Biography
Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어), also known as simply SJ or SuJu (Korean: 슈주), is a thirteen-member South Korean boy band formed by SM Entertainment in 2005, masterminded by Lee Soo Man.
The group initially debuted with twelve members on November 6, 2005 with the single, “TWINS (Knock Out)”. The original twelve members are 이특 (Leeteuk - the leader), 희철 (Heechul), 韩庚 (Han Geng), 예성 (Yesung), 강인 (Kangin), 신동 (Shindong), 성민 (Sungmin), 은혁 (Eunhyuk), 시원 (Siwon), 동해 (Donghae), 려욱 (Ryeowook), 기범 (Kibum). The youngest member, 규현 (Kyuhyun), became a part of Super Junior on May 23, 2006. The Chinese member, Han Geng, was chosen among the 3,000 applicants through auditions held in China by SM Entertainment in 2001. Moreover, before the addition of their 13th member, they were simply a project group named SuperJunior05. With his addition, the “05” was dropped and Super Junior became an official band.
Super Junior also has four sub-units with three different concentrations. The first one, Super Junior K.R.Y., consists of Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung, and focuses on singing ballad songs. The second, Super Junior T, consists of Heechul, Kangin, Shindong, Eunhyuk, Leeteuk, and Sungmin. Super Junior T focuses on singing trot songs, an old style of Korean pop music. The third, Super Junior M, is made up of Han Geng, Siwon, Donghae, plus two SM Trainees, Henry and Zhou Mi. Kyuhyun and Ryeowook were added later. They focus on singing Mandarin Chinese songs. The fourth, Super Junior H, is comprised of every member of Super Junior T except for Heechul, who is replaced by Yesung.
Super Junior’s third album, Sorry, Sorry, was released on March 12, 2009. The title single of the album, “Sorry, Sorry” was digitally released on March 9, 2009. In less than a week after preorders were announced, over 150,000 copies were pre-ordered. Sorry, Sorry was their first album to debut at #1 on the Hanteo Charts, and it sold over 29,000 copies the first day, defeating Seo Taiji’s record of 25,000. Promotions for the album started March 13 with the performance of “Sorry, Sorry” and “Why I Like You” on Music Bank. Two weeks later, “Sorry, Sorry” became the number one song of the week on the same program. During the group’s performance on music program Popular Songs on March 15, ratings went up to as high as 14%, the highest in recent years. From March to May, “Sorry, Sorry” collected a total of ten #1 awards with consecutive wins. On May 12, Super Junior released their new album “It’s You”. The music video for the song “It’s You” was released two days before schedule because it was leaked onto the internet with only 3 seconds missing so without any editing they released it. Three days later they released what they called “It’s You (Drama Version)”. A month later, on June 15, they released “It’s You (Dance Version)”. In the unedited and edited version Kibum only showed up in the beginning and a minute part in the middle of the videos. In the dance version Kibum again did not appear. Promotions for “It’s You” ended in early June so SM could promote SNSD’s new song. Super Junior is currently preparing for their Super Show tour. They will hold two concerts in Japan in August 2009.
On December 21, 2009, Han Geng filed for contract termination with SM Entertainment, label company of the group. The following day, Han Geng’s lawyer stated the claimed reasons behind the action: provisions were in SM Entertainment’s favour, unlawful 13-year contract length, unfair sum of money to end the contract, not allowed to request to revise his contract, forced to do things that were not in his contract, forced to do things against his will, fined if he disobeyed the company, missed any events or even was late, and there was uneven profit distribution. Along with this, it was disclosed that because of SM Entertainment’s refusal to give him a day off in over two years, he had developed gastritis and kidney disease.
Han Geng’s current manager, Sun Le, also submitted a statement to the court of South Korea citing SM Entertainment’s violation of Han Geng’s rights. Sun Le’s statement contended that: Han Geng was forced to wear a mask due to company’s ill handling of the visa issue, company purposely discriminated against Han Geng and his family, company refused to cooperate or listen to any of Han Geng’s suggestions, company purposely turned down individual activities for Han Geng (including Ariel Lin’s “Fireflies” music video, which later starred two other Super Junior members) and that the company treated Han Geng’s potential endorsers poorly.[109]
On December 21, 2010, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of Han Geng. The court stated, “All three contracts – from the January 2003 contract, the altered contract from February 2007, and the affiliated contract from December 2007 – do not exist.” A representative of SM Entertainment said that they will file an immediate appeal to reverse the decision.[110] and have yet to release official statements regarding his status.
