No Other" on Music Bank. The music video for "No Other" was released on July 7, 2010. According to
Hanteo, the album has sold over 200,000 copies to date.
[60] The album Bonamana got the 7th spot on the Billboard's World Album-Chart
The group kicked off their third Asian tour,
Super Show 3 on August 14 and 15, 2010 at the
Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul.
[61] The tour also made a stop in
Qingdao on August 28, 2010,
Beijing on October 23, 2010, and
Nanjing on November 13, 2010.
On September 4, 2010, Super Junior took part in the
SM Town Live '10 World Tour along with fellow SM labelmates at the Staples Center in
Los Angeles. This marks the first time
SM Town has performed outside of Asia.
[63] On September 23, 2010, Super Junior released their original soundtrack "Angel" for
Haru: An Unforgettable Day in Korea, an omnibus drama that promotes Korea's tourism.
[citation needed]. On November 22, Super Junior have been honored as
National Pop Culture Icon and received Minister of Culture Awards by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at Pop Culture Art Awards for their strong role in heating up the Korean Wave. On November 24, Avex Entertainment, as well as
SM Entertainment Japan, released a statement about the renewal of contracts of SM artists signed to Avex.
[64]
On May 29, 2011, It was announced that
Bonamana remained as Top 1 in Taiwan's Music Charts for 54 weeks (more than a year) breaking their own previous record of the said chart. Super Junior was awarded for the
Best Selling Album for two consecutive years at the 2010
Gaon Chart Awards, surpassing their labelmate
Girls' Generation.
[65]
2011- Overseas activities and upcoming album
Super Junior have not as yet taken part in any official promotions in Japan, but From 18 February to 20 February 2011, Super Junior held The 3rd Asia Tour Concert
Super Show 3 at the
Yokohama Arena in Japan, which is a large-scale performance hall, from the first performance itself, and was able to demonstrate their ticket(-selling) power. The ticket applicants for Super Show 3 Japan were over roughly 110,000,with about 36,000 people came to watch their performance.
[66] The “Super Junior Japan ‘Super Show 3’ Opening Commemorative Album” which was released on the 16th of February came in at 2nd place on Japan’s biggest music store
Tower Records online sales charts. Super Junior Japan Limited Special Edition - Super Show 3 which contains a DVD came in 2nd place and the CD was in 10th place. Super Junior Japan Limited Special Edition - Super Show 3 also remained #3 spot on Oricon Daily Chart for 2 days in-a-row and #6 spot on Oricon Weekly Chart.
On 24 February, Super Junior released a 3D movie from their third Asia tour, "Super Show 3 3D" in all CGV and Primus movie theaters .
[67] "Super Show 3 3D" was ranked 6th in box office weekly chart and is the most watched 3D movie in Korea.
[68] Super Junior will show off their first Japanese single album with the release of Japanese version of Bonamana, titled
Bijin (BONAMANA) on June 8. Starting May 16, the song will be shown on major Japanese TV channels as the commercial song for Japanese convenience store chain
Circle K Sunkus.
On March 31, Super Junior's leader, Leeteuk said during the interview that the group then-untitled fifth studio album will be released this summer. Member Heechul posted on his
twitter account on June 2, 2011 saying that the group "may be going crazy with preparations for our fifth album, but when it’s finally released, you’re all going to go mad."
[69] This is a response to the success of
Bonamana in
Taiwan in which it charted at the number one spot for fifty-two weeks in the KKBOX chart. Meanwhile, Eunhyuk and Leeteuk confirmed on their radio show "Super Junior Kiss the Radio" a day earlier, June 1, 2011 that they had begun recording their
upcoming fifth studio album that day.
Super Junior's first Japanese single, "
Bijin (Bonamana)" was released on June 8, 2011 and debuted at the #2 spot in the
Oricon Daily Singles Chart, selling 27,168 copies on its release date.
[70] In addition, the
美人 (BONAMANA) music video which is made of videos from ‘SUPER JUNIOR 3rd ASIA TOUR SUPER SHOW 3 in JAPAN’ held at Yokohama Arena in February, received over 300,000 views on the Japanese UCC website,
Nikoniko in a day.
