About Super Junior

-Super Junior-

History

Super Junior, sometimes referred to as SJ or SuJu, is a thirteen-member boy band from Seoul, South Korea. They are managed by producer Lee Soo Man and is currently the largest group under SM Entertainment. The members are Leeteuk (the leader), Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum, and Kyuhyun. The Chinese member, Han Geng, was chosen among the 3,000 applicants through auditions held in China by SM Entertainment in 2001. The group initially debuted with twelve members on November 6, 2005, but since the addition of Kyuhyun in May 23, 2006, they have become a thirteen-member group. Super Junior has released two studio albums and one CD single since 2005. Their most successful album, Don't Don, was the second best-selling album of 2007, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea. In addition, the group has earned four music awards from the M.NET/KM Music Festival, another four from the Golden Disk Awards, and is the second group to win Favorite Artist Korea at the MTV Asia Awards after JTL.

Pre Debut Years

Since 2000, Korean talent agency and record label SM Entertainment has been holding annual auditions to scout new talents that complemented the success of boy band H.O.T and girl group S.E.S, both of which were created by SM founder and producer Lee Soo Man in the late 1990s. In 2001, the company held their first oversea casting auditions in Beijing, where they discovered Han Geng, who was chosen among 3,000 applicants. Leeteuk, Heechul, Yesung, Eunhyuk, Siwon, and Kibum were discovered under the company's annual auditions that were held in Seoul while Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Donghae, and Ryeowook were discovered through SM-sponsored contests and singing competitions.Not long after boy band TVXQ's successful debut in 2003, news about Lee's unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread over the Internet. In early 2005, SM Entertainment confirmed the news and announced that a twelve-member all-male singing group would debut near the end of the year, promoting the project group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia." For a while the group was known to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm." Before the group settled with their current name, the company labled them as simply Junior, a representation of the members' young ages when they first joined SM Entertainment. However, after the members' showcased their different talents to the company during an SM-sponsored picnic, their company finalized their name to Super Junior. Soon the group became officially Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior. Super Junior had been known for their infamous line-up, a concept being very similar to Japan's girl group, Morning Musume. Intended to be a rotational group, there was to be new members replacing some of the old members each year, forming a new Super Junior generation every time. However, this concept was abandoned when a new member was added in May 2006. Most members of Super Junior 05 have been actors, MCs, models, or DJs prior debut. Heechul and Kibum made their debuts in dramas and films; Leeteuk, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, and Siwon made cameo television appearances; Han Geng made his first media appearance as a model, and Heechul was also already an established DJ before debut.They made their pre-debut appearance on the Korean channel, M.NET on September 11, 2005. At the showcase, Super Junior 05 performed various styles of hip hop dancing. The group danced to B2K's "Take It To The Floor." Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance away from the group, 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.

Film and Television Career

Debut
Prior to the group's debut, the members had individually appeared in television dramas, with Leeteuk being the first member of the group to act; he made a very brief cameo appearance as a moviegoer in All About Eve in 2000. Heechul, Siwon, and Kibum are still frequent television actors after Super Junior's debut in 2005, especially Kibum, who starred in four long television dramas after Super Junior's debut.Siwon was among the first of Super Junior to have participated in silver-screen productions, appearing in the Hong Kong historical action drama film, A Battle of Wits as the supporting role of Prince Liang in 2006. In 2007, Heechul, Kang-in, and Shindong lent their voices to the three chipmunks in the Korean release of Alvin and the Chipmunks. In 2008, Kang-in had a major role in the Korean-language film, Pure Manhwa (tentative title).As a group, Super Junior starred in Super Junior's Mini-Drama, a television program hosted by the group that was released in late 2006. The group wrote, produced, and acted in the separate mini dramas. The subject matters of the dramas were chosen from the top three choices from viewers. The also participated in comedic reality shows such as Super Junior Show (2005-2006), Super Junior Full House (2006), Super Adonis Camp (2006), and other similar shows. In contrast, the group released a horror documentary, Mystery 6 in early 2006 that tells a story of a ghost. The members also starred in various music videos of artists under SM Entertainment. The most notable performance was in Zhang Liyin's debut music drama video, "Timeless" (2006), featuring Han Geng and Siwon.

Masters and Jockeys
Few days prior to debut, Heechul became the co-DJ with Park Heebon for SBS's Youngstreet Radio Show. He had been the DJ for five more months until busy schedules required him to leave the show when he became an MC for SBS's Popular Songs and KM'S Show Music Tank. Leeteuk, Kang-in, and Shindong made their debut appearance as MCs for M.NET's M!Countdown five days after Super Junior's music debut. The three members remained together as the hosts throughout the year until Kang-in was replaced by Eunhyuk due to his busy schedule for hosting MBC's radio program Good Friend Radio and music show Show! Music Core. Leeteuk and Eunhyuk also host their own radio show, KBS's Super Junior Kiss the Radio, and usually invites singers to discuss their musical career. Sungmin was a DJ with Sunny of Girls' Generation for Reckless Radio before the program ended in July 31, 2008. Shindong is also a regular DJ for MBC's Stop the Boring Time Radio.On November 11, 2007, the premiere of Explorers of the Human Body aired on SBS. The show introduced the thirteen members of Super Junior as regular guests for the program. Kyuhyun, who was recovering from a car accident during the first half of the show's filming, joined the show in the later episode. The show aimed to answer questions about the human body with a total of thirteen episodes. Super Junior members experiment with their own bodies to verify answers. The first season ended with thirteen episodes on February 3, 2008. A second season is considered.

Attack on the Pin-Up Boys
Twelve members, excluding Kyuhyun, appeared in the group's debut film Attack on the Pin-Up Boys. The first film released by SM Pictures, it premiered on July 26, 2007 in Korea. "Wonder Boy", performed by Super Junior, is used as the theme song of the film. Although the film was promoted as a typical high school comedy, the movie gained positive reviews from critics, praising that the movie had a well-oriented plot unlike most idol films. However, ticket sales remained low in the premiere month despite it's unexpected success in the sales the first week.Throughout the remaining of the year, the film failed to attract more than 102,600 viewers and was proven to be a big loss for SM Pictures. However, both versions of the film's DVD became a best-selling record and were sold-out in both Korea and oversea markets, which is more than enough to make up for the production loss of 8.5 billion won.