Following promotional activities for 'AH!', After School planned to continue to promote 'Bad Guy' from their debut single New Schoolgirl. On January 17, After School made their debut stage on television music program Music Core. A teaser for their debut music video was released on the same day and gained over 100,000 views before its release the next day. The album had three songs: the lead single 'Ah!', 'Play Girlz' and 'Bad Guy' (나쁜놈). On January 15, the group released their debut single album New Schoolgirl. In the start of 2009, a few days before After School's debut, Pledis Entertainment announced that the group's music concept was heavily influenced by the Pussycat Dolls. Kahi and Jungah performed 'Play Girlz' alongside Son Dam Bi whilst the remaining members, Soyoung, Jooyeon, and Bekah served as backup dancers for Son Dam Bi's performance at the event.Ģ009: New Schoolgirl, 'Diva' and 'Because of You' They were then introduced to Jungah, followed by Soyoung and Jooyeon, forming a five-member group.Īfter School as a group first made an unofficial appearance on December 29, 2008, at the SBS Song Festival. With Kahi's recommendation, Bekah was brought from Hawaii to South Korea.

The first member other than Kahi was Bekah, who was a trainee while Kahi was in S-Blush. History Pre-debut Īfter School was first formed following Kahi's departure from Korean-American girl group S-Blush, as she began planning to produce a new group together with the current CEO of Pledis Entertainment. In 2019, Lizzy revealed that all members had gradually gone their separate ways, however, the group has not officially disbanded. From 2015 onward, Pledis halted both After School and Orange Caramel promotions and the members have embarked on individual music, acting and modeling careers. The group received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Commendation in 2011 and was ranked number five in Billboard 's 2017 list of 'Top 10 K-pop Girl Groups of the Past Decade'. Their debut Japanese album, Playgirlz, was released in 2012 and their second Japanese album, Dress to Kill, fronted by the Shinichi Osawa produced singles ' Heaven' and ' Shh', was released in 2014.Īfter School received attention for their unique live performances, often incorporating different performance styles into their songs, including drums, tap dancing and pole dancing. The group's debut single, a remake of their Korean hit 'Bang!', was released in August that year and charted at number seven on the Oricon Singles Chart. The song won Best Collaboration at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. The group made their first official appearance in Japan by collaborating with singer Namie Amuro for a song from her collaboration album Checkmate!, titled 'Make it Happen'. In the beginning of 2011, the group signed with Avex Trax to begin their promotions in Japan. Blue, for the release of their fourth single album. In 2010, the three newest members at that time formed the group's first subunit, Orange Caramel, and in 2011 a second subunit was formed when the group was split into two teams, A.S. Follow-up singles ' Bang!', ' Shampoo', ' Flashback' and ' First Love' further consolidated their popularity and saw the additions of members Lizzy, E-Young and Kaeun, as well as the graduations of original members Bekah and Kahi. Pledis Entertainment then announced the graduation of Soyoung before adding Raina and Nana for the release of ' Because of You', which topped the monthly digital chart for December 2009. Following the addition of Uee in April of that year, they released ' Diva', which won the 'Rookie of the Month' award at the Cyworld Digital Music Awards. Īfter School officially debuted in January 2009 with the song 'AH!' from the single album New Schoolgirl. As of 2023, the group's members are Raina, Nana, E-Young, Lizzy and Kaeun. You may need rendering support to display the Korean text in this article correctly.Īfter School ( Hangul: 애프터스쿨) is a South Korean girl group formed by Pledis Entertainment, with an admissions and graduation concept.

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