ZE:A(Hangul: 제국의 아이들), also known as Children of Empire, is a South Korean 9-member boy band formed under Star Empire Entertainment. The group released their debut EP, Nativity, and lead single, "Mazeltov" on January 7, 2010, alongside their showcase performance five days later. The group debuted on KBS's Music Bank on January 15, 2010.
Pre-debut
Under the name Child of Empire, following their appearance on Mnet's Office Reality citation needed the group gained attention by performing various guerilla shows and creating UCC (user created content) videos. They have also appeared in a documentary-styled show Star Empire, and later getting their own documentary show titled Music Bank the same day. On July 8, for the first time, the group took the number one spot on Hanteo's real-time album sales chart. On July 29 a 1:30 minute Full Music Video of "Heart For 2" was released on ZE:A Official YouTube Channel (ZEA2011).
After two weeks of promoting "Watch Out!", the group started their follow-up promotion with "Heart For 2".
Early October, Star Empire announced that a new Japanese single will be released on November 22. The single will contain 4 tracks, a new ballad song titled "Daily Daily", a Japanese version of "All Day Long" and instrumental versions of both songs. According to Star Empire, there will be 2 DVD versions, version A and version B; version A containing Daily Daily music video & the making of the music video while version B will contain Daily Daily music video & the making of the jacket photo shooting. On November 2, 2011 a 30 second preview of 'Daily Daily' was uploaded on the ZE:A Official YouTube Channel (ZEA2011), 5 days later on November 7, 2011 a 30 second preview of 'All Day Long' Japanese Version was uploaded. November 24, 2011 the full Daily Daily PV was uploaded.
On November 22, the single was released and were placed 3rd on the Oricon Chart just a few hours after release. The PV was released on November 23.
2012: Comeback delayed and unit group announced
ZE:A's comeback album was set to release on June 21, 2012, but in May, ZE:A's agency, Star Empire Entertainment, announced that the group would postpone their comeback because of an injury to member Jun Young's right ankle. It was then later announced that ZE:A's Ha Min Woo would be forming a unit group with two Japanese artists, Nikaido Hayato (singer of Alpha), and actor Sasake Yoshihide. The group is called 3Peace Lovers, and their first single, "Virtual Love," is set to release on June 26.
On June 14, ZE:A's Daum Cafe released information about the comeback album and uploaded 4 10-second preview songs on the ZE:A Official YouTube Channel (ZEA2011). The album was revealed to be titled "Spectacular" and will be featuring 11 songs in the tracklist. The comeback is confirmed to be set on July 4. On July 3, ZE:A hosted a showcase of their new album "SPECTACULAR" performing songs from the album, which was streamed live on their official YouTube channel (ZEA2011). On July 3, ZE:A's official channel (ZEA2011) uploaded the music video for their title track "Aftermath" from their album "SPECTACULAR."
On August, it was Announced that Kwanghee will be the new cast of MBC We Got Married and will be Coupled with Sunhwa SECRET.
On August 26, ZE:A uploaded the music video for their title track "Phoenix" from their album " Phoenix"
Also Kwanghee got a lead role in the drama To The Beautiful You as Song Jong Min
2013: Comeback
ZE:A made their comeback with "Ghost of the Wind" on August 8.
Hyungsik was casted in the The Heirs as Jo Myungsoo
