Red Velvet

Red Velvet (Hangul: 레드벨벳) is a South Korean girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2014. The group consists of members Irene, Seulgi, Wendy and Joy.

Red Velvet's debut single "Happiness" was released in August 2014. The single was a moderate success; "Happiness” made its way up to number one on Genie’s real-time music chart immediately upon its release. The track is proving to have exceptional results for a rookie group, as it placed within the top 10 on Melon, Naver Music, and other charts.

Pre-debut

Three of the four members of Red Velvet were previously part of S.M. Entertainment's pre-debut team, S.M. Rookies. Seulgi, the first member who joined the agency, was brought in through an audition in 2007. Irene, the next member to join the company, was cast in 2009. Wendy auditioned through the 'SM Global Audition' in Canada in 2012. Joy, the member who wasn't part of the S.M. Rookies, also auditioned through the 'SM Global Audition' in Seoul in 2012.

In July 2014, there were rumors of S.M Entertainment forming a new girl group that will debut in the next month that consisted of three girls from the S.M. Rookies, Irene, Seulgi, Wendy and another S.M trainee who turned out to be Joy. S.M Entertainment made an official announcement that the 4-member girl group, Red Velvet, will be making their official debut on August 1, 2014.

2014: Debut and Happiness

Red Velvet released a music video teaser of their debut song, "Happiness" on July 27, 2014.

The music video for "Happiness" was released on August 1, 2014, and on the same day, the group made their official debut stage on the music program Music Bank.

"Happiness", penned by Yoo Young-jin and composed by Will Simms, Chad Hugo (The Neptunes), Chris Holsten and Anne Judith Wik (Dsign Music), was released on August 4, 2014 through South Korea's music portals. Meanwhile, its music video also reached 1,000,000 views in just 11 hours.

The new digital single "Happiness" was released on August 4 through various online music charts including Melon, Genie, and Naver Music. "Happiness” made its way up to number one on Genie’s real-time music chart immediately upon its release. The track is proving to have exceptional results for a rookie group, as it placed within the top 10 on Melon, Naver Music, and other charts. The tune debuted at No. 3 in Singapore and Taiwan, No.4 in Malaysia, No.5 in Thailand and No.9 in Hong Kong. It also landed in the top 10 on iTunes singles chart after its release on August 5. 

Controversy

Shortly after the release of the music video for "Happiness", Japanese media reported that images referencing the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks were seen in the video. SM Entertainment responded to the reports, explaining, "After questioning the director, we found that he simply used a collage source for the images, and there was no intention behind it."

The representative added, "As SM wasn't able to catch it before, we will remove the material that caused the misunderstanding as soon as possible. We will make sure not to let this kind of thing happen in the future."

On August 3rd SM Entertainment deleted the original "Happiness" music video, and uploaded a re-edited version without the controversial scenes.

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