About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Shinhwa

Encyclopedia : S : SH : SHI : Shinhwa

This page is about the South Korean boy band. For information about Korean myths, please see Korean folklore.

Shinhwa is the name of perhaps the most popular Korean boy band still active. The group has six members (with 3 vocalists and 3 rappers), and debuted on March 24 1998 under management of the SM Entertainment label. Shinhwa is the Korean word for myth or legend.

Contents

History

The six-member group debuted on March 24 1998 with a concert performance on Korean music show, KM Music Tank, of their first single, entitled "Hae Gyul Sah" ("Problem Solver").

Shinhwa was formed under the management of SM Entertainment, and in July 2003 signed a new contract with a new record label, [Good Entertainment].

Shinhwa has released eight regular albums, one 'best of' album, and two special albums. They have changed musical styles throughout their career, creating a variation of popular music for fans and general K-pop listeners. It appears that their sound changed along with the times- so their music was what was 'cool' no matter what year it was. Their past styles have included rock, rap, pop, ballad, and R&B. Shinhwa is also famous for their coordinated and well-choreographed dance performances in videos and in concert.

Band members

Shinhwa has six members:

  1. Eric Mun (Korean name: Mun Jung Hyuk 문정혁; 16 February 1979; leader & rapper)
  2. Lee Min Woo (이민우; 28 July 1979; vocalist)
  3. Kim Dong Wan (김동완; 21 November 1979; vocalist)
  4. Shin Hye Sung (Real name: Jung Pil Kyo 정필교; 27 November 1979; lead vocalist)
  5. Jun Jin (Real name: Park Choong Jae 박충재; 19 August 1980; rapper & vocalist)
  6. Andy Lee (Korean name: Lee Sun Ho 이선호; 21 January 1981; rapper)

Notable achievements and awards

In 2002, Shinhwa made history in Korean music when they released their sixth album, "Wedding," becoming the longest running Korean boy-band in existence. They also have one of the largest active fan clubs, suitably named "Shinhwa Changjo" (신화창조 meaning myth-creation) with over sixty thousand "official" fans alone, and even more "unofficial" fans.

On December 10 2004, Shinhwa was awarded the Daesang for Best Artist of The Year for the first time at the Seoul Gayo Daesang Awards. Several weeks later, on December 29, Shinhwa was awarded their second Daesang at the 2004 SBS Gayo Daejun Awards. In 2004, of all musical artists and groups, Shinhwa received the most amount of awards, totalling thirteen, from various places: the m.net KMTV Music Video Festival, Seoul Gayo Daesang, Golden Disc Awards and MBC,KBS,SBS Gayo Awards. The awards other than Best Artist of the Year included Best Male Artist, Best Dance Artist, and Overseas Choice Award.

Shinhwa's second album, T.O.P., (1999)
Enlarge
Shinhwa's second album, T.O.P., (1999)

Shinhwa is not only extremely popular in Korea, but internationally as well. They have performed in countries all over the world, including the United States, Australia, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan. Although Shinhwa holds fans all over the world, for now the group is best known in Asia. However it must be noted that their popularity extends mostly to young East Asian immigrants in the aforementioned countries.

In their first visit to Singapore October 2004, for an entire week Shinhwa was the most searched artist in the Yahoo! Singapore search engine, becoming the first Korean artist to do so. In their most recent concert in Japan in January 2005, they held the largest Korean artist concert (second only to singer BoA), selling 13,000 tickets within a week.

In July 2004, Shinhwa was selected to represent Korea in the MTV Buzz Asia Awards with the likes of Amuro Namie for Japan and F4 for Taiwan. Shinhwa was also selected to perform the highlight of the awards - the finale performance.

In August 2004, Shinhwa held a Korea-China-Japan summer camp (Shinhwa Summer Story 2004) dedicated entirely for their non-Korean fans, where hundreds of non-Korean fans flew to Korea from all over Asia for the opportunity to spend a few days with Shinhwa.

Commercially, Shinhwa has also been chosen by internationally renowned Swiss watch brand Rado to represent Asia as models in a January 2005 campaign.

