(G)I-dle is a powerful girl group that has been impressing with its stage presence since its debut and breaking the clichés of female idols. The group's discography includes a variety of music genres and quite a few self-produced songs.
The group debuted with six members, but is now five members as of late 2021.
The members of the girl group have already drawn attention to themselves one or two times before their debut. For example, Shuhua was in the music video in September 2017 on 10cm's “Pet” and Minnie was featured on an album called “Dance Party” by the “Line Friends”. (The Line Friends are animated characters based on stickers from the messaging app “Line”.)
Miyeon and Soojin were originally preparing to debut in another group. Miyeon was a trainee under YG Entertainment for several years and was part of Blackpink's lineup before leaving the agency in 2015 for unknown reasons. She then appeared in Lim Seoulong's music video “You” and also appeared with him as a guest on Urban Zakapa's Canada tour.
Soojin was part of a girl group called “Vividiva” under the stage name “N.NA”. Because the debut was delayed, she left the group and “DN Entertainment” in 2015. Vividiva then released her single “Service” in September 2015, but disbanded in early 2016.
Personally, we are very happy that the two members ended up in Cube Entertainment via a detour!
Soyeon was seen in two survival shows before her debut in (G)I-dle! This is what she was best known to fans. In 2016, she appeared in the first season of Produce 101 for Cube Entertainment; a survival show in which 101 female trainees fought for a place in the eleven-member project group “I.O.I”. In her first appearance, she can be seen together with Kwon Eunbin, who debuted as a new member in CLC after the show.
Soyeon made it to the finals! However, she only came in 20th there and was therefore not one of the 11 winners. In the same year she was seen in “Unpretty Rapstar”, a casting show for female rappers. She had already proven her talent for rap in Produce and made it to the semi-finals and third place overall.
Soyeon then signed an exclusive contract with Cube and debuted solo in November 2017 with two self-written songs: “Jelly” and “idle Song”.
2018: Debut
In 2018 the time had come: the six members Shuhua, Minnie, Soojin, Miyeon, Soyeon and Yuqi were in the starting blocks. They have a very colorful background because while Miyeon, Soyeon and Soojin are from Korea, Minnie is from Thailand, Yuqi is from China and Shuhua is from Taiwan.
On May 2nd, the versatile girl group debuted their first album “I Am” and the title track “Latata”!
“Latata” was written by Soyeon and composed and produced in collaboration with producer “Big Sancho”. (G)I-dles leader had already shown her talent for writing songs several times before her debut in the group and did everything right this time too. The song reached number 35 on the Korean “Gaon Digital Charts” and number 4 on the “Billboard World Digital Songs Charts”. Latata also earned no less than three wins in music shows!
So (G)I-dle made it very clear just a few weeks after their debut that we would be seeing more of them!
“More” appeared on August 14th with the digital single “Hann (Alone)”, which was also written and co-produced by Soyeon. The song peaked at number 14 on the Gaon Digital Charts, higher than Latata. At the end of the year, the girl group was rewarded for their success with a number of rookie awards, which they won at the “Asia Artist Awards”, the “Golden Disc Awards” and the “Melon Music Awards”, among others. What a year!
But that wasn't all! In 2018, two members of (G)I-dle also became part of a slightly different girl group:
K/DA
K/DA is a virtual girl group consisting of four characters from the popular game “League of Legends”. “Ahri”, “Akali”, “Evelynn” and “Kai'Sa” borrowed the voices of American singers Madison Beer and Jaira Burns as well as Miyeon and Soyeon from (G)I-dle to release a song. “Pop/ Stars” was released in November 2018 with its own music video:
The video was viewed 30 million times in just five days! The single topped the Billboard World Digital Sales charts and was even performed live by the four singers at the League of Legends World Championship.
In October 2020, K/DA returned with a full album! “All Out” contains five new songs, including the title song “More,” which again has its own music video . This time, even more artists are involved in the project. In addition to some American singers, there is even the Korean girl group Twice. The original lineup is also there again.
2019: New year, new album!
On February 26, 2019 , the second album “I Made” will be released with five songs, almost all of which were written and produced by Soyeon, including the title song “Senorita”. This time, however, Minnie also had a hand in it. She was involved in the lyrics, music and production of “Blow Your Mind”!
The album was followed by a digital single called “Uh-Oh” in June. Soyeon had already written this before Senorita. She's targeting people who didn't believe she could become an idol. We can only guess what exactly she is referring to, but she has always had to contend with comments about her appearance, among other things. Already in Produce, many K-pop “fans” said that she doesn't look like an idol because she doesn't fit the usual beauty standards. But today Soyeon has a large fan base. who can't get enough of her beautiful face and her very own charm!
Five months later, on July 31, (G)I-dle debuted in Japan with the Japanese album "Latata", which contains the Japanese versions of "Latata", "Maze" and "Hann", as well as new songs.
Queendom
From August to October (G)I-dle was featured in the music competition “Queendom,” in which six girl groups compete against each other to determine the “True Number One.” The other participants were Park Bom, AOA, Mamamoo, Lovelyz and Oh My Girl.
In the preliminary round (G)I-dle took first place with a remix of “Latata”!
