2000–2005: Formation and debut
In 2000,
SM Entertainment held their first overseas casting auditions in
Beijing,
China and recruited
Hankyung, who auditioned against three thousand applicants.
[11] That same year,
Leeteuk,
Yesung, and
Eunhyuk were recruited after auditioning for the company's annual casting system in
Seoul.
Sungmin and
Donghae became trainees after jointly winning first place in an SM-sponsored contest in 2001. In 2002,
Heechul and
Kangin were recruited along with
Kibum, who was discovered in
Los Angeles,
California by a casting agent. Siwon became a trainee after being
scouted in 2003 and Ryeowook in 2004, who was recruited into the company
after winning the 2004 Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition.
[12] Shindong and
Kyuhyun, the latter winning third place at the 2005 Chin Chin Youth Festival, were cast in 2005.
In early 2005,
Lee Soo-man
announced that he had been preparing for an all-boy project group of
twelve members to debut at the end of the year. He called this singing
group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia,"
[13] as most of the members in this group were chosen for their experiences as actors,
MCs, models, and
radio hosts
prior debut. Heechul and Kibum were already established actors at the
time, and most of the other members had already made various kinds of
appearances in television and media.
[14][15][16] Inspired by the rotational concept of Japan's girl group
Morning Musume,
Lee said that his new group would also experience line-up changes, with
new members replacing 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."
[17][a] However, before the group settled with their current name, the company simply referred to them as
juniors, a representation of the members' young ages when they first became SM trainees.
[17]
After the members' showcased their different talents to the company at a
picnic, the company finalized their group name to Super Junior, and
officially became
Super Junior'05, the first generation of Super Junior.
[12] Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut performance on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005.
[b] At the showcase, they performed various styles of
hip-hop dancing, where they danced to
B2K's "Take It to the Floor". Hankyung, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance together, 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.
The group officially 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, followed by the release of
their debut album
SuperJunior05 (Twins)
on December 6, 2005. The album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of
release and debuted at number three in the monthly chart of December
2005.
[18][c]
2006–2007: U, Don't Don, and commercial success
In February 2006, Super Junior 05 began performances for "
Miracle", the second promotional single from their debut album. "Miracle" topped the music charts of
Thailand, drawing interest from international markets.
[19]
As promotions for "Miracle" ended, SM Entertainment began selecting new
members for Super Junior's second generation, Super Junior 06. The
company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate
from the group. However, the company abandoned the rotational concept
after adding a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, in 2006. The group then
became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05".
[20][21]
After the addition of Kyuhyun, Super Junior released their single "
U"
for free download on May 25, 2006 on their official website. "U"
exceeded 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and ultimately
surpassed 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server.
[22][23] The
physical single of "U" with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, eventually selling over 81,000 units in South Korea.
[24]
The single became one of Korea's most popular songs of the year, taking
up number one spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top
music programs.
[25]
By the end of the year, Super Junior collected over seven awards in
five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies, and was one of the
three Best Newcomer winners at the
21st Golden Disk Awards.
In late 2006, Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung formed the subgroup
Super Junior K.R.Y., Super Junior's first sub-unit. They performed their first single "The One I Love", theme song to the Korean television drama
Hyena, on the
KBS music program
Music Bank on November 5, 2006.
[26] In February 2007, Leeteuk, Heechul, Kangin, Sungmin, Shindong and Eunhyuk formed
Super Junior-T, a
trot-singing group. They released their first single "
Rokuko" on February 23, 2007, and made a debut performance on
Popular Songs two days later.
[27]
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.
[28][29] Don't Don sold over 60,000 units the first day of release and debuted at number one on the monthly chart of September 2007.
[30] Although
Don't Don
received mixed reviews from critics, the album went to sell more than
160,000 copies by the end of the year, becoming the second best-selling
record of 2007.
[31][32][c]
Super Junior received seven nominations at the 2007 Mnet/KM Music
Festival, winning three of them which included Artist of the Year,
termed by many as the highest recognition of the ceremony.
[33]
Super Junior collected two more recognitions at the 22nd Golden Disk
Awards, including a Disk Bonsang award (Record of the Year).
[34]
2008–2009: Sorry, Sorry and career breakthrough
Super Junior-M, Super Junior's
Mandopop subgroup comprising members Hankyung, Siwon, Donghae, Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Super Junior-M members
Henry and
Zhou Mi, was formed in April 2008.
[35][36] Although the creation of the subgroup initially created a strife between the group's fans and their management,
[d] Super Junior-M went on to become Super Junior's most successful subgroup,
[37] selling out two concerts in
Hong Kong,
[38] topping weekly ratings with their appearance on Chinese variety programs,
[39] and was the idol group with the most endorsement contracts in China.
[40] They won numerous awards at Chinese music festivals, and achieved critical acclaim after the release of their single "
Super Girl" from their second record
Super Girl, which garnered them a nomination for Best Vocal Group at the
21st Golden Melody Awards. A fourth Super Junior subgroup was created soon after Super Junior-M's debut. With five members from
Super Junior-T and Yesung, they formed the subgroup
Super Junior-Happy, releasing their first
extended play (EP)
Cooking? Cooking! on June 5, 2008. In November 2008, Super Junior-T made a debut in Japan, collaborating with Japanese comedy duo Moeyan.
