Super Junior

A South Korean boy band under the production and management group SM Entertainment, Super Junior (aka SJ or SuJu) made their debut in 2005 and were instantly popular in their home country and in a great deal of other Asian pop music markets. The original idea was that Super Junior would be rotating cast of characters -- the name changing to represent the changes, i.e., Super Junior 05 would become Super Junior 06 -- but once the first round of rotations were to be made, an addition rather than a switch was made and the group expanded to 13. As Super Junior 05 (Leetuk, Heechul, Han Geng (the only Chinese member, Han Geng was chosen from a number of applicants to appeal to a broader Asian market), Yesung, Kang-In, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, and Kibum) the group released a self-titled debut album in December of 2005. Their second single, "Miracle" was a number one in a number of Asian charts, and shortly thereafter the decision was made to keep the group (plus one) and drop the year designator from the name. In 2006, 13th member Kyuhyun was added to the line up, and the newly named Super Junior released their next single, "U." Again, the band scored a number one hit, and the band collected a number of awards for their work. In 2007, the larger Super Junior broke into a number of sub-projects, including Super Junior-K.R.Y., Super Junior-T, and Super Junior-China. The main Super Junior's next full-length, Don't Don, was delayed due to an auto accident, but upon its release in September of 2007, Super Junior finally had an album debuting at number one. In 2008, Super Junior consolidated and furthered their regional popularity with a multi-city Asian tour. ~ Chris True, Rovi