Shinhwa (Korean: 신화) is a popular South Korean boy band. The group has six members (with 3 vocalists and 3 rappers), and debuted on March 24, 1998. They enjoyed massive success alongside the likes of Sechs Kies, Fin. K.L.,H.O.T. and S.E.S., but while the four bands have since disbanded, Shinhwa still continued to release albums with high sales. Shinhwa is the Korean word for myth or legend.
Notable for being the longest-running boy-band in South Korea, the group has released eight studio albums, one Greatest hits album, and two compilation albums. Initially formed under SM Entertainment, they signed a new contract with a new record label, Good Entertainment in July 2003. Shinhwa is also well-known outside the Korean border. While known best in Asia, they have also performed in different countries of the world, including the United States, Australia, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan.
Shinhwa has changed musical styles many times throughout its existence, beginning with bubblegum pop and later transitioning into dance songs, creating a variation of popular music for fans and general K-pop listeners, while still maintaining a distinct style. They're also notable for having excellent choreography in their music videos and performances, having won many awards for their dancing.

Group members
Hyesung was the first to join Shinhwa after a stand-out audition in Los Angeles, CA. Andy was chosen because he was once known to SM Entertainment as a candidate for another Korean boy-band, H.O.T. Although he was prohibited by his parents from joining H.O.T because he was too young at the time, he did not abandon his dreams. Eric joined not long after Andy, followed by Minwoo, who was discovered in a dance group by a SM scout when he won 1st place at a student dance competition. Dongwan was spotted by a scout on the street and was at first interested in acting, but joined after he saw a preview video of the existing Shinhwa members. Junjin made it as the final member through an audition backed by his high school friend, Kangta (ex-member of H.O.T).

Formation of the group

Musical career

1998-2003: SM Entertainment
The six-member group debuted under SM Entertainment on March 24, 1998 with a performance on KM Music Tank, with their first single, Hae Gyul Sah (Resolver). Their debut was met with accusations that Shinhwa was yet another copy of another popular boy-band at the time, H.O.T.
Despite these criticisms, the group's first single, Resolver was a major hit, and gained significant ground on numerous Korean music charts. Their second single, Eusha, Eusha!, a lighter hearted single than their first, was met with even greater success. Shinhwa's third single, Chun Il Yoo Hon also charted well. But their success was hard to achieve do to the many bumps in the road. When Shinhwa started to perform "Eusha, Eusha" which was about taking a fun trip to the beach, a tragic water accident had occurred making it hard for people enjoy this song and use it only as a reminder of what had happened.

1998: Resolver
Shinhwa released their second album, T.O.P, in April 19, 1999 and garnered considerable success with its title song. Their second track, Yo! was also a hit. Riding on the success of their second album, the group received the "1998's Best Music Video from a new male pop group" award from M.Net, their first major music award. At this time, the group took on a more mature image, in contrast to their previously boyish look.
On June 2000, after a three month delay, Shinhwa released its third album, Only One. The group continued their successes with the album's title song, including two others, All Your Dreams and First Love. They also manage to win three awards that year as well: the SBS Gayo "Popularity award", the KMTV song "Bonsang Award" (their first "bongsang" ever), and the "Popular Singers award". Their revised dancing style also garnered them much popularity, which took after the likes of N'Sync and Backstreet Boys. The group once again underwent a drastic change in appearance, taking on a distinctly gothic image. On January 13 to 14 of that year, Shinhwa had their first concert ever as well.

1999-2000: T.O.P. and Only One
Shinhwa's 4th album was released on July 8, 2001 and popular songs like Hey, Come On! rapidly climbed up the music charts. The album's release conincided with the rise of the Korean Wave, spreading the group's popularity overseas. In yet another change in appearance, the members took on a cleaner look. On January 31, 2002, Shinhwa released a compilation album entitled, My Choice, and was met with moderate success, selling over 180,000 copies.
However, the group also associated with major controversies at this time, including the absence of group member Andy and the alleged copying of Shinhwa's popular single, Hey, Come On! by a Taiwanese boy band, Energy.

