Wonder Girls return amid Sistar's success
.jpg?w=728)
JYP Entertainment’s Wonder Girls pose during a press conference promoting their third album “Reboot” at Hyundai Card Understage in Hannam-dong in this August 3, 2015, file photo. / Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Popular K-pop girl band Wonder Girls will return with a new album on July 5, JYP Entertainment announced Wednesday, two days after the successful release of a new album by fellow veteran girl group Sistar.
The band’s agency said it will release the band’s schedule along with new photographs and music video teasers starting this Friday. On the final day, the agency will post a video of Wonder Girls practicing their newly choreographed dance.
This is the first album to include singles written by the group members themselves, whereas previous albums offered songs produced by company founder Park Jin-young. The band members participated in writing feature songs in their third album “Reboot” released last August, but they have never written a single in the nine years since their debut.
Starship Entertainment’s girl group Sistar performs at a showcase for their fourth mini-album “Mol-a-ae” held at YES24 Live Hall in Gwangjin-gu, Tuesday. / Yonhap
Wonder Girls will return as a four-member group, as former member Sohee left the band to pursue an acting career with KeyEast Entertainment last September.
Starship Entertainment’s most successful girl group Sistar released its newest song “I Like That,” sweeping the local online music charts and attracting over 1 million viewers to its official YouTube channel.
Sistar’s fourth mini-album “Mol-a-ae” consists of seven tracks including the lead track produced by hit song maker Black Eyed Pilseung, who also wrote Sistar’s popular song “Touch My Body.” “I Like That” is a dance song about falling in love. The title song’s story accords with the meaning of the album name which means falling in deep love and forgetting about oneself.
Sistar’s new single is unique for its calm and slightly heavy melody compared to the band’s typical fresh and lively music that has been targeting the summer season, which earned the group the nickname “queens of summer.”
Soyou, one of the group members, said the members tried to put sad emotions into the new song with minimum strength into the vocals, as opposed to previous tracks that gave a lot of power to sound “bling bling.”
The girl group members added that they want to enjoy the stage rather than think about competing with the numerous other girl groups who have been releasing new albums. Rapper Bora said “it will be exciting for the audience too if many singers release new music as they offer a bigger variety of songs.”
Sistar debuted in June 2010, and rose to stardom with hit songs like “So Cool,” “Give It to Me” and “Touch My Body.”