T-ara and the QUEEN'S

T-ara

Concept: Cute, Sexy (they literally have songs in every category. I would say Cute though that’s what they broke out with)
Debut: July 29th, 2009
Debut Song(s): Lies
Status: Not Disbanded. Not coming back anytime soon
Agency: Core Contents Media/Mnet Media/MBK Entertainment (All members already ditch the Agency)

Contents

Members


Prime Lineup

1. Boram (Jeon Bo Ram) 전보람

Role: Vocalist, Sub-Rapper, 3rd Queen of the Queens
Special Story/Facts: Succeeded Eunjung I as her excellency retired. Under Boram I (or the Great) the T-ara empire finally became one of the superpowers of K-ent world, defeating Queen Taeyeon I (the Great) and Queen CL at the Battle of Roly Poly. Queen Sunye and Queen Gyuri was in the tripartite alliance with Queen Taeyeon I but couldn’t come in time due to domestic issues. After Boram illustrious career, she step down like her predecessor handing over the throne to Hyomin. Her reputation as a great queen during Battle of Roly Poly was soon to be marred by the upcoming civil war.

Left 2017


 

2. Eunjung (Ham Eun Jung) 함은정

Role: Lead Vocalist, Center, Lead Dancer, 2nd Queen of the Queens
Special Story/Facts: The first official Queen of the T-ara Empire. Tried to stabilize the empire by adding minister Hwayoung.

Active


 

3. Hyomin (Park Sun Young) 박선영

Role: Main Rapper, Main Vocalist, Lead Rapper, 4th Queen of Queens
Special Story/Facts: Also known as Hyomin the Terrible by netcitizens. Maybe her rule as a queen would have been steady and nice, if not for the invaders of netcitzens in time of troubles. When Her Majesty Eunjung I added Minister Hwayoung and her talents to make Empire of T-ara great again, she didn’t expect that other ministers would not be so…..happy. According to netcitizens (for this period has been forever lost in Empire of T-ara secret archives) Minister of State Jiyeon who was known for her great beauty, totally didn’t like Minister Hwayoung. According to netcitizens “(Toxic) Accounts of Empires” it was written that Minister Jiyeon boast about being the fairest of them all and reference Minister Hwayoung LOW APPROVAL ratings. Minister Jiyeon supposedly flame Minister Hwayoung for reading when only on camera. Minister Soyeon also did not treat Minister Hwayoung well as for one instance she did not feed Hwayoung and gave her desert that was on the floor. When Minister Hwayoung celebrated her 100 day-niversary when she first step foot onto the T-ara Empire, Minister Soyeon basically said “can it sister”. There were whispers that the 4th Queen didn’t care for Hwayoung, making the minister her signing table on one occasion and accidentally hitting her on another. Even Boram the Great was chilly when it came to Hwayoung. The only “kind” minister was Qri but then again Minister Hwayoung didn’t take punches without dealing some back. She supposedly went Amy Klobuchar on her assistant staff and she supposedly act like a diva at the end of many performances. No one knows which came first, but everyone can agree that the last straw came on July 25th after a concert. Minister Hwayoung was tired fighting the civil war so she left the town hall meeting with the citizens after one speech. No one knew which Minister did it, but ONE OF THEM (probably JI YEON) went on an internet flame war on Minister Hwayoung. When four other ministers also declare their support for this twitter flame, the war was on. It is said that Hwayoung call in relative backup and decided to draw the “first blood” in the war by attacking weak little Belgium “Areum”. When the smoke clear, the once beautiful T-ara empire had totally IMPLODED.

Active


 

4. Hwayoung (Ryu Hwa Young) 류화영

Role: Main Rapper, Vocalist

Left 2012


 

5. Jiyeon (Park Ji Yeon) 박지연

Role: Main Dancer, Lead Vocalist, Youngest Member, VIP, Visual

Active


 

6. Soyeon (Park In Jung) 박인정

Role: Main Vocalist. 5th Queen of Queens
Special Facts/Story: It’s no surprise that Hyomin the Terrible didn’t last so long, and in order to get some stability Soyeon the Xoxo inherited the throne. Too bad Soyeon inherited the throne right when the civil war happened and so her legacy is marred by the disaster that ultimately crumble the glorious T-ara empire. They can no longer stand up to the tripartite alliance, Queen CL, nor Dragon the Conqueror who was taking the world by the storm with his superior technology….guns (BANG BANG BANG).