[41] Their single "
ROCK&GO", the Japanese-language version of "Rokuko", debuted at number 19 on the Oricon Daily Charts
[42] and ascended to number 2 three days later.
[43]
Super Junior's first Asia-wide concert tour,
Super Show, started on February 22, 2008, in
Seoul.
[36][44][45][46][47][e] The group held a successful two-day fan meeting in Japan at the
Nippon Budokan in
Tokyo, selling out 12,000 tickets in several days.
[48]
The group released a compiled single "U/Twins", which includes the
Japanese version of "U" in the limited release version, to complement
the event. The single peaked at number four on Japan's Oricon Daily
Chart on its first day of release, and dropped down four places on 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.
[49]
The group released their third studio album
Sorry, Sorry on March 12, 2009.
[50] It was their first album to debut at number one on the Hanteo Charts, selling over 29,000 copies the first day.
[51]
After only a month of release, the album became South Korea's
best-selling album of 2009, and ultimately sold over 250,000 copies in
South Korea.
[52] It became the best-selling K-pop album in Taiwan,
[53] Thailand, China, and the Philippines, in which the latter credited the album to be the first
K-pop album to reach number one in music charts from the country.
[54] The album's title single "
Sorry, Sorry" became an instant hit,
[55]
collecting a total of ten number-one awards for ten consecutive weeks
in Korea, and stayed as number one for a record-breaking 37 weeks in
Taiwan's K-pop singles chart. "Sorry, Sorry" achieved national and
international success, and has since been the group's best-selling
single in South Korea.
[2][56][57][58] Sorry, Sorry won several accolades at the 24th Golden Disk Awards, including the Disk Daesang (Record of the Year).
After the success of
Sorry, Sorry, Super Junior commenced their second Asia-wide concert tour
Super Show 2, on July 17, 2009 in Seoul.
2010–2011: Bonamana, lineup changes, and international recognition
Despite their critical and commercial success, the group was plagued
by legal turmoils and lineup changes during their concert tour. Though
Kibum was shown in the ads and promotional videos for Super Show 2, he
did not officially participate in the concert tour, and announced his
temporary leave from the group to pursue his acting career. In October
2009, Kangin was charged with a DUI and hit-and-run after crashing into a
parked taxi holding three passengers.
[59]
In December 2009, Hankyung filed for contract termination from SM
Entertainment, claiming that the provisions of his contract were
unlawful, harsh, and against his rights.
[60] He parted with the group and released his solo album
Geng Xin in July 2010, which sold over 510,000 copies. That same month, Kangin announced his hiatus to fulfill his two-year mandatory
military service.
[10]
With only ten members left, Super Junior went off to release their fourth studio album,
Bonamana in May 2010. Although the album did not fare well as
Sorry, Sorry critically, it sold over 300,000 copies in South Korea, outselling
Sorry, Sorry.
[61]
The album remained at the top of Taiwan's Korean-Japanese Music Charts
for 61 weeks, breaking their own previous record of the said chart.
[62]
To promote the album, Super Junior embarked on their third Asia-wide tour
Super Show 3 in 2010 and 2011,
[63] and had sold-out concerts for each stop.
[64] In February 2011, Super Junior released a 3D movie version of their tour,
Super Show 3 3D in all CGV and Primus movie theaters.
[65] The movie debuted at number six on the box office charts and went off to become the best-selling 3D movie in Korea.
[66] After touring in Japan, they released the
Super Junior Japan 'Super Show 3' Opening Commemorative Album in February 2011, which debuted at number two on Japan's
Tower Records online sales charts. The DVD version of
Super Junior Japan Limited Special Edition – Super Show 3
also debuted at number two, while the CD version debuted at number 10.
The album also remained at number three spot on the Oricon Daily Chart
for two consecutive days and number six on the Oricon Weekly Chart.
Following their commercial success in Japan, the group released a
Japanese version of
Bonamana's
self-titled single
in June 2011, which debuted at number two on the Oricon Daily Singles
chart, selling over 59,000 copies the first week of release,
[67]
however, SM did not see the release as their official Japanese debut
and has stated that their debut in Japan will occur at a later time.
[68]
Between Super Show 3 stops, the group took part in the
SMTown Live '10 World Tour and toured in
Los Angeles,
Paris,
Tokyo and
New York along with other SM Entertainment-managed artists, performing outside of Asia for the first time.
[69] Super Junior's performances were well received by the media,
[70] and they were honored as Korea's
National Pop Culture Icon for their role in spreading the Hallyu Wave (
Korean Wave),
receiving the Minister of Culture Awards by the Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism at the Pop Culture Art Awards. They were featured on
CNN's
Talk Asia program, and talked about their popularity and strategy for advancing into the world music industry.