2001-2002: Hey, Come On! and My Choice
On March 29, 2002, the group released its fifth studio album, Perfect Man, was released with their title song also gaining the same past popularity. Another song that also contributed to the album's success was I Pray 4 U. This album sold 362,639 copies and was #14 on the year end chart "Top 100 Albums in 2002". This was consider one of their major albums, having surpass their previous one in sales. On August 25, they had their first break-through with Perfect Man when it was rank #10 on the Singapore mandarine chart. They were also invited to be Korea's representative in POP Asia 2002 in Japan and later were invited to be Korea's representative again in Japan's Asia Dream concert (ABU award ceremony). Their looks also took a turn from a clean-cut look to a preppy style.
Andy, who have been missing from the previous album, also came back to participate in this one, a much joy for fans. Despite him not participating in the fourth album, whenever Shinhwa performs one of their song from the fourth album, Andy was given a line that was previously either Eric's or Jun Jin's. One such example was Hey, Come On!. Originally, Jun Jin was the one who was rapping in the beginning but whenever they perform the song at their concert or such, Andy was given the task to rap it.

2002: Perfect Man
On December 6, 2002, Shinhwa made history in the Korean music industry when they released their sixth album, Wedding, becoming the longest running Korean boy band in existence and sign with a different company, Good Entertainment. The movement from one company to the other with the same name caused some controversy over copyrights issue (see controversy below). However, after going to court, Shinhwa managed to win, thus moving completely from Sm Entertainment to Good! Entertainment. But because the contract that they had signed with Good Entertainment would not begin until 2004, Shinhwa took the time to do solo activities in 2003.

2002: Wedding and A Record
In between 2003 to 2004, Shinhwa released special albums entitled, Winter Story. Their first winter story, Winter Story 2003-2004 was released on December 30, 2003 and it sold over 100,000 copies, with the song Young Gunz getting high requests among the radio station. Because it was a success, Shinhwa released two more winter stories during the next two following winters with it becoming their tradition almost. They also managed to have yet another live concert in 2003 as well from April 18, to April 20. Shinhwa also went on their Winter Story Tour, going through a total of 6 cities: Seoul, Pusan, Daejeon, Incheon, Daegu, and Kwangju as well as going to Japan with a concert call SHINHWA First Live in Tokyo, in which they also held a Japanese fan meeting call Have Fun With Shinhwa On M.Net Tour.
The members of Shinhwa also decided to took step into solo activities in 2003. Minwoo went solo under the name M, releasing his first album entitled Un-touch-able while Hyesung collaborated with two friends for a project group Group S. Jun Jin also branched out into acting with the drama Forbidden Love alongside actress Kim Tae Hee. Andy and Junjin also participated in a Korean sitcom named Nonstop 4.

2003-2004: Winter Story And Solos

2004-Present: Good Entertainment
Shinhwa's first album with Good Entertainment was entitled Brand New, containing a much different beat than the previous albums. Their previous genre had always been bubblegum pop songs, but in Brand New, they started doing dance song. It also would be this album that would take them to their highest peak ever, selling more than 300,000 copies and topping the charts in Korea. Popular songs like Brand New, Angel, Oh! and Crazy garnered them much attention.
On December 10, 2004, Shinhwa was awarded the Daesang for Best Artist of The Year for the first time at the Seoul Gayo Daesang Awards. Several weeks later, on December 29, Shinhwa was awarded their second Daesang at the 2004 SBS Gayo Daejun Awards. In 2004, of all musical artists and groups, Shinhwa received the most amount of awards, totalling thirteen or more, from various places: the m.net KMTV Music Video Festival, Seoul Gayo Daesang, Golden Disc Awards and MBC,KBS,SBS Gayo Awards. The awards other than Best Artist of the Year included Best Male Artist, Best Dance Artist, and Overseas Choice Award. Eric, as the leader of Shinhwa, mentioned when receiving the prestigious award that it was worth the 7 years that they were together to get the Daesang, a thing that many fans agreed.
Shinhwa went on hiatus after the success of Brand New and began a tour. In their first visit to Singapore on October 2004, they were the most searched artist in the Yahoo! Singapore search engine for an entire week, becoming the first Korean artist to do so. In August of that year, they held a Korea-China-Japan summer camp (Shinhwa Summer Story 2004) dedicated entirely for their non-Korean fans, where hundreds of non-Korean fans flew to Korea from all over Asia for the opportunity to spend a few days with them. They also toured in Japan and held a concert, in which they held the largest Korean artist concert (second only to singer BoA), selling 13,000 tickets within a week.
In Brand New, Shinhwa's looks began maturing from the preppy style in Perfect Man into a more sohpisticated look. They began wearing black suits, a thing that is rather uncommon among boy band at that time. And although previously they have always dye their hair in various shades of color (from the color brown to purple or silver), in Brand New they stopped completely, leaving their hair in either brown or black. They also have either trim their hair to a neat style or cut it short, a thing that is also uncommon among boy band as "shaggy hair" was beginning to be the style.
The members of Shinhwa began taking charge as lyricist in the release of the album. Eric wrote some rap lyrics for some of the songs while Minwoo took charge and began writing full lyrics. Some songs that he had wrote are: All of My, Oh, and U. He later went on to write the song Superstar for the group Jewelry, which became a hit.

