Miss A

Miss A (미쓰에이), stylized as miss A, is a South Korean-Chinese girl group based in South Korea formed by JYP Entertainment in 2010. Their group name stands for Miss Asia and the highest rank, A.^[1] The group currently consists of three members: Fei, Min, and Suzy. Their fourth member Jia, left the group in May 2016 following her contract expiration.

History

Pre-debut: Early activities in China

Originally, the group consisted of five trainees who were formed by JYP Entertainment in 2010. While still in training, the group flew to China where they appeared in numerous variety shows performing dance routines and songs to showcase themselves to the Chinese audience. As the group had no official name, they were known to the Chinese audiences as JYP Sisters and the "Chinese Wonder Girls".^[2] However, the group went through several changes during this period; the withdrawal of two members and most notably the exit of member Lim who was re-grouped to join the Wonder Girls.^[3]

In March 2010, fifteen-year-old trainee Bae Suzy joined the group and the trio became known as 'Miss A'.^[4] Suzy has worked previously as a model for an online shopping mall.^[5] The group began their first official promotional activities in China as a group by signing up with the Samsung Electronics group in China. The group released a song used for the commercial called "Love Again" for the Samsung Beat Festival. The song was written by Korean composer Super Changddai, and the music video was directed by Hong Won-ki.^[6][7] Lee Min Young, a solo artist and a long-time trainee in America, also made a cameo appearance in the music video. She had auditioned when she was in the 6th grade, and she traveled to the U.S., where she trained for 6 years. She came back in 2008 to continue activities in Korea. During her time in New York, she studied at the Repertory Company High School in Manhattan.^[8] It was later announced that she would be joining the group under her stage name, Min, for their South Korean debut on April.^[9][10]

2010–11: Debut, A Class, and Chinese debut

Miss A at Mnet 20's Choice Awards in 2010.

Miss A made their official debut in South Korea as a four-member group on July 1 with their single "Bad Girl Good Girl."^[11] The song was taken from their debut single album Bad but Good.^[10] Miss A received first place in the on KBS Music Bank, becoming the fastest girl group to take the #1 spot on a music show.

The group also consequently got first place program Inkigayo from the SBS. On August 1, 2010, Miss A received their first "Mutizen" award on M.net's M! Countdown.^[12] The song stayed as the number 1 song for four straight weeks, breaking the previous record set by Girls' Generation.^[13][14]

The group later on made their comeback with their second single album called "Step Up" on September 26. The group promoted "Breathe" as the lead single for the single album and showed an "exotic and [...] doll-like transformation" that was completely different from their debut EP.^[15] The first performance was on M! Countdown on October 7.^[16] The group received first place on M! Countdown in the last week of October.^[17]

In May 2011, Miss A released "Love Alone", a single from their unreleased album A Class. "Love Alone" was used as a promotional song for Kim Yuna's ice show, and Miss A performed the song at the opening of "All That Skate Spring 2011".^[18][19][20]

Miss A announced their comeback with their first full album called A Class, which was released digitally on July 18, 2011. A Class consists of a mix of previously released hits and four new tracks, including the single "Good Bye Baby". The album has 13 songs. They started promoting "Good Bye Baby" on July 21, 2011 on M.net's M! Countdown, followed by KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core, and SBS's Inkigayo. On the following week of promotions, they won all awards from the shows.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

On September 30 of the same year, Miss A debuted in China with the release of a special edition of their first full album, containing a DVD with music videos, as well as Chinese versions of "Bad Girl Good Girl", "Breathe", "Good Bye Baby" and "Love Again". After the Chinese album release, it ranked #3 on Taiwan's G-Music Chart.^[26][27]

2012: Touch and Independent Women Part III

Miss A performing at Korea-Japan Festival in Tokyo in October 2011.

Miss A announced their comeback in Korea with an EP called Touch, released on February 20, 2012. On February 19, 2012, the music video was uploaded to YouTube through Miss A's official channel and gained over one million views in one day.^[28]

Touch, both the song and the album, peaked at #2 on Gaon Chart Digital Singles and Physical Albums rankings for the 4th week of February.^[29][30]

Miss A started their promotions for Touch on February 23 on M.net's M! Countdown and on other music shows respectively. On February 29, Miss A won the Champion Song on MBC MUSIC's Show Champion with the song "Touch". On March 1, Touch also went to #1 on M.net M! Countdown. On March 4, they won Mutizen on SBS's Inkigayo with Touch. On March 7 Miss A won on jTBC Music On Top.^{[31][32][33][34]}

On March 22, popular Chinese video sharing site YinYueTai revealed Miss A's Chinese music video for "Touch". On March 23, Miss A released a Chinese version of the Touch album in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This album contains the Korean and Chinese version of "Touch" and also the music videos under the DVD version. After the release, "Touch" immediately topped Chinese online charts.^[35][36][37]

The group wrapped up their promotions for the album by performing "Over U", another song from the album, on each music program during their last week.

On October 8, 2012, Miss A announced their comeback with their fifth project album entitled Independent Women Pt.III. The album was released on October 15. On October 16, Miss A were involved in a minor car accident. They were taken to a hospital, and continued their schedules with only a few hours delay.^[38] They began their promotions for "I Don't Need a Man" on October 18.^[39]

2013–present: Hush, Colors, and Jia's departure

On October 29, 2013, it was confirmed that Miss A would be making their comeback more than a year after their "I Don't Need a Man" promotions with their second full-length studio album Hush. The title track was composed by famous composer duo, E-Tribe, instead of the usual J.Y. Park.^[40] They performed their first stage on November 7 on M! Countdown and took home the #1 award on the November 17 episode of Inkigayo, the November 21 episode of M! Countdown as well as the November 22 episode of Music Bank. Due to the airing of the 2013 MAMA, there was no November 21 episode of M! Countdown, but Miss A did receive the #1 prize for that week from the show. They ended their promotions for "Hush" in Korea on the December 8 episode of Inkigayo and immediately afterwards, they began their promotions for their second album in China. In December, JYP Entertainment liquidated its sub-label AQ Entertainment that was in charge of managing Miss A as well as label mate Baek Ayeon. The band is now managed by JYP Entertainment.^[41]

Over a year after their 2013 release, Miss A released their album Colors on March 30, 2015.^[42] This was accompanied by an online reality series, Real Miss A.^[43] The music video for the lead single, "Only You", gained more than 2 million views on YouTube within 24 hours.^[44]

On May 20, 2016, JYP Entertainment stated that Jia has left the group due to her contract with the company expiring and that the other members will focus on solo activities currently.^[45]

Members

Current members

• Fei (페이), born Wang Feifei (王霏霏)
• Min (민), born Lee Min-young (이민영)
• Suzy (수지), born Bae Su-ji (배수지)

Former members

• Jia (지아), born Meng Jia (孟佳)

Discography

• A Class (2011)
• Hush (2013)

Filmography

Drama

Variety shows

Awards

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miss A.

• Miss A - Official website