Left 2017


 

7. Qri (Lee Ji Hyun) 이지현

Role: Main Dancer, Vocalist. 6th Queen of Queens
Special Facts/Story: Her reign was the longest, but by now, the “Queen of Queens” was more like a ceremonial position not unlike Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain. She tried to re-establish the T-ara empire former glory, but with the “death” of Soyeon and Boram in 2017, the Queen and her remaining three ministers could do no more than weep. T-ara quick rise to power was match by its equally quick fall. It is now known that netcitizens “(Toxic) Account of History” might have blown it the whole situation out of proportions. Maybe if time was reverse, maybe Minister Hwayoung could have been tight with the other ministers, maybe they could have been glorious and rule for years. Alas, maybe the situation was small, but the civil war edge on partly by netcitizens…maybe have broken any forgiveness that Hwayoung and the other ministers can ever give to each other.

Active


 

The 8th Queen

8. Areum (Lee Ah Reum) 이아림

Role: The True Young Member, Main Vocalist

Left 2013


 

Reserve Queens

9. Jiae (Lee Ji Ae) 이지애

Role: Not Applicable, 1st Queen of Queens-Her Excellency “died” in K-entertainment battlefield at the Battle of Debute

Free Agent


 

9. Jiwon (Yang Ji Won) 양지원

Role: Not Applicable

Free Agent


 

9. Dani (Kim Da Ni) 김다니

Role: Not Applicable

Free Agent


 

Overview/History

Ah, T-ara, possibly one of the most pitiful group. They are possibly the embodiment of that old saying “I rather shine bright once in my life than never at all” or soemthing like that, you guys get the gist of it. T-ara is pronounced Ti-ara and that’s where the fandom name “Queens” come from. THey were suppose to be the Queens of the Kpop industry and they were for like 2 seconds. What went wrong here? Let’s go over the history of T-ara.

Originally a five member group that included Jiae and Jiwon, they released their first song “Good Person” for the KDrama Cinderella Man. About a month after that song was released though, Jiae and Jiwon left the group due to personal circumstances and music style differences. The original plans for debut was scrapped and the date was delayed. Meanwhile though the group added Soyeon (an SM trainee that was actually supposed to debut with SNSD) and Boram (daughter of a singer and an actress) to replace the original 2 members and also added Qri a few weeks before debuting.

In Detail

Perhaps the biggest “What-If” question is “What if the (rat) Hwayoung bully scandal has not happened?” One of the biggest scandal in Kpop history, the Hwayoung bullying scandal, essentially ruined T-ara’s popularity completely with the Korean general public. If that scandal hasn’t happened, it is debatable that the kind of heights T-ara have been able to reach would probably have been legendary. What is not up for debates though, is the heights that T-ara did manage to reach pre-scandal, the type of heights that arguably allowed them to challenge for the throne of the number 1 girl group in Korea. Perhaps they were never quite on the level of SNSD, but no one would have batted an eye in around 2010-2011 (especially after the release of the uber-popular “Roly-Poly”) if one had claimed that T-ara was the number 1 girl group of Korea.

T-ara was originally intended to be debuted as a five-membered group. Pre-debut, on April 2009, this five-membered group released their first song “Good Person (“Good Person”) for the OST of the drama Cinderella Man. Jiyeon also teamed up with labelmates SeeYa and Davichi for the collaboration single “Women’s Generation” (여성시대), released in May 2009. However, in June 2009, two months before T-ara was supposed to debut, former leader Jiae and member Jiwon quit the group, citing creative differences. Immediately after, Jeon Boram was added to the group. Then, three weeks before debut, Soyeon (leader of SNSD) and Qri were added, forming the now-familiar 6-member lineup of T-ara: Soyeon, Eunjung, Hyomin, Jiyeon, Qri, and Boram.

T-ara officialy debuted on July 29, 2009, on MBC’s Radio Star. T-ara was able to distinguish themselves from the MANY girl-crush debuts of 2009 (THE symbol for girl crush: 2NE1 and also the once-elite: f(x) both debuted in 2009) by adopting a “girls next door” image. Their debut single, “Lie” peaked in the top 5 of multiple charts. In September 2009, T-ara began their meteoric rise when Eunjung, Soyeon, Hyomin and Jiyeon collaborated with labelmates Kwangsu, Jihyuk, and Geonil of Supernova for the (FIRE) single “TTL (Time to Love)”, which became both groups’ first number one song, topping multiple charts. It was one of the most popular dance hits of the year.
T-ara released their debut studio album, “Absolute First Album”, on November 27, 2009, with the lead single “Bo Peep Bo Peep”. “Bo Peep Bo Peep” peaked at number four on the Gaon chart, and snagged T-Ara their first music show win ever (on Music Bank). The song would go on to win 5 shows in total, including a triple crown on Inkigayo. For their successful 2009, T-ara was awarded Rookie of the Year along with girl group 4minute at the 2009 Golden Disc Award.

