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Wonder Girls

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Wonder Girls

Wonder Girls (Korean원더걸스) was a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group debuted in February 2007 with the single "Irony" and 5 members: Yeeun, Sunye, Sunmi, Hyuna, and Sohee. After Hyuna's departure in July, Yubin was added into the group prior to the release of their debut studio album, The Wonder Years (2007). The album spawned the hit single "Tell Me", which topped various South Korean music charts.

Wonder Girls further established themselves as one of the top girl groups in the country with the hit singles "So Hot" and "Nobody", released in 2008. After being released as a single in the U.S. in 2009, "Nobody" charted at No. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Wonder Girls the first South Korean act to enter the chart. The group began their entry into the American market the same year as an opening act for the Jonas Brothers' World Tour, performing English versions of their songs.

In early 2010, Sunmi left the group to pursue an academic career and was replaced by Hyerim prior to the worldwide release of the single "2 Different Tears" later that year. Their second studio album, Wonder World (2011), yielded the hit single "Be My Baby". In 2012, Wonder Girls starred in the TeenNick movie The Wonder Girls, and released their last 3 singles as a quintet, notably "Like This" and "Like Money", before going on a 3-year long hiatus. In 2015, it was announced that Sunye and Sohee decided to leave the group while Sunmi would resume promotion with the remaining members. The 4-piece adapted a band-oriented concept for their acclaimed third and final studio album, Reboot (2015), and the No. 1 2016 single "Why So Lonely".

Wonder Girls are also known as "South Korea's Retro Queens", as their music has been noted to contain elements from the 1960s through 80s. In 2017, Billboard ranked Wonder Girls at number 3 on their "Top 10 K-pop Girl Groups of the Past Decade" list. The group officially disbanded on January 26, 2017, after unsuccessful contract renewal negotiation with some of its members. On February 10, 2017, they released their final single "Draw Me", which also served as a celebration of their 10th anniversary.

After Park Jin-young revealed the name of his first girl group Wonder Girls in May 2006, the Wonder Girls were introduced through a TV show titled MTV Wonder Girls.[citation needed] The first four episodes outlined the characteristics and profiles of each member. Shortly after selecting Yeeun as the fifth member, the Wonder Girls held their first showcase in the MTV Studio. They performed a cover version of "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls as well as original songs, including "Irony" and "It's Not Love". Sunye sang Destiny's Child's "Stand Up for Love", while Hyuna performed a showcase of her dancing skills. The other three members—Yeeun, Sunmi, and Sohee—performed a cover version of Janet Jackson's "Together Again".

The Wonder Girls officially debuted in early 2007 on MBC's Show! Music Core, performing "Irony", the hip-hop single from their debut EP, The Wonder Begins. The album sold 11,454 physical copies in 2007. Shortly after, "Wonderfuls", the official Wonder Girls fanclub, was established. The group held several showcases in China after receiving Chinese lessons. In mid-2007, however, members of the Wonder Girls were beset by various injuries and health problems. On June 25, Sohee was sidelined for a month after tearing a knee ligament in a fall from a running motorcycle during the filming of the movie I Like It Hot.

The remaining four members continued performing until late July, when Hyuna withdrew from the group due to her problems with chronic gastroenteritis and fainting spells. In August 2007, the talent agency Good Entertainment sent their trainee Yubin to JYP Entertainment as a replacement for Hyuna. She made her debut three days later in the group's live performance of "Tell Me" on Music Bank.

Their first full-length album, The Wonder Years, was released the following week with "Tell Me" as the lead single. Due to the last-minute addition of Yubin, the album version does not contain her part. However, the performance version of the song was reworked to include a bridge with rapping by Yubin. The single was a hit and reached number one on various Korean television and internet music charts, including KBS's Music Bank.[citation needed] The song also became a number one hit in Thailand. The choreography for the song was simple and widely imitated: by October, many fan performances of the dance circulated on video sharing sites such as YouTube and Daum, including one by a group of policemen who were eventually profiled on SBS's Star King. The dance's popularity it received became widely known as the "Tell Me Virus". The Wonder Girls had an extensive promotional schedule for their album, and in late 2007 they began performing their second single, "이 바보" ("This Fool"). MTV also began broadcasting The Wonder Life, a reality TV series starring the girls.

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