Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어; often stylized SUPERJUNIOR), also known as simply SJ or Suju (Korean: 슈주 , is a thirteen-member Korean boy band formed by SM Entertainment in 2005, managed by producer Lee Soo Man. The group initially debuted with twelve members on November 6, 2005 with the single, "TWINS (Knock Out)". The original twelve members, from oldest to youngest, are Leeteuk (the leader), Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, and Kibum. The Chinese member, Han Geng, was chosen among the 3,000 applicants through auditions held in China by SM Entertainment in 2001.
Many of the members had already pursued an entertainment career before Super Junior's debut through acting, DJ-ing, and modeling. On May 23, 2006 SM Entertainment announced the addition of a new member, Kyuhyun, making them the thirteen-member group they are today.
Pre-debut
Since 2000, Korean talent agency and record label SM Entertainment has been holding annual auditions to scout new talents that complemented the success of boy band H.O.T. and girl group S.E.S., both of which were created by SM founder and producer Lee Soo Man in the late 1990s. In 2001, the company held their first oversea casting auditions in Beijing, where they discovered Han Geng, who was chosen among 3,000 applicants.[1] Leeteuk, Heechul, Yesung, Eunhyuk, Siwon, and Kibum were discovered under the company's annual auditions that were held in Seoul while Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Donghae, and Ryeowook were discovered through SM-sponsored contests and singing competitions.[2]
Not long after boy band TVXQ's successful debut in 2004, news about Lee Soo Man's unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread over the Internet. In early 2005, SM Entertainment confirmed the news and announced that a twelve-member all-male singing group would debut near the end of the year, promoting the project group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia."[3] For a while the group was known to be called O.V.E.R., the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm."[4][a] Before the group settled with their current name, the company labled them as simply Junior, a representation of the members' young ages when they first joined SM Entertainment.[4] However, after the members' showcased their different talents to the company during an SM-sponsored picnic, their company finalized their name to Super Junior. Soon the group became officially Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.[2] Super Junior had been known for their infamous line-up, a concept being very similar to Japan's girl group, Morning Musume. Intended to be a rotational group, there was to be new members replacing some of the old members each year, forming a new Super Junior generation every time. However, this concept was abandoned when a new member was added in May 2006.
Most members of Super Junior 05 have been actors, MCs, models, or DJs prior debut. Heechul and Kibum made their debuts in dramas and films; Leeteuk, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, and Siwon made cameo television appearances; Han Geng made his first media appearance as a model, and Heechul was also already an established DJ before debut.[5]
They made their pre-debut appearance on the Korean channel, M.NET on September 11, 2005.[b] At the showcase, Super Junior 05 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 made their debut television appearance as a group on SBS's Popular Songs on November 6, 2005. The group performed their first promotional 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, 2005. A CD single was scheduled to be released in November but a more complete album, SuperJunior05 (TWINS), was released on December 5, 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.[6][c] In that same month, their collaborated single with TVXQ, "Show Me Your Love," was released. "Show Me Your Love" became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling almost 50,000 copies.[6]
After "Show Me Your Love" promotions were completed, Super Junior 05 promoted their second single from their debut album, "Miracle," in February 2006. "Miracle" was the group's first single to peak at #1 on different music charts of South Korea as well as international charts from overseas countries, such as Thailand.[7] It was their last single to be promoted from SuperJunior05 (TWINS).
As promotions for "Miracle" slowly came to an end, SM Entertainment decided to begin Super Junior's line-up project by replacing some of the original members with new ones. After Super Junior 05, Super Junior 06, the second generation, would debut, and the label had began to take actions to announce the new members. However, after the addition of a thirteenth member, the project group was changed to a permanent group and became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05"
2006–2007: "U" and breakthrough success On May 23, 2006, SM Entertainment revealed a new member Kyuhyun, who was discovered through a singing competition in 2005, as the thirteenth and youngest member. The new thirteen-member group released their new single, "U" online for free download on May 25, 2006. "U" had over 400 thousand downloads within five hours of release and ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server.[10][11] The CD single "U" with a total of three tracks was officially released on June 6, 2006, eventually selling over 81,000 units by 2007, more than their first album.[12] During this time, an official fanclub was created for the group, E.L.F., an alphabetism derived from the phrase "Ever-lasting Friends."[2] Super Junior's official color became pearl sapphire blue.[2][d] The title song "U" yielded number-one spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top music programs for the first time in the group's career. The song was crowned as SBS Popular Songs' Mutizen Song of the week as soon as it was released, being the first award for the group since debut. The song then stayed as Mutizen Song for three consecutive weeks on the same program, also simultaneously grabbing two top awards from M.NET's M!Countdown for two weeks. Before promotions for "U" ended, "Dancing Out" was released on July 23, 2006 as part of SMTown's annual summer album, grabbing two awards as soon as it was released. "U" gained critical success, and Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies as 2006 came to a close, winning Best New Group and popularity awards.