In March 2005, along with its management team, [Good Entertainment], music channel, MNET and Coca-Cola, the group hosted a reality TV show, called "Let's Cokeplay Battle Shinhwa." The show which set out to search for a new Shinhwa (new legend group), lasted 8 months long, and attracted over 1,800 applicants throughout Korea to audition. The final show took place on November 4, 2005 at Olympic Park, Seoul, where Shinhwa members had to choose the 6 final members of the new Shinhwa from the 12 finalists. The 6 male winners (making the group), along with 2 other female finalists (as solos) immediately underwent training and will debut in 2006 under [Good Entertainment].

On January 14, 2006, Shinhwa renewed its contract with [Good Entertainment] for another 3 year term. On March 24, 2006, Shinhwa celebrated its 8th anniversary since its debut, making it truly the longest running boyband in Korea. Shinhwa also released its 8th album on May 11, 2006. As preparation work for its album release, Shinhwa held a press conference in Japan on April 14, 2006, in addition to performing at MNET's anniversary celebration in Japan on April 15, 2006. The press conference comes as a result of Shinhwa's effort to break into the Japanese markets, with the release of its first Japanese language single This is the Sun in Our Hearts on June 14, 2006, and its first official album in Japan in August. Shinhwa is also planning its first Asia tour that will spread across 5 months. Shinhwa's Asian tour will start with their first concert on the May 13, 2006 at the Olympic Park, Seoul, and will reach Shanghai, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, a total of 8 cities throughout Asia.

Shinhwa activities

SMTown

Throughout the years with SM Entertainment, Shinhwa participated in the label's annual special album, in which SM's best and/or newest singers and groups form a compilation album. This "community" of SM Entertainment performers is famously known as SMTown.

  1. 1999 Christmas in SMTOWN
  2. 2000 Winter Vacation in SMTOWN
  3. 2001 Winter Vacation in SMTOWN
  4. 2002 Summer Vacation in SMTOWN
  5. 2002 Winter Vacation in SMTOWN
  6. 2003 Summer Vacation in SMTOWN

Concerts

As of 2005, the group has given four main concert series, including a tour around major cities of South Korea as well as Japan. In each concert, aside from performing as a group, each member is also given the chance to show his individual talent. In 2006, the group launched its first Asia Tour after the release of its eight album, 'State of the Art', covering a total of eight cities throughout Asia.

  1. 2001 first Live Concert: The First Mythology
  2. 2003 second Live Concert: The Everlasting Mythology (20–23 April 2003)
  3. 2003–2004 Winter Story Tour (31 December 2003–14 February 2004)
  4. 2004–2005 Winter Story Concert (Seoul: 19 December 2004; Osaka & Tokyo: 21–23 January 2005)
  5. 2006 State of the Art Asia Tour (Seoul: 13-14 May 2006; Shanghai: 8 July 2006, Pusan: 15 July 2006; Bangkok: 19 August 2006)

General discography

  1. First album: 해결사 (Hae Gyul Sah): 5 May 1998 (SM Entertainment)
  2. Second album: T.O.P: 4 April 1999 (SM Entertainment)
  3. Third album: Only One: 27 May 2000 (SM Entertainment)
  4. Fourth album: Hey, Come On!: 28 June 2001 (SM Entertainment)
  5. Concert — Shinhwa 1st Live Concert 2001: April 2001 (SM Entertainment)
  6. Best album — My Choice: January 2002 (SM Entertainment)
  7. Fifth album: Perfect Man: 29 March 2002 (SM Entertainment)
  8. Sixth album: Wedding: 26 December 2002 (SM Entertainment)
  9. Concert — Everlasting Mythology: 27 July 2003 (SM Entertainment)
  10. Special — Winter Story: 30 December 2003 (Good Entertainment)
  11. Seventh album: Brand New: 27 August 2004 (Good Entertainment) [often considered the peak of their career]
  12. Special — Winter Story 2004-2005: 20 December 2004 {Good Entertainment)
  13. Special — Summer Story Tropical 2005: July 2005 (Good Entertainment)
  14. Eighth album: State of the Art: 11 May 2006 (Good Entertainment)
  15. First Japanese single: 僕らの心には太陽がある (Bokura no Kokoro ni wa Taiyo ga Aru): 14 June 2006 (Columbia Music Entertainment)

Solo activities

After moving from SM and signing with Good! Entertainment in 2003, the group members took time to do solo activities. Despite rumors, they did not break up. Minwoo Lee also once stated in an article that the group would never disband, no matter what. It is said that once the members have served their mandatory army service, they will release another album.

Both Shin Hyesung and Lee Minwoo are planning solo concerts in Japan.

Discography as solo artists

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: