History (x)
[edit]Pre-debut history
Krystal Jung was first spotted by SM Entertainment in 2000 on a family visit to Korea, which earned her a small role in a short segment of Shinhwa's "Wedding March" music video.
Sulli first debuted as a child actress in 2005 when she was selected to play young Princess Sun-hwa in the
SBS television drama,
The Ballad of Seo-dong.
[2] In 2006, SM Entertainment recruited
Luna after seeing her performing on
SBS's television program, "Truth Game".
[3] Victoria was spotted by a S.M. Entertainment's agent at a Beijing dance competition, and later joined the company. Two months later,
Amber was cast through SM's Global Auditions in Los Angeles, California, where she was one of two people (one male) selected to be trainees.
[edit]2009: Debut, first single album, and collaborations
f(x)'s performances of "Chocolate Love" at an LG CYON Showcase.
SM first released a teaser preview of the group via
YouTube on August 24, introducing them as "Asia's Pop Dance Group." For five days, SM individually released information through news portals and posted pictures of each member on
SM Town's official website, starting with Korean member Sulli on August 26, Taiwanese-American member Amber on August 27, Korean-American member Krystal on August 28, Korean member Luna on August 29, and lastly the Chinese member Victoria on August 30.
On September 1, the group's first single "
La Cha Ta" (stylized as "LA chA TA") was digitally released. Following their first performance at the Samseong-dong Fashion Center on September 2, the music video was screened and released online the next day. The group's first broadcast performance of "La Cha Ta" was held at
MBC's music show
Show! Music Core on September 5.
On October 7, the group also released the electro-pop version of the digital single, "
Chocolate Love", alongside their label mate
Girls' Generation.
[4] The single was released for the promotion of the 4th edition Blacklabel series of LG CYON phone,
LG Chocolate (BL40).
On November 9, f(x) released their first single album,
Chu~♡, consisting of 3 songs.
[edit]2010: Nu ABO, Amber's hiatus, and SMTown World Tour
On January 2, the group released the Chinese track, "Lollipop", a cover version of the 1958 song "Lollipop" - written by Julius Dixson and Beverly Ross, for which they collaborated with the Chinese boy band, M.I.C, to promote the LG Cyon phone. The music video was digitally released on January 12, 2010.
On February 27 and 28, the group appeared once again as special guests on Into the New World concert in Olympic Fencing Gymnasium.
On May 4, f(x) released their first
mini-album,
Nu ABO, consisting of 6 tracks. The lead single, "
Nu ABO", topped online music portal charts Monkey3, Dosirak and Bugs.
[5] The song also made it to the Gaon Chart
weekly number-one singles. The music video for the song was released on May 6. The group made their live comebacks on KBS's
Music Bank on May 7, MBC's
Music Core on May 8 and SBS's
Inkigayo on May 9.
[6]
Amber went on hiatus on June due to an ankle injury. The remaining group activities of the year 2010 were carried out without her.
On July 17, the group started performing their next promotional single, "Mr. Boogie", from their mini-album,
Nu ABO. They had their first performance for the song on MBC's
Music Core.
On November 24, 2010, Avex Entertainment, as well as
SM Entertainment Japan, released a statement about the renewal of contracts of SM artists signed to Avex. It stated that f(x) is now signed to Avex, and its albums will be released under the said label in Japan, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong.
[1]
[edit]2011: Pinocchio and Hot Summer
It was announced by SM Entertainment that
Amber returned from
USA after a long leave since June 2010 and that f(x) are planning to release a studio album in the first half of the year.
[8]
The first teaser photo for their full-length album entitled
Pinocchio was released on April 7, 2011 at the f(x) official website. The MV teaser for the lead single, "
Pinocchio (Danger)" (a remake of
Kristine Elezaj's "Razor"),
[9] was released on April 15, 2011. The album was released on April 20, 2011 and the group held their first comeback stage through KBS’s
Music Bank on April 22, 2011.
The group have achieved 8-wins with "Pinocchio (Danger)" from the music shows, namely M! Countdown, Music Bank and Inkigayo.
On June 8, it was announced that f(x) would be releasing their repackaged album of
Pinocchio, titled "Hot Summer", on the 14th. It included all 10 songs from their first album and new track "
Hot Summer" (a re-recording of a
Monrose song),
[9] written by
Thomas Troelsen and
Remee), their
OST song for "Paradise Ranch" and digital singles "
Chu" and "
La Cha Ta."
[10]
In August 2011, f(x) released an OST called "Garagabana" for the online game "
Bust-a-Move".
[11]
[edit]2012: SMTown Tour, Electric Shock, and Japanese debut
F(x) participated in SMTown Live World tour in Anaheim at Honda Center on May 20, 2012 and in Hsinchu,Taiwan at Hsinchu County Stadium on June 9, 2012 with their label mates.
It was confirmed that f(x) would be making a comeback in either June or July. However, SM later confirmed on June 5, 2012 that the girls would be releasing a new mini-album titled
Electric Shock on music sites such as iTunes on June 10, 2012.
[13] On June the 5th,
SM Entertainment has released a teaser image of Krystal for their comeback mini-album
Electric Shock.
[14] On the following day, SM released teaser photos of Victoria and Sulli.
[15] On the following day SM released f(x)'s album cover and M! Countdown's teaser images.
[16] On the 8th of June, SM released teaser photos of Luna and Amber. Along on that day, they released a video teaser for "Electric Shock".
After releasing a series of teaser images and an MV teaser, f(x) have released their newest EP ‘Electric Shock‘ digitally on June 10, 2012.
[17] f(x) began promotions for "Electric Shock" on M.net's M! Countdown on June 14 and also performed "Jet" as part of a special comeback stage. The group performed "Electric Shock" on various music shows such as Music Bank, Music Core and Inkigayo.
The group will begin its Japanese promotions by releasing its hit track Hot Summer in mid-August. The track has already been selected as the CM background song for Uminoie Resort, giving fans in Japan a first listen to the spunky track.
[18] On June 27, 2012, f(x) Japanese official website went online.
[19] f(x) ended their Electric Shock promotions on July 15, and began preparing for their Japanese debut. Representatives of
SM Entertainment had released, “Although we haven’t come out with a definite schedule yet, we will be preparing [f(x)] for their official Japanese debut during the second half of the year.” They continued to ensure Korean fans, “f(x) will be attending to Korean activities occasionally alongside their Japanese activities.” A preview for their debut Japanese single, a remake of their 2011 Korean hit, "
Hot Summer", was released on July 31, 2012.
[20]
[edit]Members
| Stage name | Birth name | Date of Birth [21] |
|---|
| Romanized | Hangul | Romanized | Hangul/Hanja |
|---|
| Victoria | 빅토리아 | Song Qian | 송 치엔/宋茜 | February 2, 1987 (age 25) |
| Amber | 엠버 | Amber Liu | 엠버류/劉逸雲 | September 18, 1992 (age 20) |
| Luna | 루나 | Park Sun-young | 박선영/朴善憐 | August 12, 1993 (age 19) |
| Sulli | 설리 | Choi Jinri | 최진리/崔真理 | March 29, 1994 (age 18) |
| Krystal | 크리스탈 | Krystal Jung / Jung Soo-jung | 크리스탈정, 정수정/鄭秀晶 | October 24, 1994 (age 18) |