[71][72]
The group has achieved recognition beyond Asia, reaching notability in
Europe, North America, and South America. Peru’s Top 30 ranking of
The Sexiest Men in the World included all of the members on the list
[73] They gave exclusive interviews to Slovenian and Iranian magazines,
[74] and were selected by Brazilian Hallyu fans to be the number-one Korean artist they want to visit Brazil.
[75][76] Both Mexico's TV Azteca and the United Kingdom's
BBC acknowledged Super Junior to be the leading icon of the Hallyu effect.
[77][78]
2011–present: Mr. Simple, world tour, and Sexy, Free & Single
Super Junior members at
LG Optimus Super Junior Fan meeting at Chateau de Chine in
Kaohsiung,
Taiwan in November 2011. (L-R: Leeteuk, Ryeowook, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Kyuhyun, Sungmin, Yesung, Shindong)
Mr. Simple debuted at number one on the South Korean
Gaon Chart,
selling 287,427 copies. The album stayed on the chart as number one for
four weeks, and sold over 441,000 copies in South Korea by October
2011.
[79] It peaked at number three on the
Billboard World Albums Chart and number 17 on Japan's
Oricon Album's Chart. The album's title single
Mr. Simple won first place on the first day of the group's comeback performance on the music show
M!Countdown.
[80] In September 2011, Heechul left temporarily for
military service. Super Junior began their first world tour, the
Super Show 4 in November 2011.
[81] The group's second Japanese single, a Japanese version of "Mr. Simple", was released December 7, 2011 in Japan,
[82][83] however this was still not recognized by SM as their official Japanese promotional debut.
[84]
The group, with
Super Junior-M members Zhou Mi and Henry, also recorded the song "
Santa U Are The One" for the
2011 Winter SMTown – The Warmest Gift album, released on December 13, 2011. In addition, Donghae and Eunhyuk released their collaboration digital single "
Oppa, Oppa" on December 16
[85] and performed the single on
Music Bank that same day.
Super Junior was selected the #1 Hallyu Star who foreign fans want to
date. Arirang Survey in 188 Countries Revealed Super Junior as the Most
Wanted Artist.
On January 11, Super Junior participated at the 26th
Golden Disk Awards which was held at the
Kyocera Dome
in Osaka, Japan. The group ended up bringing home four awards:
Popularity Award, MSN Japan Award, Disk Bonsang and the grand prize Disk
Daesang. This was followed by further successes at the
Seoul Music Awards on January 19, at which they were awarded the Disk Bonsang and Disk Daesang.
On January 13, Super Junior were crowned 'Album King' in Taiwan, after Super Junior’s 5th album
Mr. Simple and 4th album
Bonamana
ranked #1 and #2 on both album and music sections of the Korean Music
Chart 2012. Significantly, Super Junior ranked 1 on the KKBOX K-Pop
chart for 64 consecutive weeks with their 4th album title song
"Bonamana", marking the longest record in the history of KKBOX K-Pop
chart. They then reached 1 with the 5th album title song "Mr. Simple"
for 46 consecutive weeks (as of 4 July 2012), effectively knocking
themselves from the 1 spot. On February 22, Super Junior won Album Of
The Year for the 3rd Quarter at the Gaon Chart Awards
[86] and on March 13, Super Junior won Favorite K-pop Video for "Mr.Simple" at the MYX Music Awards.
[87]
Also, Super Junior successfully completed their world tour ‘SUPER
SHOW 4’ in 10 cities worldwide including Seoul, Osaka, Taipei,
Singapore, Macao, Bangkok, Paris, Shanghai, Jakarta and Tokyo for 6
months starting in November.
In June, 2012, SM Entertainment announced that
Kangin will rejoin Super Junior for the group's sixth album,
Sexy, Free & Single which has been released online on July 1 and in stores on July 4, 2012.
[88] SM released the MV for
Sex, Free & Single
on July 3. Version B was released on July 16, having only a different
cover. On August 7, Super Junior released the repackage album for
Sexy, Free & Single called
SPY, including four new songs "
SPY", "Outsider", "Only U" composed by Leeteuk and "Haru" composed by Donghae. The MV was released on August 13.
Super Junior 6th Album
Sexy, Free & Single managed to rank high in
iTunes in several countries including Australia, France and Peru and Japan. It also ranked 3rd on
Billboard World Albums.
[89] The album debuted at #1 on the South Korean Gaon Chart, selling 335,744 copies in only one month.
[90] Staying on the chart as #1 for three weeks in a row, 459,182 copies have been sold in only two months (July - August).
[90][90] Furthermore,
Sexy, Free & Single
also debuted at #1 on "Hanteo Chart" with more than 200,000 copies
being sold with the Version A, selling over 160,000, and Version B,
selling over 40,000. year.
[91] Super Junior ranked #1 on Hanteo's "Top 5 K-Pop Artists" for January–September 2012.
[92] Note: Gaon and Hanteo are different charts, Gaon counts all stores in South Korea while Hanteo only counts its official stores.
Sexy, Free & Single achieve the top of "Taiwan KKBOX Chart" having all album songs charted.
[93] The Japanese version of
Sexy, Free & Single
song, which was released on August 22, has sold over 118,902 units so
far and was considered Gold for selling over 100,000 albums.