In March 2010, the group re-released their debut album under the new title “Breaking Heart”. The two lead singles, “Crazy Because of You” (너 때문에 미쳐) and “I’m in Pain” (내가 너무 아파) were peaked at number one and number thirty-one on the Gaon chart. “Crazy Because of You” net them three more show wins, including a narrowly-missed triple crown on Inkigayo (they ended up winning two Inkigayo shows). “Breaking Heart” peaked at number two on the weekly Gaon chart and number thirty-five on the yearly chart.
On July 16, 2010, (snake/rat) Ryu Hwayoung was added to the group with the reason that with so many solo activities for members (Jiyeon and Qri had both made their acting debuts with main roles by this time), T-ara wanted to have a fuller lineup when individual members were busy doing solo activities. In addition, this would allow the members to undertake more solo activities, and would give all members some relief from their heavy schedules.

T-ara released the digital download for (another FIRE song) “What’s Wrong?” (왜 이러니), the lead single for their first EP, “Temptastic”, on November 23, 2010.[36] “Temptastic” was released in digital format on December 1, 2010, along with the second lead single, “Yayaya”. This was T-ara’s first comeback with seven members and new leader Boram.

And then comes T-Ara’s spectacular entrance into the top tier of the girl-group ladder with the release of their second EP, “John Travolta Wannabe” on June 29, 2011, with the lead single, “Roly-Poly”. The song was an instant smash hit (and is still considered one OF THE Kpop girl group song you need to know), peaking at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and number one on the Korea K-Pop Hot 100 chart. It was the top-grossing and highest-selling single of 2011 in South Korea with over four million digital copies (THAT’S NOT A TYPO) sold. The song was nominated Best Dance Performance by a Female Group at the 2011 Mnet Asian Music Awards (don’t ask me why it didn’t even get a nomination for Song of the Year because that’s just BS. Mnet, with a few exceptions like BTS, has always been heavily biased towards Big 3 groups and singers). “Roly Poly” was so successful that the group released a Eurodance remix version, “Roly-Poly in Copacabana”, named after the song “Copacabana” which was popularized in the 80’s in Jongno disco clubs.

On September 28, 2011, T-ara released their debut Japanese single “Bo Peep Bo Peep”, which peaked at number one on the Oricon weekly singles chart with over 49.7 thousand copies sold, making T-ara the first non-Japanese girl group to rank number one for a debut single in Oricon history.
T-ara was now on a roll. In November 2011, they released their third EP “Black Eyes”, which peaked at number two on the Gaon charts. The lead single, “Cry Cry”, peaked at number one on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100 and won two M Countdown shows. In that year end-of-year Gallup Korea poll, T-ara was the second-highest girl group in Korea (after SNSD) and eighth overall. Capping their monstrous year, T-ara collaborated with Davichi to release the Christmas ballad, “We Were in Love” on December 23, 2011, which reached number one on the Gaon Chart and peaked at number two on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100.

Unstoppable now, T-ara re-released “Black Eyes” under the title “Funky Town” on January 3, 2012. The album peaked at number one on the Gaon weekly album chart and number two on the monthly album chart. The lead single, “Lovey-Dovey”, peaked at number one on both the Gaon and Billboard Korea K-pop Hot 100 charts and swept 10 music show wins for T-ara. By the end of the year, the single has sold more than 3 million digital copies in South Korea.

In April of 2012, it was announced that two new members were to be added to T-ara’s lineup in July, eventually revealed to be Dani and Areum. However, Dani never joined the group despite starring in their music video for “Day by Day”. On July 3, T-ara released their fourth EP, “Day by Day”, which peaked at number five on the Gaon chart, with the lead single, “Day by Day”, peaking at number two. The comeback performance for this single was their first as an 8-members group with Areum.
Tragically, this comeback marked their swift downfall. On July 25 and 26, 2012, T-ara held a concert in Japan, in which Hwayoung only performed one song due to a leg injury. After the concert, Hyomin tweeted: “The differences in levels of determination, Let us all have more determination.” Jiyeon, Soyeon, Boram, and Eunjung all either retweeted the tweet or added on a similar message (or both). Subsequently, Hwayoung and her twin sister, Hyoyoung, tweeted about “going through trouble” and having only each other, which gave Korean netizens (and international netizens, thanks a lot Netizenbuzz) the impression that there was conflict between Hwayoung and the rest of the group. Netizens retweeted the messages, did a lot of digging (note: pure speculation) through old videos, and came up with the conclusion that Hwayoung was being bullied, and the bullying was led by Jiyeon and Hyomin. The controversy quickly blew up, Core Contents Media struggled to properly handled the delicate PR to try to kill the controversy. The company only fed oil to the flames when at the height of the controvery, it abruptly announced Hwayoung’s immediate departure on July 30, 2012, claiming that Hwayoung’s contract was terminated because staff members felt her behavior was hurting teamwork, and NOT BECAUSE OF THE BULLYING CONTROVERY (LOL YEAH RIGHT). The controversy caused the group to temporarily suspend activities, while the members continued with their individual activities.

