SNSD LYRICS and News

2010: Second album and Japan debut

In early 2010, the group was chosen to sing SBS’s new logo song “Naeireul Bomnida” (Korean: “내일을 봅니다”, “Looking at Tomorrow“).

Later in January, SM Entertainment confirmed the release of Oh!, the group’s second full-length album, released on January 28.The lead single “Oh!“, was digitally released on January 25 with the music video being released two days later. The song proved to be popular topping various charts upon release.On January 30, the group started promotions with the recording of MBC’s Show! Music Core.The performance experienced a blackout near the end, to which MBC made the whole performance available online. In the KBS’s music show, Music Bank, the song ‘Oh!’won the award for best-selling song for the first half of 2010; wherein the previous year they also won the award with their mega-hit “Gee“.

Starting from March 11, 2010, photos of the members were released online showcasing a dark concept, so called “Black Girls’ Generation”.The “Black SoShi” nickname is a play on the Korean group name (So Nyeo Shi Dae). A teaser video was released on March 16, with the new single released as a digital single on March 17. The music video for “Run Devil Run” was released on March 17, and the group performed first on KBS’s Music Bank. With the combined sales of both the full album “Oh!” and the repackage “Run Devil Run“, Girls’ Generation sold more albums than any other artist in the first half of 2010.The music videos for both “Oh!” and “Run Devil Run” made it into GOMTV‘s 2010 First Half Top 10 ranking, the group having attracted over 13 million views in 6 months.

They have also recently made a new song titled “CABI” to promote The Caribbean Bay with 2PM. Members Yuri, Yoona, and Seohyun were the main actors each being paired with 2PM members Nichkhun, Taecyeon, and Chansung respectively. All the other members made a cameo towards the end in the music video. The song was sung by Girls’ Generation and 2PM. The music video was released on YouTube on May 20, 2010.

Mid-June, it was announced that the group had signed contracts in May, and would begin working under Universal Music Japan‘s record label Nayutawave Records for their Japanese promotions, with their first Japanese single expected to be released in September 2010. Girls’ Generation began promotion in Japan in August. “少女時代到来～初来日記念盤～” (Girls’ Generation’s Arrival ～ First Time in Japan Commemoration Disc ～), a DVD featuring seven of the group’s music videos as well as special bonus footage was released on August 11, with the special edition of the DVD containing a pink glowstick as well as a pass to the Girls’ Generation debut at the Tokyo Ariake Colliseum on August 25. According to Universal Music Japan, the DVD had reached considerable success even before physical release, the pre-orders having sold out.In the first week after release, the DVD sold 23,000 copies, making no.4 on the weekly DVD Oricon ranking and no.3 on the weekly music DVD ranking,making Girls’ Generation the first female k-pop group to make the Oricon DVD Top-5 ranking.Amidst their Japanese activities, the group also participated in the SMTown Live ’10 World Tour alongside their label-mates on August 21 at Seoul Jamsil Olympic Stadium. And then in Shanghai and Los Angeles on later dates.

On August 25, the group held their first showcase in Tokyo Ariake Colliseum. With an initial 10,000 fans invited, it was reported to be the most large-scale plan for a Korean artist debuting in Japan. However, due to high number of expected attendees, the group’s management announced that the showcase would take place three times in the same day rather than once to accommodate the estimated 20,000 fans. The group sang 5 of their Korean tracks at each of the showcases, the total number of attendees over all three shows estimated to be at least 22,000. At this showcase, the Genie Japanese music video was also revealed publicly for the first time, the teaser having been released a few days prior on August 20.

Their Japanese debut single “Genie“ peaked at the #5 spot on the same day of its release on the Oricon Chartsand later rose to the #2 position some time later, earning the group a #4 position on the Oricon weekly ranking The group also hit the number #1 spots on Japan iTunes’ music video chart and both the Rekochoku daily video clip chart and incoming movie daily ranking chart a day later. With pre-orders amounting to 80,000, the single sold an estimated 45,000 copies in the first week after release, breaking the record for foreign artists debuting in Japan. The single also placed high on Japan’s Billboard chart, ranking #4 on the comprehensive Hot 100 chart, #5 on the Hot Single Sales Chart and #1 on the Hot Top Airplay chart. On October 20, 2010, the group released their second Japanese single, “Gee”.

Girls’ Generation also had success in Japan with their Japanese 2nd single “Gee“. They took 2nd place and were crowned the first ever overseas girl group to claim this position. On October 26, 2010 it was announced that their Japanese 2nd single “Gee” reaches #1 on the Oricon Daily Chart making them the first non-Japanese Asian girl group to reach number 1 on the daily chart.

On October 27, 2010, Girls’ Generation’s label SM Entertainment released the group’s third mini album titledHoot. The single“Hoot” was released on October 25 at 10am KST through various online music websites. Prior to their comeback, after just releasing “Hoot” on October 25, it took less than 7 minutes for “Hoot” to dominate 7 major Korean realtime music charts, topping every single one of them at #1 include Monkey3, Dosirak, Melon, Soridaba, Cyworld, Bugs and Daum. SM Entertainment released Hoot MV on October 28, 2010 on SM homepage and their official youtube channel. The MV also featuring Super Junior’s member Choi Siwon. In less then 24 hours “Hoot” MV hits more than 1 million viewers on Youtube. They first won their performance on Music Bank on 5th November 2010.