The group initially debuted with twelve members on November 6, 2005 with the single, “TWINS (Knock Out)”. The original twelve members are 이특 (Leeteuk - the leader), 희철 (Heechul), 韩庚 (Han Geng), 예성 (Yesung), 강인 (Kangin), 신동 (Shindong), 성민 (Sungmin), 은혁 (Eunhyuk), 시원 (Siwon), 동해 (Donghae), 려욱 (Ryeowook), 기범 (Kibum). The youngest member, 규현 (Kyuhyun), became a part of Super Junior on May 23, 2006. The Chinese member, Han Geng, was chosen among the 3,000 applicants through auditions held in China by SM Entertainment in 2001. Moreover, before the addition of their 13th member, they were simply a project group named SuperJunior05. With his addition, the “05” was dropped and Super Junior became an official band.
Super Junior also has four sub-units with three different concentrations. The first one, Super Junior K.R.Y., consists of Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung, and focuses on singing ballad songs. The second, Super Junior T, consists of Heechul, Kangin, Shindong, Eunhyuk, Leeteuk, and Sungmin. Super Junior T focuses on singing trot songs, an old style of Korean pop music. The third, Super Junior M, is made up of Han Geng, Siwon, Donghae, plus two SM Trainees, Henry and Zhou Mi. Kyuhyun and Ryeowook were added later. They focus on singing Mandarin Chinese songs. The fourth, Super Junior H, is comprised of every member of Super Junior T except for Heechul, who is replaced by Yesung.
Super Junior’s third album, Sorry, Sorry, was released on March 12, 2009. The title single of the album, “Sorry, Sorry” was digitally released on March 9, 2009. In less than a week after preorders were announced, over 150,000 copies were pre-ordered. Sorry, Sorry was their first album to debut at #1 on the Hanteo Charts, and it sold over 29,000 copies the first day, defeating Seo Taiji’s record of 25,000. Promotions for the album started March 13 with the performance of “Sorry, Sorry” and “Why I Like You” on Music Bank. Two weeks later, “Sorry, Sorry” became the number one song of the week on the same program. During the group’s performance on music program Popular Songs on March 15, ratings went up to as high as 14%, the highest in recent years. From March to May, “Sorry, Sorry” collected a total of ten #1 awards with consecutive wins. On May 12, Super Junior released their new album “It’s You”. The music video for the song “It’s You” was released two days before schedule because it was leaked onto the internet with only 3 seconds missing so without any editing they released it. Three days later they released what they called “It’s You (Drama Version)”. A month later, on June 15, they released “It’s You (Dance Version)”. In the unedited and edited version Kibum only showed up in the beginning and a minute part in the middle of the videos. In the dance version Kibum again did not appear. Promotions for “It’s You” ended in early June so SM could promote SNSD’s new song. Super Junior is currently preparing for their Super Show tour. They will hold two concerts in Japan in August 2009.
On December 21, 2009, Han Geng filed for contract termination with SM Entertainment, label company of the group. The following day, Han Geng’s lawyer stated the claimed reasons behind the action: provisions were in SM Entertainment’s favour, unlawful 13-year contract length, unfair sum of money to end the contract, not allowed to request to revise his contract, forced to do things that were not in his contract, forced to do things against his will, fined if he disobeyed the company, missed any events or even was late, and there was uneven profit distribution. Along with this, it was disclosed that because of SM Entertainment’s refusal to give him a day off in over two years, he had developed gastritis and kidney disease.
Han Geng’s current manager, Sun Le, also submitted a statement to the court of South Korea citing SM Entertainment’s violation of Han Geng’s rights. Sun Le’s statement contended that: Han Geng was forced to wear a mask due to company’s ill handling of the visa issue, company purposely discriminated against Han Geng and his family, company refused to cooperate or listen to any of Han Geng’s suggestions, company purposely turned down individual activities for Han Geng (including Ariel Lin’s “Fireflies” music video, which later starred two other Super Junior members) and that the company treated Han Geng’s potential endorsers poorly.[109]
On December 21, 2010, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of Han Geng. The court stated, “All three contracts – from the January 2003 contract, the altered contract from February 2007, and the affiliated contract from December 2007 – do not exist.” A representative of SM Entertainment said that they will file an immediate appeal to reverse the decision.[110] and have yet to release official statements regarding his status.
