Miss A
Miss A | |
|---|---|
 From left to right: Jia, Suzy, Fei, Min in Singapore, February 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Seoul, South Korea |
| Genres | K-pop, pop, dance-pop, electropop, teen pop, Mandopop |
| Years active | 2010–present |
| Labels | JYP Entertainment,
AQ Entertainment (South Korea), Universal Music Group (International) |
| Members | Fei Jia Min Suzy |
| Website | Official website |
Miss A (미쓰에이), commonly stylized as miss A, is a four member Chinese-Korean girl group based in South Korea. They were formed by JYP Entertainment and are managed by AQ Entertainment. The group consists of Fei, Jia, Min, and Suzy. Their group name stands for Miss Asia.[citation needed]
History
Pre-debut, JYP Sisters: Early activities in China
Members Fei and Jia were selected in 2007. Fei was scouted on her way to dance school, while Jia's school held auditions. Before their debut, members Fei and Jia appeared in 2PM's "My Color" music video.
Originally, Miss A were a 5-member group in training in 2009. 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". However, the group went through several changes during this period, most notably the exit of member Lim who was re-grouped to join the Wonder Girls. Additionally, two other girls decided to withdraw from the group. JYPE then decided to group the two remaining girls, Fei and Jia, with 15-year old, JYPE South Korean trainee, Suzy Bae, who had previous experience as a model for an online shopping mall.[1][2][3][4]
The girls began their first official promotional activities in China as a group by signing up with Samsung China and released a commercial song 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. Lee Min Young, a solo artist and a long-time JYPE 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.[5] It was later announced she would be joining the group under her stage name, Min, and would be debuting with the group in South Korea.[6]
2010: Debut in South Korea with "Bad Girl Good Girl" and "Breathe"
Miss A made their official debut in South Korea as a four-member group on June 30 with their single "Bad Girl Good Girl" which was taken from their debut single album called Bad but Good. Their single topped various music charts and eventually earned the group their first Mutizen award on M.net's M! Countdown, and the following day miss A reached number #1 on KBS's Music Bank. On August 1 they reached number #1 on SBS's Inkigayo. The song stayed at #1 on M.net's M! Countdown, KBS's Music Bank and SBS's Inkigayo for one week.[7][8][9][10][11]
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.[12] They made their first comeback on M.net's M! Countdown and the following day on KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core and SBS's Inkigayo. The song went to #1 on M.net M! Countdown and stayed there for one week.[13][14]
2011: Solo activities, Comeback, and Chinese debut
Fei appeared in the music video of the song "I Only Love You" by Huh Gong. Jia appeared in M&D's music video for "Close Your Mouth". Min was a fixed student on KBS's variety show Oh! My School, also known as 100 Out of 100. She also starred in the movie Countdown as Jang Hyeon-ji. Suzy starred in Dream High as the main character Go Hye-mi.[15][16][17][18][19]
In May 2011, miss A released "Love Alone", a singles 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”.[20][21][22]
In July 2011, 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 a total of 13 songs. They started promoting the title song "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.[23][24][25][26][27]
On September 30, 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", "Goodbye Baby" and "Love Again". After the Chinese album release, it ranked #1 on several charts. "Good Bye Baby" ranked first on Taiwan's biggest music portal, ezPeer, and A Class topped their weekly Korea/Japan chart. On ‘G-MUSIC‘, miss A ranked #3.[28][29]
2012: Touch, Chinese mini-album, Independent Women Part III
Miss A announced their comeback in Korea with an EP called Touch, released on February 20, 2012. The first music video teaser for their song "Touch", which featured their youngest member, Suzy, was uploaded on their official YouTube channel on February 13. The second teaser, featuring their rapper, Jia, was released on February 14. The third teaser, featuring Fei, was released on February 15. The final music video teaser, featuring their fourth member, Min, was released on February 16. 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.[30][31][32][33][34][35]
Miss A's song Touch reached #1 on various Korean real-time music charts. 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.[36][37]
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.[38][39][40][41]
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.[42][43][44]
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. Min was featured in B1A4's song "Just Two Of Us" for their album Ignition. Suzy was featured in "Before This Song Ends" for JJ Project's debut album Bounce. Suzy was confirmed for a role in the drama Big.[45]
On October 7, 2012, miss A released a teaser image with a quiz question on it, and that the answer would be given on October 15 at 12 o'clock. On October 8, miss A announced their comeback with their fifth project album entitled Independent Women Pt.III. The following day, moving teaser images of Min and Fei were released, with excerpts of the song lyrics provided. The day after, Jia and Suzy's teaser images were released. On October 10, a video teaser featuring the entire group was released, all members dressed in male attire. Finally, 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 their condition has yet to be revealed. They continued their schedules with only a few hours delay.[46] They began their promotions for "I don't need a man" on October 18.[47]
2013: Solo Activities
Wang Fei Fei starred on celebrity edition of MasterChef Korea with Super Junior-M's Henry Lau, Dal Shabet Jiyul, Tony An, Son Ho Young, and others.[48] She also starred in Dancing With the Stars 3 with MBLAQ's Seungho.[49] Lastly Fei picked up an endorsement deal with casual apparel brand ‘Connie Colin’.[50] Min and BTOB’s Minhyuk to starred in ‘Reckless Family 2′.[51] Suzy will be starring in MBC‘s upcoming drama, Gu Family Book, with Lee Seung Gi.[52] Meanwhile, Meng Jia attended many fashion shows and appeared in Let's Go Dream Team 2.
Members
| Stage name [53] | Birth name [53] | Date of birth [53] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romanized | Hangul | Romanized | Hangul/Hanja | |
| Fei | 페이 | Wang Fei Fei | 왕페이페이 / 王霏霏 | April 27, 1987 |
| Jia | 지아 | Meng Jia | 맹지아 / 孟佳 | February 3, 1989 |
| Min | 민 | Lee Min Young | 이민영 / 李玟瑛 | June 21, 1991 |
| Suzy | 수지 | Bae Su Ji | 배수지 / 裴秀智 | October 10, 1994 |
Trivia
- Official Fanclub : Say A
- Two members are from Korean descent (Suzy, Min) and two members are from Chinese descent (Fei, Jia).