2004: Brand New
On January 14, 2006, Shinhwa renewed their contract with Good Entertainment for another 3 years and on March 24, 2007, Shinhwa celebrated their 9th anniversary since their debut, making them truly the longest running boyband in Korea.
On May 11, 2006, Shinhwa returned to the K-pop scene, after a one year hiatus, with the release of their eighth album, State Of The Art, which sold more than 215,641 copies domestically. Again, after State Of The Art Shinhwa went on hiatus, but the members soon branched out into solo activities.

2006: State Of The Art
In 2007, the members expanded their solo activities even further. Minwoo and Andy both set up their own record company, M Rising and ND (New Dream) Entertainment
2007: Solo Activities And A Ninth Album
In July 2004, Shinhwa was selected to represent Korea in the MTV Buzz Asia Awards along with Amuro Namie for Japan and F4 for Taiwan. Shinhwa was also selected to sing at the finale.
The group was also the face of Swiss watch brand Radoin Asia in a January 2005 campaign.
In March 2005, along with their management team, Good Entertainment, music channel, MNET and Coca-Cola, the group hosted a reality TV show, called "Let's Cokeplay Battle Shinhwa." The show, which set out to search for a new Shinhwa (new legend group), lasted 8 months long and attracted over 1,800 applicants throughout Korea to audition. The final show took place on November 4, 2005 at Olympic Park, Seoul, where Shinhwa members chose the 6 final members of the new Shinhwa from the 12 finalists. The 6 male winners (making the group now known as Battle), along with 2 other female finalists (as solos) immediately underwent training and debuted in 2006 under Good Entertainment.
In 2006, Shinhwa was chosen as best Korean singer overseas, according to a poll held by Arirang International Broadcasting. A vote was issued on the internet, allowing only foreigners to vote. Shinhwa's song "Once In A Lifetime" won 60% of the vote, beating Kang Ta, who came in second with 20.3 percent followed by TVXQ with 17.3 percent. Super Junior took fourth place followed by Bada, Se7en, BoA, SG Wannabe, Buzz, and Baek Ji-young, with all of them winning less than 1 percent of the votes .

