All About Kpop

ZE:A From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ZE:A ZE:A performing at the Cyworld Dream Music Festival, July 23, 2011 Background information Also known as Children of Empire Origin Seoul, South Korea Genres Pop, dance Years active 2010–present Labels Star Empire Entertainment IMX Inc./Happinet Music (Japan) Sony Music Entertainment(Asia) Warner Music Chinese Mandarin Group Website cafe.daum.net/Starempire Members Kevin Kwang Hee Si Wan Jun Young Tae Heon Hee Chul Min Woo Hyung Sik Dong Jun 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,[1] alongside their showcase performance five days later. The group debuted on KBS's Music Bank on January 15, 2010. Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Pre-debut 1.2 2010: Debut 1.3 2010: Leap for Detonation and Level Up 1.4 2010-2011: Asian tour and Japanese debut 1.5 2011: First album Lovability, special single Exciting! and Japanese single Daily Daily 2 Members 2.1 Kevin 2.2 Kwang Hee 2.3 Siwan 2.4 Jun Young 2.5 Tae Heon 2.6 Hee Chul 2.7 Min Woo 2.8 Hyung Sik 2.9 Dong Jun 3 Discography 3.1 Korean 3.1.1 Albums 3.1.2 Singles 3.1.3 Digital singles 3.1.4 Promotional Singles 3.1.5 Featurings 3.2 Japanese 3.2.1 Other albums 3.2.2 Singles 3.2.3 DVDs 3.3 Taiwanese 3.3.1 Albums 3.3.2 Extended plays 3.4 Thai 3.4.1 Extended plays 4 Works 4.1 TV and reality shows 4.2 Music videos 4.3 Movies 4.4 Dramas 4.5 Musicals 5 References 6 External links [edit] History [edit] 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[2][3] and creating UCC (user created content) videos.[4] They have also appeared in a documentary-styled show Star Empire, and later getting their own documentary show titled Empire Kids Returns, showing them performing in wingcar performances around Seoul and training. The group faced controversy in December following the similarities of the group's name to Brown Eyed Girls's Jea. The group later changed the pronunciation of the name to avoid implications.[5] [edit] 2010: Debut Releasing teasers beforehand,[6][7] the group debuted with their EP, Nativity under the name ZE:A, on January 7, 2010.[1] Immediately they garnered attention, reaching #1 on both the Album Chart and Artist Chart on Daum on their debut day. [edit] 2010: Leap for Detonation and Level Up The group made a comeback on March 25, 2010 with the release of their second mini album, Leap for Detonation. Produced by Brave Brothers, the title song "All Day Long" is melodramatic and featured a major change in style. The group released both a music video and a short music drama for "All Day Long" where member Kim Dong Jun played the lead actor. The music drama and video also featured labelmate and upcoming member Park Min Ha from Nine Muses. The group's third single, "Level Up", was released on July 8, 2010 in digital format only. No music video was ever released for "Level Up"–only two teaser MVs were released prior to their comeback. Their official fanclub name was announced in June through an image posted on their official Daum cafe. Back in April, Star Empire revealed the top ten nominees for the potential fanclub name. After a long voting process, ZE:A's (or ZE:A STYLE) was decided as the group's official fanclub name. [edit] 2010-2011: Asian tour and Japanese debut The group have started off their Asia promotion tour starting with Thailand at the end of July 2010. Other showcases and promotional events occurred in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and more in this tour. On September 22, 2010, the group released their Japanese debut single ZE:A!(ゼア!). The single placed third on the Oricon daily chart. On December 21, 2010, ZE:A released their Japanese single album, Love Letter/My Only Wish, and placed second on Oricon daily chart.[8] It was announced on January 16, 2011 by Japan's Sankei Sports that the group will have leading roles for the Japanese-Korean collaboration movie RONIN POP.[9] [edit] 2011: First album Lovability, special single Exciting! and Japanese single Daily Daily The group released their first full length album, Lovability, on March 17, 2011, including songs from their previous albums as well as a few new ones. Promotions for Lovability were cut short due to "Be My Girl", a song off their first album, was deemed unsuitable for minors.[9] On March 16, a representative from Star Empire announced that the group will be donating a portion of their tour profits from the first half of 2011 to aid in the relief of the Japanese earthquake and tsnuami.[10] At the end of June, Star Empire announced that the group will be releasing a special summer single. While filming the jacket album for Exciting!, member Hyung Sik fell off the yacht with member Dong Jun. Hyung Sik was saved by Dong Jun and the group's manager, while suffering a minor ankle injury.[11][12] A Comeback Teaser was released on July 5. On July 8, 2011, the music video for title track "Watch Out" was released and the group also made their comeback on KBS's 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).[13] 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. 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.