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GFriend (Hangul: 여자친구; RR: Yeoja Chingu) was a six-member South Korean girl group formed by Source Music in 2015. The group consisted of Sowon, Yerin, Eunha, Yuju, SinB, and Umji. They made their debut with their first mini-album, Season of Glass on January 16, 2015.
They officially disbanded on May 22, 2021 after all of the members' contracts expired the same day and decided not to renew.
History[]
2015: Season of Glass, Flower Bud, and rise in popularity[]
On January 15, 2015, GFRIEND released their five-track debut mini-album Season of Glass. The promotional track "Glass Bead", composed by Seo Yong-bae and Iggy, debuted at number twelve on Gaon's weekly chart. The group started promotions for their album on January 16 on KBS's music program Music Bank. According to YouTube, the M/V of "Glass Bead" ranked number nine in top ten "Most Viewed K-Pop Videos Around the World in January 2015". On January 28, 2015, Billboard named GFRIEND as one of "Top 5 K-Pop Artists to Watch in 2015".
They released their second mini-album, Flower Bud and the music video for title track "Me Gustas Tu" on July 23, 2015. GFRIEND started their group promotions on the same date as the album release, July 23, 2015 on Mnet's M Countdown.
The group garnered international attention after a fan-taken video of the members continuing and completing a performance of "Me Gustas Tu" despite continuously falling on a slippery stage went viral in September 2015. The group was praised for their professionalism, especially Yuju, who fell a total of eight times and suffered a twisted finger during the performance.
On September 17, 2015, GFRIEND made headlines again as the only girl group to be nominated in the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards "Best Korean Act" category alongside boy groups BTS, B1A4, Got7, and VIXX.
"Me Gustas Tu" was named the longest charting song by an idol group on Melon Top 100 with 63 weeks. "Me Gustas Tu" and "Glass Bead" were also ranked 18th and 44th respectively in the 2015 Bugs Year-End Top 100.
2016: Snowflake, first music show wins and LOL[]
On January 25, 2016, GFRIEND released their third mini-album titled "Snowflake" with the title track "Rough". "Rough" is the last song to complete GFRIEND's high school concept trilogy along with "Glass Bead" and "Me Gustas Tu". During their fan-meeting after the album's showcase release, they announced their fandom name to be "Buddy". GFRIEND started the promotions for Snowflake on January 26 on SBS MTV's music program The Show. The album debuted at number ten on Billboard's World Albums Chart, and the music video of "Rough" on YouTube ranked number three in top ten "Most Viewed K-Pop Videos Around the World in January 2016".
On February 2, GFRIEND received their first music show win for their song "Rough" on The Show. They subsequently won another fourteen awards on the music shows including winning their first triple crowns on M Countdown, Music Bank, Show Champion, and Inkigayo. With a total of 15 wins, it placed second with the number of wins for girls groups, behind Apink who recorded a total of 17 wins with "Luv". Their song "Rough" was also ranked first in Gaon Chart's First Half of 2016 chart rankings.
On June 15 it was announced that GFRIEND will star alongside MAMAMOO on a new season of Showtime. On June 29, Source Music started teasing for GFRIEND first studio album "LOL", signifying at the same time "Laughing Out Loud" and "Lots of Love". LOL was released on July 11 with the title track "Navillera", and reportedly had more than 60,000 pre-ordered copies worldwide. On July 19, they earned their first music show win for the album's single "Navillera" on The Show.
Towards the end of the year, YouTube revealed the top 10 K-pop MVs most beloved by South Koreans in 2016. "Rough" and "Navillera" were ranked 2nd and 10th respectively in that list. "Rough" and "Navillera" were also ranked 2nd and 11th respectively in the 2016 Bugs Year-End Top 100. "Rough" was also ranked 13th in Billboard's 20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2016: Critic's Picks. At the end of the year show 2016 KBS Song Festival, the peak viewer ratings for the whole show were recorded during GFRIEND's "Rough" performance at 10.3%. "Rough" also became the most downloaded song in 2016 according to Gaon Chart's 2016 Year End Download Chart.
2017: The Awakening, Parallel and first repackage[]
On February 23, 2017, Source Music announced that GFRIEND is set to make a comeback on March 6. On February 27, 2017, it was revealed that their fourth mini-album will be titled "The Awakening" with the title track "Fingertip". The Awakening global pre-orders exceeded 100,000 copies, which is higher than their past album LOL at 60,000. Additionally, the album also debuted at No. 5 on Billboard's World Album chart.
On 1 August 2017, GFRIEND released their fifth mini album, "Parallel", with the title track "Love Whisper". The music video for Love Whisper had exceeded over 7 million views in 24 hours.
On September 13th, they released the repackage album "Rainbow" with the title track "Summer Rain".
2018–present: First solo concert, Time for the Moon Night and Japanese Debut[]
GFriend started the year with their first solo concert since debut, titled Season of GFriend, on January 6 and 7, 2018. 6,000 tickets for the concert were sold out in three minutes. They are set to hold a concert on February 28th in Taipei, Taiwan, which will be the start of their first ever Asia Tour, Season of GFriend.
On February 23rd 2018, Source Music officially announced that GFriend had signed with King Records and is set to debut in Japan in May 2018. GFriend's debut album for Japan is titled Kyou Kara Watashitachi wa (今日から私達は), with their title being the Japanese version of Me Gustas Tu. The official music video was released on May 6th 2018.
On the 13th of April 2018, Source Music announced a comeback for GFriend with a mini-album set for April 30th. Later on the 16th of April, it was announced that their mini-album was titled Time for the Moon Night. The title track was reviewed by the members themselves, and is the first title track that was not produced by Iggy and Youngbae.
Members[]
| Leader, lead rapper, vocalist, visual |
Lead dancer, vocalist, center, face of the group |
Lead vocalist |
| Main vocalist | Main dancer, vocalist, center |
Main rapper, vocalist, maknae |
Discography[]
Korean Discography[]
Mini-albums[]
- Season of Glass (2015)
- Flower Bud (2015)
- Snowflake (2016)
- The Awakening (2017)
- Parallel (2017)
- Rainbow (2017) (repackage)
- Time for the Moon Night (2018)
- Sunny Summer (2018)
- Fever Season (2019)
Studio Albums[]
- LOL (2016)
- Time For Us (2019)
Singles[]
- Glass Bead
- Me Gustas Tu
- Rough
- Navillera
- Fingertip
- Love Whisper
- Summer Rain
- Time for the Moon Night (song)
- Sunny Summer (song)
- Sunrise (song)
- Fever (song)
Gallery[]
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To view the GFriend gallery, click here. |
Official Links[]
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