On October 25th, the girl group released the brand new single “Lion”, a new work by Soyeon, as part of the show. In it the members sing “Im a Queen like a Lion”. This meant that they ended up taking third place in the show.
During the time Queendom was airing, (G)I-dle was also busy with other things. In September, the girl group held their first fan meeting, which sold out in two minutes.
In October, the six also took part in the popular music competition “Immortal Songs” on the KBS channel, performing a cover of “Sad Dream” by “Koyote” .
2020
In March, (G)I-dle was the only K-pop girl group to take part in Twitch's two-hour charity concert “Twitch Stream Aid”. The donations were collected to help with Covid-19.
In April it was time again for a new album. So far, the group has released exactly one Korean album every year. Unfortunately, the fans have to keep being patient, but it's worth it. Every new release blows our socks off because the new songs are once again so powerful and good!
The third album “I Trust” was released on April 6th. By now we can all guess that Soyeon produced most of the songs herself. But this time she produced ALL of them. All five songs in the album, including “Lion” and the title track “Oh My God”, were written by her. I Trust topped the Gaon Album Charts, making it (G)I-dle's first number 1 album in South Korea. It also topped the iTunes Album Charts in 62 countries worldwide! The music video for “Oh My God” was viewed 17 million times on its first day; a personal record for the girl group. It was nominated for Best K-Pop Music Video at the 2020 MTV Music Awards and the song itself won four music show awards!
An English version of “Latata” was released in May. This is only the group's second English song, shortly after the English version of "Oh My God" featured on "I Trust."
On July 5th, (G)I-dle broadcast an online concert entitled “I-Land: Who I Am”. The first world tour under this title was actually announced in January, but as with so many events, Covid-19 put a stop to this. Instead, 11,000 viewers were there live in front of the screen! During the concert, (G)I-die sang a new song called “I'm the Trend”, which was written and composed by Minnie and Yuqi! The song was released as a digital single for fans on July 7th with its own music video .
At the beginning of August , (G)I-dle's first single album “Dumdi Dumdi” was released with the title song of the same name, which also includes the previously released single “I'm the Trend”. Dumdi Dumdi is a summer hit that makes us turn up the volume and spreads good cheer!
The video was viewed 17.6 million times on its first day, breaking the record previously set by “Oh My God”! The song also topped the iTunes charts and earned the girl group no less than six music show wins! A Chinese version of “Dumdi Dumdi” was also published, the lyrics of which were written by Yuqi. It is the first song by (G)I-dle to be released in their national language.
The second Japanese album “Oh My God” will be released in the same month, on August 26th. The album contains five songs: The Japanese versions of "Oh My God", "Uh-Oh", "Senorita" and "Dumdi Dumdi". Plus the original Japanese song “Tung Tung (Empty)” composed by Minnie!
2021
Last year began with the release of the fourth and final album “I Burn” on January 11th. With the title song “Hwaa,” (G)I-dle won ten music show wins, which is a new record for the girl group! Just days later, two more versions of “Hwaa” appear; one English and one Chinese. Yuqi's name can be found in the credits of the Chinese version because she also wrote the Chinese text this time. On February 5th a remix version was released, which was created in collaboration with the Belgian DJ duo “Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike”.
Discography
| Album | Title song | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| I Am | Latata | 02.05.2018 |
| I Made | Senorita | 26.02.2019 |
| Latata (Jap.) | Latata (jap.) | 29.07.2019 |
| I Trust | Oh My God | 06.04.2020 |
| Dumdi Dumdi (Single Album) | Dumdi Dumdi | 03.08.2020 |
| Oh My God (jap.) | Oh My God (jap.) | 26.08.2020 |
| I Burn | Hwaa | 11.01.2021 |
Soojin leaves (G)I-dle
In March, Cube Entertainment announced that Soojin would temporarily step down from her activities and take a break. In February there were allegations that Soojin had bullied other students while she was at school.
Only five members were involved in the new song “Last Dance”, which was released at the end of April for the K-pop platform “Universe”. The members then concentrated on solo activities.
Yuqi made her solo debut in May with the single album “A Page,” which includes two title tracks: “Giant” and “Bonnie and Clyde.” Both songs have their own music videos. However, the one from “Giant” is animated and Yuqi herself cannot be seen in it.
On July 5th, Soyeon released her first solo album “Windy” with five self-written songs. It is her first activity as a solo artist since November 2017. Back then, before (G)I-dle's debut, she released the two singles “Jelly” and “Idle Song”.
A month later, Cube shocked the girl group's fans with the news that Soojin had left the group. The other members remained active as solo artists and were so busy that Cube Entertainment announced in November that (G)I-dle would not release a "Seasons Greetings" for 2022 like in previous years.
So fans will have to keep waiting to see the five of them on stage again as a group.
There is at least one ray of hope: (G)I-dle has been announced as one of seven acts coming to the K-Pop festival “Kpop.flex” in Germany in May! We don't know whether they will release a new album beforehand, but one thing is clear: We are excited for a new year with the girl group and will wait patiently until the members present themselves together again!
Bonus
(G)I-dle uploaded a video to YouTube of them giving a street performance two weeks before their debut in May 2018. The video was viewed two million times in April and increased interest in the new girl group!
