U-KISS (Korean: 유키스 , Japanese: ユーキス) is a South Korean boy band formed by NH Media in 2008. Their name is an acronym, standing for Ubiquitous Korean International idol Super Star.[1] The group consists of Soohyun, Kiseop, Eli, Kevin, Dongho, Hoon and AJ (the latter two joining the group in 2011).[2]
Since their debut, the group has released two full-length albums,
five extended plays and various singles. Their first full length album, Only One, was released in 2010 with their biggest hit, Bingeul Bingeul, while the second album Neverland was released in 2011. Their debut mini-album is N-Generation (2008) which prodd the hit Not Young. Their second mini-album was Bring It Back 2 Old School (2009), and the third was ContiUkiss (2009) which produced their hit, Man Man Ha Ni. The group's fourth mini-album was Break Time (2010) spawning the hit, Shut Up!. Their fifth was Bran New Kiss (2011) which features the two newest members shortly after Alexander and Kibum left the group. They made their formal debut into Japan, on December 14th, 2011, with the release of their single ‘Tick Tack‘.[3] The second single is entitled Forbidden Love while their first Japanese full-length album is dubbed as A Shared Dream (2012).
The group also participated in various TV reality shows such as You Know U-KISS, U-KISS Vampire, Chef Kiss. Their maknae (youngest) Shin Dongho participated in various shows like Raising Idol, Idol League, Real School and Royal Family and films such as My Black Mini Dress and Hong Gil Dong.
U-KISS had their first concert in Manila, Philippines dubbed as U-KISS First Kiss Tour in Manila. They also had major concerts entitled First Kiss Live and U-KISS 1st Japan Live Tour, both took place in Japan.
Life and career
2008: Pre-debut and Debut
U-KISS was first formed as a six member boy-group in 2008. Kim Kibum and Kevin Woo were members of the boy band Xing
but left the group in early 2007. The other four members were all
individually selected by NH Media through auditions. U-KISS debuted in Japan on August 15, 2008 at the Power of Atamix 08. The group debuted in South Korea on August 28, 2008 with a release of their first mini album, New Generation, (N-Generation)’’ on September 3, 2008 and a live performance of their first song "Not Young" on Mnet.[2]
Even though they are new comer in the industry, U-KISS was considered
for Japan-Korea collaborative project. A popular entertainment company,
Yoshimoto Group in Japan, invested 150 billion KRW
to groom U-KISS as an internationally known group. The reason behind
this is their quality as a group with multilingual members: Alexander can converse in seven languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean and English; Eli is fluent in English, Korean and Mandarin; the maknae Dongho can talk in Korean and Mandarin; Kevin in English while Kibum can speak Japanese.
2009-10: Only One, variety shows and first major concert
U-KISS released their second mini-album Bring It Back 2 Old School on 2009 with its title song, "I Like You" which makes them popular in Thailand.[4][5] The third mini-album titled ContiUkiss launched Lee Kiseop as the seventh member of the group. The title track Man Man Ha Ni was released following a change in their line-up.[6] The fourth mini album Break Time was released on 2010, along with their title track "Shut Up!. [7] The group's first full-length album, Only One, was released on February 3, 2010 spawning their highest chart-topping single in the Philippines, Bingeul Bingeul.[8] The album also topped Hanteo Charts, Hot Tracks, Syn-nara Records and Evan Records in just one day.[9] U-KISS then played in Malaysia, Mongolia and Japan to promote the album..[10]U-KISS promoted the album in the Philippines
through series of mall show, wherein they sold more than 1,000 copies
in one day which breaks the record of the highest sales in a launch,
earning them a million pesos.[11] Due to the said success, the group had their first major concert in the Philippines dubbed as U-KISS First Kiss Tour in Manila.[12][13][14][15][16][17]Aside from their music career, U-KISS also starred in their own variety shows, All About U-KISS , ‘’UKISS Vampire’’ and ‘’Chef Kiss’’ while the members also appeared on other shows. Kevin Woo and Alexander Lee Eusebio joined Arirang's radio show Pops in Seoul hosting the 'All About You' segment and were also featured on Brave Brother’s song, Finally.[18][19] Kim Eli also became an emcee of MBC's show, Fusion. The new member Lee Kiseop appeared in a variety show known as Uljjang Shidae 2 (Pretty Boys and Girls Season 2) . Shin Dongho also made many appearances on shows, The Invincible Baseball Team, Idol Maknae Rebellion and My Black Mini Dress.[20] Kibum along with Eli, also starred in the Thai drama Autumn's Destiny wherein their voices were dubbed due to the fact that they cannot speak Thai.[21]
2011-present: Japanese career, Neverland and First Japan Live Tour
NH Media announced that U-KISS was planning to debut in United
States. The group recorded over 100 tracks to be sorted-out for their US
album but it was cancelled due to member termination of contract.[22]
Alexander and KIbum left the band on 2011, and were replaced by former
‘’Paran’’ member Kim Jae Seop ( AJ) and a former solo artist, Yeo Hoon
Min(Hoon).[23][24] The new U-KISS made their comeback on March 30 with their fifth mini-album, Bran New Kiss, and a new ballad song 0330.[24] U-KISS released their second full-length album Neverland in September with their promotional singles Neverland and "Someday".[25]U-KISS also released a documentary DVD entitled U-KISS Days in Japan that features their activities in the country.[26]The said DVD debuted at #8 on the Daily Oricon Chart published in March 30, 2012.[27] From June 8, 2011, the group stayed in Japan for 3 months to prepare for their official Japanese debut and signed under Avex Japan. A compilation album called First Kiss placed second on Oricon daily charts on the day of its release. They also released the Japanese version of Bran New Kiss on August 24, 2011.[28] The group also released their first Japanese album Tick Tack.[29]They also release their second Japanese album, Forbidden Love simultaneously with their first Japenese full-length album, A Shared Dream.[30][31].[32][33]The album peaked at No.6 and No.2 respectively..[34]On 2012, Oricon published that U-KISS achieved high album sales in Japan along with other big artists like Girl's Generation and KARA.[35]
Aside from their album releases, U-KISS also participated in various music shows and concerts/ They performed for Korea-Taiwan Friendship Concert held at the TICC Taiwan[36], Dream Concert at Seoul World Cup Stadium[37], K-POP Festival: Music Bank in Tokyo[38] and Korean Music Wave 2011 in Singapore[39]U-KISS also performed in Macau for the Youth's Ambition Concert along with fellow K-Pop stars Kim Hyun Joong and B1A4.[40] On 2012 they participated in the Music Bank concert held in Paris, France..[41][42] [43]
The group had their sold-out [44]concert tour dubbed as "U-KISS 1st Japan Live Tour 2012" in March that was held in Zepp Hall all over Japan.[45][46] They performed in various cities like Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka and Tokyo.[46]The
tour kicked off on March 2, 2012 and ended on March 25, 2012. Japan
popular site, Oricon published that the tour garnered a total of 16,900
fans in attendance.[47]Due to this success, the concert will have an additional tour dates on July visiting a larger stadiums.[48][49]
This year, U-KISS has been chosen as Number 1 Hallyu group to watch out in Japan , while Kevin was chosen as Luckiest Hallyu Star of 2012.[50]Aside from album releases and concerts, Dongho and Hoon have also been cast in the new movie-for-TV series Holy Land/Holiday that deals with rebellion of high school students.[50][51] [52] The group was also chosen to sing the theme song for a Japanese anime, Stormy Night (Secret Friends).[53]
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar