SG Wannabe

SG Wannabe (Korean: SG 워너비) is a South Korean vocal group consisting of members Kim Yong-jun, Kim Jin-ho and Lee Seok-hoon. The group debuted in January 2004 with the single, "Timeless", from the album SG Wanna Be+, and won Best New Artist at the Golden Disc Awards, Seoul Music Awards, and SBS Gayo Daejeon. The group's second album, Saldaga, was the best-selling album of 2005 in South Korea and won Album of the Year at the Golden Disc Awards. Their next two albums, The 3rd Masterpiece (2006) and The Sentimental Chord (2007) were also commercial and critical successes.

In 2008, original member Chae Dong-ha left the group, and Lee Seok-hoon joined as a new member. The group released the albums My Friend (2008), Gift from SG Wannabe (2009), SG Wannabe by SG Wannabe 7 Part.I (2010) and SG Wannabe by SG Wannabe 7 Part.II (2011) before going on hiatus while the members served their mandatory military service and focused on their solo careers.

In 2015, the group released their first album in four years with the extended play The Voice, which they followed in 2016 with Our Days.

The name SG Wannabe was chosen to reflect the group’s desire to become like Simon & Garfunkel.

SG Wannabe debuted in 2004 with their first album, SG Wanna Be+. It was produced by Lee Kyung-sub and Park Keun-tae and famous music producers in Korea. The title track's music video for the album attracted media attention, as it featured top actors such as Sul Kyung-gu and Kim Nam-jin, and actresses Yunjin Kim, Kang Hye-jung, and Seo Sung-min. The production costs were reportedly about 2 billion won. The group gained a reputation for being quite mysterious because they did not show their faces and did not star in any of their music videos. Nevertheless, their vocal abilities attracted a wide demographic of fans, and the album was an instant hit with pre-sales of 90,000 copies. Later in 2004, the group was recognized for their vocal ability with numerous awards, including nominations for Best Newcomer at the Golden Disc Awards and the Seoul Popular Music Awards.

On March 29, 2005, SG Wannabe released their second album. It included the two #1 hits "Sin & Punishment (죄와벌)", which received numerous awards both for the music video and for the song itself, and "살다가 (While You Live)". Like its predecessor, "Saldaga" was able to attract media attention for the group's vocal ability, thus SG Wannabe became the only artist in 2005 to sell more than 400,000 copies of their album. On September 14, 2005, the group released the "Classic Odyssey", their 2.5 album. 1 billion Won (₩1,000,000,000) budget went into SG Wannabe's new remake album. It included hits such as "My Heart's Treasure Box" (내 마음의 보석상자). To top off the success of their 2nd album, SG Wannabe was awarded the prestigious Daesang (the "Artist Of The Year") from the Golden Disc award. When 2005 was over, SG Wannabe were ranked at #1, with over 400,000 copies sold of their 2nd album, and 12th, with 147,047 copies sold of their remake album on the year-end chart. Their songs also became popular with noraebang goers and topped the noraebang chart compiled by company TJ Media based on the number of times specific songs were selected.

On April 11, 2006, the trio released their third album, called The 3rd Masterpiece. Just like what they did in the second album (the music video had two parts; the first part was with the song "Crime and Punishment" (죄와벌), while the second part was with the song "As We Live" (살다가)), their third album also contained two-part music videos. The first part was with their new title song, "Partner for Life" (내 사람) starring Shinhwa's Kim Dong-wan and also featuring Jeong So-Young, and the second part was released with "Slowpoke" (느림보). Once again, the album manage to chart high, reaching #1 on numerous charts.

On November 18, 2006, they released a greatest hits compilation entitled SG Wannabe Best Album - The Precious History. It was a collection of their favorite songs from the past three albums and also included three new songs. They also released a music video for those songs which was called "Song of Love" (사랑가), "Even If I Could See You (그저 바라볼 수만 있어도)", and "Ordinary People" featuring Hoo Ni-Hoon, Min Kyung-Hoon, Jang Hye-Jin. However, despite having high sales and topping the charts, they did not win another, though the group was nominated for the Grand Prize (Daesang).