Apink is a South Korean girl group formed by A Cube Entertainment in 2011. The group consists of Park Cho-rong, Yoon Bo-mi, Jung Eun-ji, Son Na-eun, Kim Nam-joo and Oh Ha-young. Hong Yoo-kyung left the group in April 2013 to focus on her studies.
The group has released five Korean extended plays and one studio album. In April 2011, Apink released their first extended play (EP),Seven Springs of Apink, and performed a song from it, "Mollayo" (몰라요; "I Don't Know"), on Mnet's M! Countdown. The group has continued to perform live and on television shows since then. Apink released their first Japanese-language single, "NoNoNo", in October 2014. Their fifth Korean EP, Pink Luv, released in November 2014, debuted at No. 1 on Gaon's weekly album chart.
Pre-debut[edit]
In February 2011, Cube Entertainment announced the first trainee for its new girl group, Apink, was Son Na-eun, who was featured in label mate Beast's "Soom" (숨; "Breath"), "Beautiful" and "Niga Jeil Joha" (니가 제일 좋아; "I Like You the Best") music videos in late 2010.[1] Park Cho-rong, who appeared at the end of Beast's "Shock" Japanese music video, joined next, as the group's leader.[2] A sub-division of Cube Entertainment, A Cube Entertainment is the group's manager. Still in February, A Cube announced Oh Ha-young as the third member.[3] In March, Jung Eun-ji was introduced as the fourth member on A Cube's Twitter account through a video of her singing a rendition of Jennifer Hudson's "Love You I Do".[4] Hong Yoo-kyung was similarly announced through an online video where she was playing the piano.[5] The last two members, Yoon Bo-mi and Kim Nam-joo, were introduced through the group's reality show, Apink News.[6]
Prior to the group's debut, the documentary Apink News aired on the Korean cable channel Trend E.[7] The show chronicled the launch process of Apink. Each episode featured a different celebrity guest as its anchorman, including G.NA, Mario, MBLAQ's Seung Ho and G.O, Beast, 4minute, 2AM's Jinwoon, Secret's Sunhwa andHyoseong.[8][9] The week before Apink's official debut, they released their first television commercial for Ceylon Tea
The group released their debut EP, Seven Springs of Apink and the music video for its lead single, "Mollayo" (몰라요; "I Don't Know"), on April 19, 2011. The album consists of five songs, including "It Girl" and "Wishlist". The music video for "Mollayo" featured Beast's Lee Gi-kwang.[11]Apink made their debut stage performance with "Mollayo" on Mnet's M! Countdown on April 21 to promote their album.[12]After several months of promoting "Mollayo", they began promoting "It Girl".[2] Apink also recorded the song "Uri Geunyang Saranghage Haejuseyo" (우리 그냥 사랑하게 해주세요; "Please Let Us Love") for theSBS drama, Protect the Boss, the soundtrack of which was released in September 2011.[13]
In November 2011, Apink began recording a reality television show called Birth of a Family with boy band Infinite. The show followed the efforts of the two idol groups to care for abandoned and mistreated animals over the course of eight weeks.[14]
The group released their second EP, Snow Pink, on November 22, 2011, featuring the lead single "My My", a song composed byShinsadong Tiger. Promotions for "My My" began on November 25 on KBS' Music Bank.[15] The promotions for "My My" included a one-day idol tea cafe, serving fans to raise profits for charity, where the group members prepared the food and drinks themselves. The members also auctioned off personal items for charity.[16]
Still in November, Apink received their first award, the "Female Rookie Award", at the 2011 Mnet Asian Music Awards held in Singapore. In December 2011, Apink and Beast released a music video of the song "Skinny Baby" for school uniform brand Skoolooks.[17] In January 2012, they received three more "Rookie Awards", at the Korean Culture & Entertainment Awards and the Golden Disk Awards held in Osaka and the High 1 Seoul Music Awards in Seoul.