As 2007 approached, the group began to branch out to different splinter groups. Super Junior-K.R.Y, the first subgroup of Super Junior that debuted on November 5, 2006, began to give separate performances away from the group to promote their new songs in the latter months of 2006. In February arrived a second subgroup Super Junior-T. In March the Korean drama, H.I.T aired, and Super Junior sang the opening and ending themes, "Success" and "H.I.T", respectively. On April 19, 2007, four members of Super Junior, Leeteuk, Shindong, Eunhyuk, and Kyuhyun, were injured in a car accident that deeply affected the group's schedules and progress throughout the year. Being the most injured, Kyuhyun was not discharged from the hospital until four months later, therefore unable to participate in the group's single for SMTown, "Full of Happiness" (행복 that was released in July. Nonetheless, the cover from the former boy band H.O.T. accelerated quickly in singles charts in both South Korea and Thailand and soon became a number-one hit in Thailand's international charts a month later
2007: Don't Don
Heechul's fracture of the femur from a car accident on August 10, 2006 and the April 19 car accident prevented the group's second official album, Don't Don from being released until September 20, 2007.[15][16] The group performed their first performance for the album on September 21, 2007, promoting the title track "Don't Don" at KBS's Music Bank. It was their first performance in which the group performed together as thirteen after a whole year.[17]. The single rose quickly in music charts a week after release, winning its first recognition, the SBS Popular Songs Mutizen Song, on October 21, 2007[18] and later on M.NET's M!Countdown, sharing the #1 song of the week along with "Everyday" by V.O.S in November.[19] The group quickly moved to their second single, "Marry U", in November. However, that single did not meet the achievements that "Don't Don" had set.[2]
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, and was in close competition with Lee Soo Young's Set It Down and Wheesung's eternal essence of music WHEESUNG 5 that were released earlier in September. It finished the September monthly album sales as number one, surpassing both Lee Soo Young and Wheesung. 60,000 units were shipped by the first week of release and additional copies were printed.[20] After three months of release, Don't Don sold 164,058 copies, making it Super Junior's best-selling album. It was also the second best-selling album of 2007, falling 26,940 copies short of SG Wannabe's The Sentimental Chord.
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.[23] Super Junior collected two more awards on December 14, 2007 at the 2007 Golden Disk Awards, an awards ceremony based on record sales success. Although defeated by SG Wannabe in winning the Daesang, Super Junior win 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.
2008: Overseas expansion
On October 2, 2007, SM Entertainment officially announced a third Super Junior sub-unit, Super Junior-M, a subgroup designated for the Chinese market. The announcement of the new sub-unit created a controversy between the fans and the management as fans did not support the management to add new members to the subgroup. A fourth Super Junior sub-unit was created that same year as well to prevent the group from fading away in the Korean music industry since half of the group have pursued their goals to China. With five members from Super Junior-T and Yesung, they formed the subgroup, Super Junior-Happy.
Super Junior's first major tour, The 1st ASIA TOUR - "Super Show, commenced on February 22 to February 24 in Seoul. The tour will cover nine different cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
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. They are the third SM artist to win Favorite Artist Korea at the MTV Asia Awards after Kangta and BoA.
Super Junior's third album comeback
In July 2008, the group announced that Super Junior will end subgroup activities at the end of the year and will come together to prepare for their third studio album, which is slated to release in 2009. Overseas promotion
Since Super Junior's debut in South Korea, the group endeavored to share an equal share of influence across Asia. The group has paid many visits to countries outside of their homeland to promote their music, especially to China and Thailand.
Thailand
Super Junior made their first overseas performance in Thailand on March 9, 2006 at the Pattaya International Music Festival. In effect of the appearance, their single with TVXQ, "She Me Your Love," moved up to #8 on Thailand's Channel [V] Music Chart.Soon afterwards, "Miracle" debuted as #1 in the charts on March 21, 2006. "Miracle" was the second song produced by SM Entertainment that topped overseas music charts in Thailand of Channel V after TVXQ's "Rising Sun." The song stayed as #1 for four consecutive weeks. The group's second single for SMTown, "Full of Happiness" (행복 debuted as #18 on Thailand's International Channel [V] Music Chart on the week of July 29, 2007. The single jumped to #8 the week after, and on the third week the single advanced to #1. Aside the International Channel [V] Music Chart, which it was #1 for six consecutive weeks, it also made it to #1 on the POP Channel International Chart and the MTV International Chart in Thailand. It has been staying strong as the #1 position on these three charts.
Since 2007, Siwon was chosen to be the endorser for 12 Plus Powder, and has been periodically filming commercials in Thailand. Super Junior were also appointed as goodwill ambassadors for the 2008 Korea and Thailand 50th Anniversary, honoring the good relationship Korea has with Thailand in the past fifty years. The group held their first concert in Bangkok on July 12, 2008 in the Impact Arena as part of the second stop of the group's first Asia tour. Once sales released the tickets were sold out quickly and the group performed in a full house.
Mainland China
In April 2006, Super Junior's Chinese member Han Geng, visited China for the first time since his debut to promote the group. Since then, he and the rest of Super Junior continuously visited China. On June 12, 2006 Super Junior made their debut performance as a group in China performing "U" and "Miracle". After filming the Chinese film A Battle of Wits in 2006, Siwon made frequent visits to China to promote the film. Along with the rest of the cast of the film, he toured four cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. On August 8, 2007, Han Geng and Siwon traveled to Changsha to participate in a variety show, being one of the first K-pop idols to appear on Chinese variety shows.
Source: http://artists.letssingit.com/artist-649q2/biography/281068
