SECRET
SECRET is a girl-group that was formed in 2009 by TS Entertainment, and was the agency’s first girl-group. SECRET debuted with four members: Jun Hyo-sung, Jung Ha-na, Song Ji-eun and Han Sun-hwa. They released their debut single, Want You Back, in October, 2009. The group’s debut single met with great success and the group saw a rise in popularity. In 2011, Secret adopted a girl-next-door image with songs like Shy Boy and Starlight Moonlight, which led the group to major success. Retro is the main musical style of the majority of Secret’s singles, although the group has dipped into other genres, such as pop, dance, R&B, and hip-hop.
Unfortunately, on September 26, 2016, it was announced that Sunhwa would leave the group after deciding not to renew her contract with TS Entertainment, in order to pursue a career in acting. The group would continue with the remaining three members. On February 28, 2018, Hyosung and Jieun were in legal disputes with TS Entertainment. Hyosung’s dispute with TS was over issues such as not receiving payments. It was also reported that in August, 2017, Jieun submitted a request to the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board to verify that her contract was no longer valid, due to TS Entertainment not following the terms of the contract. Jieun later announced via Instagram that her contract was violated and no longer exists.
RAINBOW
Rainbow is a girl-group which was debuted in 2009 by DSP Media. The group consisted of seven members: Woori, Seungah, Jaekyung, Noeul, Yoonhye, Jisook and Hyunyoung. They released their debut mini album, Gossip Girl, on November 12, 2009. On October 27, 2016 the group was officially confirmed to be disbanded after all the members decided to not renew their contracts.
The agency said,” We hope that they will be bright, anywhere, the members will be remembered for their bright, positive image and that people will continue to support their whole support and support for their future activities.” It also thanked the fans for their support for the past seven years. All the Rainbow members focused on their individual activities, such as Jaekyung going into acting.
PRISTIN
PRISTIN is a girl-group which was formed in 2016 by Pledis Entertainment. PRISTIN was made up of contestants from Produce 101 season 1, and included ten members: Nayoung, Roa, Yuha, Eunwoo, Rena, Kyulkyung, Yehana, Sungyeon, Xiyeon and Kyla. Most of them were from Produce 101, and were the top contestants. Nayoung and Kyulkyung were part of the IOI girl-group, before reuniting with other members to debut as Pristin on March 21, 2017, with the EP Hi! Pristin. PRISTIN is known for writing and composing their own music. The group was disbanded on May 24, 2019.
The news that PRISTIN was declared disbanded was shocking to many people, because the group had only been working for three years prior to being broken up. Pledis Entertainment said, “Hello. This is Pledis Entertainment. First, we sincerely thank fans who care for and love PRISTIN. We are delivering the official statement regarding the disbandment of PRISTIN and the termination of contracts for members.
The company and the members have had deep discussions and long-term deliberations before coming to a mutual agreement. It has been decided that with the exclusion of members of Kyulkyung, Yehana, Sungyeon; seven members (Nayoung, Roa, Yuha, Eunwoo, Rena, Xiyeon, and Kyla) will have exclusive contracts terminated as of May 24, 2019. We would like to first apologize to fans, who have always been supportive, for delivering this unfortunate news. Because this is a decision that must be made carefully, this is a lot of time. At the end of discussions, we have resolved the conclusions of disbandment and contract termination.
Kyulkyung, Yehana, and Sungyeon members expressed their intent to stay with the company. We will actively support Kyulkyung, Yehana, and Sungyeon so that they can have stable individual activities. We will wholeheartedly support them so that they can be more active and have more diverse activities. As for the PRISTIN members who will be leaving our agency, we would like to express our deep thanks to them and sincerely support them and their new official contracts have ended paths even though.
Since this is important and sensitive matter that is required by careful decision, we sincerely apologize to fans for delivering this news late and worrying fans through this news. Lastly, we ask that fans show support for the seven PRISTIN members, Kyulkyung, Yehana, and Sungyeon as they embark on new beginnings. Thank you.”