T-Ara would continue releasing music, but the sky-high popularity they once enjoyed was no more. In fact, it would be another 5 years before T-ara even win a music show again. On April 29, 2013, T-ara debuted their subunit T-ara N4, with members Eunjung, Hyomin, Jiyeon, and Areum. In June of the same year, the leadership transitioned from Soyeon to Qri, where it would stay for the rest of the group’s duration. It was also announced that Ahreum would be leaving the group after just one year.
On October 10, 2013, T-ara released their comeback mini album “Again” with the lead single “Number 9” (honestly another great track). On December 2 of the same year, T-ara had another Korean comeback with the song “Do You Know Me”. They also released a repackage album named “Again 1977” which contains the best songs from their album, “Again”.
On September 11, 2014, T-ara came back with their sixth mini album “And & End” , with the lead single “Sugar Free”. This album included an English version of “Sugar Free”, which was the first song T-ara had recorded in English.

Shunned back in their own country, on October 13, T-ara signed a management contract worth 5 billion KRW (~US$4.8 million) with Chinese entertainment company Longzhen Culture Development. On December 25, 2014, T-ara held their first domestic concert named “Dear My Family” at COEX Auditorium in Samseongdong, Seoul.
T-ara was still quite popular internationally, especially in Southeast Asian, as evidenced when in March 2015, it was announce that they would be the main performer for Malaysia’s Sultan Of Johor Coronation celebrations in Johor Bahru. The group appeared at the event along with Sistar and The Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo, which attracted 50,000 attendees.

On June 20, 2015, T-ara began their first China tour, Great China Tour and sold out their first two concerts. On August 3, 2015, T-ara joined the heavyweight girl-group fight of the summer of 2015 (seriously, just look at the names of the girl groups in addition to T-ara coming back that summer: SNSD, Sistar, Girl’s Day, Apink, AOA ) with the release of their seventh EP, “So Good”, with title song “So Crazy”. On November 9, 2016, T-ara released their eighth EP, “Remember”, with the lead single “TIAMO”
In February 2017, T-ara was finally exonerated and their shunning by Korean netizens finally ended. It all started (or I should say it all ended) when (twin snakes) Hwayoung and her twin sister Hyoyoung appeared on a reality show and spoke about the bullying controversy again. She claimed that her sister was the only person who had supported her during the bullying, and how hard everything had been for her. However, soon after, a former staff member stepped forwards and revealed that it had actually been the twins who were bullying other members, and released texts that showed Hyoyoung threatening former member Areum with physical harm for not supporting Hwayoung’s behaviour. Soon afterwards, more and more staffers came forwards with evidence that Hwayoung had been disrespectful to the other members as well as stylists, and had faked how severe her initial injury was in order to get OUT OF PRACTICE (hence Hyomin’s original tweet) and also gained more sympathy. Hwayoung initially tried to deny the rumors, but eventually the snake admitted that the texts were real.

In June 2017, Soyeon and Boram’s contracts with MBK expired, and the two decided not to renew and thus left the group and company. T-ara’s last performance as six-members was in a Taiwan concert on May 13, 2017. The remaining four members continued as a group with releasing their ninth EP (and last promotional album), “What’s My Name?” on June 14, 2017. After five long years of not being able to win a single show despite MANY bops, T-ara finally ended their drought (as their scandal was finally over) by winning first place on The Show on June 20 (seriously, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-iLRWHQN_M because you will see how much this win means to them. It broke them down completely, leaving them unable to even speak as the MCs asked them for their thoughts. Let’s remember that this is a group that used to sweep shows after shows with their comebacks).

And then, the conclusion. On January 3, 2018, Hyomin announced on her Instagram page that she, Jiyeon, Eunjung, and Qri had decided to not renew their contracts with MBK, thus leaving the company. The company later confirmed that the group had left the company, however they denied that they had disbanded (thus, putting another legendary girl group in “hiatus” mode. LMAO, if all the hiatus girl groups come back at once, damn rip Gen 3). MBK later tried to be shady by trademarking the name “T-ara”, however, after countersuits from the members, was denied the trademark in courts.

Main Tracks (MY Personal Recommendations). Oh yeah be sure to have like 2 extra hours on hand if you going to click on everything below

– Cry Cry:

– Lovey Dovey:
– Roly Poly. Hey Hey fuck you Jean Finch! Thanks for the REINCARNATION:
– 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8:
– I am diabetic, I would like to have my coffee….. :
– I AM A ROBOT:
– Day by Day:

TARA X PLEBES

– We were like not any more like past tense quotation “in love”:

– I LIE IT’S LOVE TIME BEETCHESS:

Latest Release

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