Super Junior : The Last Man Standing

2~Super Junior T

Also known as: SJ-T, Super Junior Trot
Genres: Kpop, Jpop, Trot, Novelty
Years active: 2007 - present
Labels: SM Entertainment, Avex Asia, Rhythm Zone
Website: superjunior-t.smtown.com
Members: Leeteuk, Heechul, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk

This subunit which is simply called as Super Junior-T is the second official subgroup under Super Junior ( Korean: 슈퍼주니어-트로트 / 슈퍼주니어-티). T stands for 'trot'. This unit was formed in 2007 taking the SJ members, the leader Leeteuk, Heechul, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, and Eunhyuk.

This subgroup was to sing songs of the Korean Trot genre as the name suggests. The unit came into life as SM CEO and producer Lee Sooman noticed the dying trend of Trot music in South Korea. He decided to reintroduce this music style into the new generation by forming an idol band capitalizing this genre. Hence, Super Junior-T became the first idol group known for capitalizing the oldest form of Korean pop music.

On 25th November 2006, three months before SJ-T's official debut, they performed "Don't Go Away" at the Mnet/KM Music Festival with SJ Donghae .

On 23rd February 2007 SJ-T released their debut CD single "Rokugo" (로꾸거).
Lee Sooman's attempt at giving a new life to a dying trend was successful. "Rokugo" sold almost 46 000 units by the end of 2007. The single "Rokugo" was Korea's sixteenth best-selling record and the number one best-selling single of 2007, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea.
"Rokugo" topped music charts three days after release. The subunit formed to sing to touch the hearts of natives managed to reach beyond that, to caress the hearts of non-natives alike. Two months later, the single topped Thailand-based music stations and remained in the same position for several weeks.

On 25th of February 2007 SJ-T made their official debut performance, of "Rokugo" and "First Express", on SBS's Popular Songs, with famous trot singer Bang Shilyi.
This successful debut was also marked as Heechul's comeback performance after his injury from a car accident that occurred in August 2006.

On April 19, 2007 SJ-T members Leeteuk, Shindong and Eunhyuk faced with an unfortunate car accident along with SJ member Kyuhyun, bringing tears to everyone's eyes.
As the remaining SJ members and fans prayed for the recovery of the members who faced with the accident, SJ-T scheduled activities had to be completely canceled for two months. However, pre-recorded performances, such as the group's parody Palace T, continued to air on television and their single continued to top music charts. Schedules resumed in June, but only lasted a month.

On early 2008 SM Entertainment made a sudden announcement that Super Junior-T will be on hiatus.
But later, on April 29, 2008, SM Entertainment made another announcement to the public saying that SJ-T would make a comeback later in the year with their second single.

However, a fourth Super Junior sub-unit, Super Junior-H, debuted instead, putting Super Junior-T in partial hiatus, appearing as a group in Super Junior's concert tour, Super Show and other similar functions.

On May 17, 2008 SJ-T successfully performed as the opening act at the 6th Korean Music Festival in Los Angeles, California, entertaining the audience with the best of Korean trot music.

In 2008 on 5th of the month of November the Japanese version single of Rokugo called "Rock&Go" was released.
The single debuted at #19 on the Oricon Daily Charts and jumped to #2 three days later.

Presenting this project to the Japanese comedy duo Moeyan, who are skilled in combining comedy with song and dance, Super Junior-T hopes that the duo will help them localize the single into Japanese. The collaboration was the duo's official debut as singers and Super Junior-T's entrance in the Japanese market.

SJ-T and Moeyan held two mini concerts on the same release date as the single in the C.C. Lemon Hall at Tokyo to promote the record.

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Super Junior-T is well known for their parodies, such as the short miniseries Palace T, a parody of the popular Korean drama, Princess Hours which aired on the channel Mnet, as a part of Idol World. Due to Super Junior-T's active participance in trot music and their comedic appearances, the group gained outstanding attention from the older audience despite their well-known young idol images that was created for them in the main group Super Junior. Members of Super Junior-T explained that they wanted to change their idol appearance and hope that they would gain different fans from their new trot image.
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"Frankly, trot songs are not easy for me to sing because there are so many vibrations in them. But I think the songs have power to make everyone feel upbeat" - Leeteuk