[71] On June 14,Super Junior's "
Bijin (Bonamana)" ranked at #2 spot in the
Oricon Weekly Singles Chart, selling 59 262 copies. This is so far, the highest record for singles released set upon by a Korean group considering Super Junior didn't have any promotion in Japan at all.
[72]
Artistry
Musical style
As a whole, Super Junior has released four studio albums and one physical single, including occasional contributions to drama soundtracks. They are acclaimed for their vocal harmonization and unison as each member contributes a different position range in their music. Some members are credited for their
vocal belting techniques.
[g][73]
Super Junior works closely with Young Jin Yoo, who has produced and arranged most of the group's promotional singles since debut. Yoo's also known for creating the renowned SMP style, a genre that includes a balanced infusion of rock, R&B, and rap, with complementing musical elements such as the
electric guitar, bass, and other different
percussion instruments.
[74] Super Junior has prominently used this SMP style in
Don't Don.
[75]
Super Junior has covered a few songs in their albums. Their debut single "TWINS (Knock Out)" is a
cover of
Triple Eight's "Knockout," which was released in 2003. While the musical style is mostly maintained as the original, "TWINS (Knock Out)" touches closer to rap rock, with quicker rap and more emphasis on the bass. In most of their covers, the original titles are kept. Examples include Cape's "L.O.V.E" and
Exile's "Believe." However, most of these covers are re-arranged to different accompaniments, such as
H.O.T's "Full of Happiness".
Dance Style
Super Junior are known for doing performances that are heavily centered around their choreography, and are acclaimed for their highly synchronized dances. The group's pre-debut performance was a hip hop dance and they have also joined
B-boy battles and performances throughout their career.
[76]
Their dance styles are widely termed as street dancing, with a majority of their choreography containing hip hop dance moves such as popping, waving, floating, and liquid dancing. Dances in the form of martial arts are widely used in their dance routines as Han Geng and Sungmin are professionally trained in that area.
[77][78] Shindong was the main choreographer for "U" and for a majority of the group's other dance sequences. Eunhyuk choreographed the dance for "Boom, Boom" (Fourth Album) and also worked with the other members to create the dance choreography for "Don't Don" and "Marry U", both promotional singles for the group's second album. The dance for their hit single "Sorry, Sorry" was choreographed by Nick Bass and Trent Dickens, who has also worked with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. Nick Bass also choreographed the dance for "BONAMANA". The dance for "No Other" was choreographed by THE GEMINIZ,
Rino Nakasone and Maryss From Paris. Super Junior M "Perfection" was choreographed by Misha Gabriel who had worked with other well known acts and choreographed Justin Timberlake's "Future Love Sex Show," Pussycat Dolls' "Doll Domination World Tour," "Dancing with the Stars" and more.
Popularity
On December 8, as the leaders of Hallyu Wave, idol group Super Junior was guested in
CNN TV station’s 《Talk Asia》 program. Members
Siwon and
Leeteuk talked about the secret of their huge popularity and their strategy for advancing into the world music industry.
[79][80]
Super Junior is receiving attention worldwide. Recently they have extended beyond Asia, gaining popularity in Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and various other locations worldwide. In the year 2010, Peru’s Listas put up the top 30 rankings of
The Sexiest Men in the World, whereby all of the members’ names appeared on the list
[81] and a Slovenian newspaper also reported about their agency and album sales. Super Junior also appeared in a publication of a specialty magazine recently in Iran that contains a personal interview with all of the Super Junior members and their individual profiles, which is explained briefly in Persian.
[82] According to the Korea Cultural Foundation, Super Junior is selected by Brazilian fans as the Korea best group.
[83] Earlier this year, in a survey conducted by Brazil’s Rede TV, Super Junior was chosen as the number one Korean singer who should come to Brazil. The results concluded with Super Junior being the top artist of choice with 30.9% of the vote.
[84] They also won "Must-Follow Personality" at the
Mashable Awards 2010 which was held in Las Vegas. Member
Yesung was the winner of 2010 Cyworld Digital Music Award OST. Recently, Super Junior was chosen as the most popular Korean singers in a survey conducted by Spain’s TV Azteca. Also, England’s
BBC acknowledged Super Junior as the icon noted for creating Hallyu effect.
[85]
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