Notable achievements

M.net '98 Best Music Video from new pop male group award
SBS Gayo Popularity award
KMTV song Bonsang award
Popular Singers award
KBS Gayo Bonsang
SBS Gayo Bonsang award
KMTV Gayo 2001 most popular award
Golden Disk awards
Seoul Gayo Daesang awards - Bonsang
Voted Korea's Most Popular Music Group Award
M.net Music Video Festival Male Group Section Award
Golden Disk Bon Sang
M.net Music Video Festival Best Male Group
Seoul Gayo Daesang awards "Bonsang"
2003 Seoul Gayo Daesang 'Bonsang'
2003 SBS Gayo DaeJeon 'Bon Sang'
'Netizen vote' award
'Mobile Vote' award
2003 Golden Disk 'Bon Sang' award
M.net M/V festival
'Netizen Popularity'
Korean Music Awards 'Singer Of the Year' award
M/V festival Male Nominee
2004 Korean Music Awards 'Singer of the Year' award
Bonsang from KBS Gayo Daesang
Bonsang from SBS Gayo Daejon
Artist of the Year from Seoul Gayo Daesang
Daesang at 2004 SBS Gayo Daejun
'Mobile Popularity' Award
2004 2nd Korea Fashion World Award "Singer Section" Award
M.net/KM music video festival "Best Dance Music Video"
Bonsang from 2004 Golden Disk
Popular Music Award
South Korean Image Contest 'Photogenic' award
MBC 10 singers song Awards
Overseas viewer Award
Best Music Video For The Male Group Section Awards
Best Music Video For The Dance Section Awards
Popular Music Video Awards
2004 SBS Music Awards
Mnet km Music Festival 2006 'Overseas Viewer Award'
Yepp Netizen 'Popularity Award'
2006 Golden Disk Award 'Bonsang'
SBS Gayo Ceremony 'Bonsang'
Inki Gayo 'Mutizen Award'
4th SEA music awards 'Popular Group Oversea Award'
2006 Grand Ceremony of Hallyu's Popularity in China "The top 10 most popular singers"
Netizens Best male singer
Netizen popular group
Japan's 21st Golden Disk Awards 'Best Asian Artist'
Netizen Daesang MVP Star Battle award Awards

Controversy
In July 2002, Taiwanese boy band Energy copied Shinhwa's song, Hey, Come On! causing a hot debate between the fans of Shinhwa and Energy. This led to a misunderstanding as when Shinhwa was performing Hey, Come On! in Singapore in 2004, they got boo-ed on stage because some of Energy's fans thought Shinhwa was the one copying Energy's song "Come On" which was actually a cover song. As it was later noted, the person who wrote Hey, Come On! had sold the song to Energy. Even so, much fans of Shinhwa were angry over the song. The Taiwanese group 5566 also covered Shinhwa's "Dark", a song included in their 4th album.

Hey Come On!
In 2003, Shinhwa's contract with SM Entertainment ended. The company was hoping to renew the contract with Shinhwa, as Shinhwa's popularity was a booming success, but the boy band declined and switched to a different company, Good Enter(tainment). This caused a flare up between SM Entertainment and Good Enter. Lee Soo Man, founder of SM, pointed out that if Shinhwa moved to a new company, they could no longer use the name Shinhwa because of copyright laws. The argument was taken to court, where Shinhwa won and was able to switch over to Good Enter with the same name. [3]

Battle Over Shinhwa
Rumour has it that the member Lee Andy was absent for the 4th album activities because he had tried to commit suicide. He was given, or perhaps forced, to take some time off from the group.. This was proven to be false as it was later noted that he did not participate for their 4th album only because he went to the United States to finish his studies.

Rivalry
Shinhwa, despite being a success, did not survive unchallenged in the k-pop market. Other popular boy bands at the time, mainly H.O.T. and Sechs Kies, were also successful, receiving high sales in albums and garnering many fans. Shinhwa was compared especially to that of H.O.T., despite the two bands being in the same entertainment, being regarded as "the second H.O.T.". But as time passed by and H.O.T. and Sechs Kies both disbanded, Shinhwa continued to stay in the music industry with new rivalry from new boy bands today.

H.O.T. and Sechs Kies
Shinhwa also, at one point, was the direct rival of the now defunct boy band g.o.d.. Debuting only a year later after Shinhwa did, g.o.d rose to fame fairly quickly, with high sales of album. But while Shinhwa never manage to reach the millionth sales mark, the highest of their copies sold was perhaps only in the 300,000 zone, g.o.d did twice with their album Chapter 3 Lies in 2000 which sold approximately 1,800,000 albums and their Chapter 4 Road in 2001 which sold approximately 1,750,000 albums. Fans from both bands also grew a strong dislike in one another, but as time passed by, the rivalry slowly began to cease. It came to a full stop when g.o.d. disbanded.

G.O.D.
Further information: Shinhwa Discography

Discography
After moving from SM and signing with Good! Entertainment in 2003, the group members took time to do solo activities. Despite rumors, they did not break up. Minwoo also once stated in an article that the group would never disband, no matter what. It is said that once the members have served their mandatory army service, they will release another album. Trivia