180203 [★Time warp] “20 years after debut”… and Shinhwa (the legend) will be continuing
One to the Six. Mix of the best.
On last week’s ‘Time Warp’, we covered until right before Shinhwa had to take a break because of military service after their 10th Anniversary. The boys were already writing history as the ‘longest active idol”. We’ll turn the time back to then.
At their 10th Anniversary concert in 2018, the last concert before member starting the military service, Shinhwa made a promise to the fans that they would be back. They told fans to wait till the day they comeback again because there are many ‘untold stories’. It was already not easy for idol groups to be on their 10th Anniversary, yet they also made a promise to be back together even after the obligatory military service. With that, Shinhwa went into the 4 year hiatus after that concert.
The members continued solo activities and showed off their own charms as they waited for each other to complete the military service. Lee Minwoo, Shin Hyesung, and Kim Dongwan released solo album. Eric, Junjin, Kim Dongwan showed their passion for acting and appeared on variety shows. Andy participated in producing an idol group.
In August 2011, Shinhwa almost completed with their military services, they established ‘Shinhwa Company’ which is solely for managing Shinhwa. First time ever in idol history, the member became the representative and established a company with their own group name. ‘Together but also individually’, the members showed their strong willpower to stay together as Shinhwa. They tried reaching out to the fans who had been waiting for them for the longest time.
In 2012, Shinhwa made a splendid comeback with ‘The Return’ concert which was held in March that marked their 14th Anniversary since debut.
‘We keep our promise’ was the message on the banners Shinhwa put out prior to their comeback after 4 years. It was a hot topic. Their fans, Shinhwa Changjos, also put another sign right next to Shinhwa’s that said ‘Shinhwa Changjo, we also keep our promise.’
On March 24th and 25th of 2012, 24,000 fans filled the stadium both days. The fans replied back to Shinhwa, who kept the promise to their fans for coming back, by covering those stadium seats with orange.
The title song ‘Venus’ from their 10th album was released first at the concert. Shinhwa also performed ‘Brand New’, which earned Shinhwa the daesang in many music awards. They had comical performances with female dancers, and unit dance with male dancers. The highlight was the ending dance which they were surrounded by dancers scattered then again reunited.
The ‘Venus’ was a splendid performance on the broad stage of the stadium. At the 14th Anniversary, all the members were in their 30s but ‘Venus’ proved that Shinhwa ‘still has it.’
Along with the comeback, Shinhwa appeared on Shinhwa Broadcast, a variety show that was named after them. Keeping the sturdy fandom together, they also gained new teenager fans through JTBC’s ‘Shinhwa Broadcast’. ‘Shinhwa Broadcast’ had its own special meaning by itself because Shinhwa, the longest active idol group doing their own show. They got several ‘legendary memes’. The most impactful one was Eric dressing like a lady and dancing ‘Ericsunamun’, and ‘Ethilda’ with sassy face.
‘Shinhwa Broadcast’ was the combination of reality and variety. Shinhwa kept their old fandom steady but also brought in new fans, rewriting their own history.
After putting down a strong foundation with the variety show, Shinhwa challenged themselves again in 2013 with the title song ‘This Love’ for their 11th album. First time ever for an idol group, they put out a voguing dance in their choreography, presenting a new side of them even after 16 years.
Each movement was like a posing for a picture, with those point choreography ‘This Love’ perfectly proved why Shinhwa still got it. Their strong wills and effort to continuously show the new side of them was all in there.
Shin Hyesung and Kim Dongwan who were known to be less of a dancer within the team but they showed their potentials with voguing dance. Shin Hyesung even got in charge of the ending instead of the dancing machine Lee Minwoo. Shinhwa ranked in 1st place on the music shows 8 weeks in a row, showing their force as the strong idol group.
Shinhwa’s challenge didn’t end there. For their 12th album ‘WE’, they showed their soft and the strong image with ‘Sniper’ and ‘Alright’ as their title songs. With ‘Sniper’, they made sniper motion aiming for the heart of the lover as the focal point of the choreography. For ‘Alright’, they showed a new chair dance 14 years after ‘Wide Eyes’. The sharp and tight choreography, not even 1 second to lose, they made the fans fall in love with them again.
After 10 wins on music shows for ‘Sniper’, Shinhwa again got another good news. They won the trademark rights from Open World, who held the trademark rights to the Shinhwa name that was registered by SM Entertainment, the former management company. After a long legal battle, Shinhwa finally got the trademark rights back as well as the freedom to use the name ‘Shinhwa’ without and restriction.
During the lawsuit with Joon Media (formerly known as Open World), ‘Shinhwa Company’ was changed to ‘Shincom Ent.’ in order to prevent potential damage to the law suit that had been going on since 2014. They couldn’t put the name Shinhwa on their 11th album. However in May 2015, they got their name back. After winning the lawsuit, they changed the company’s name back to ‘Shinhwa Company’ and was able to have the name Shinhwa on their albums after that. They celebrated with fans by hooraying 3 times in their concert that year.
Shinhwa, who got the the full rights to their name, continued on as active idol group. Their 13th album was divided into 2 parts. Part 1 had title song ‘Orange’, which is the color of Shinhwa’s fandom. It was a dedication to the fans who got through 20 years together with them. Shinhwa thanked their fans with this song.
‘Touch’ was the title song for the second part of the 13th album. It was released in January of last year. It was the pioneer of future bass genre in Korea mainstream music industry. At the 2016 MBC Korean Music Fest, they performed ‘Touch’ and got rounds of applause with their performance that no other group has reached.
2018, the grand and long awaited 20th Anniversary, Shinhwa is soon to be 20 this year. They’re holding a fan party with a graduation theme. They were the model for school uniform brand back then. Twenty years later, they wore school uniform again boasted school boy charm.
Along with the fan party to be held on March 24th and 25th, Shinhwa revealed that they are planning many other TV appearances as well as a new album. ‘20th Anniversary’, the crazy record they achieve. They are going to celebrate it for the entire year. You could say it’s like a coming-of-age ceremony.
Shinhwa is the pioneer. No where in Korea there is a group that lasted 20 years without disband or losing a member, only Shinhwa did it. Their footstep is recorded all the way in the idol history and they’re becoming a legend.
Shinhwa’s 20th Year just hoists its sail. There are lots to show. The road is broad and long. Like the lyrics in one of their songs, ‘Shooting Star’, “We’ll cover and carry everything, go forth to always be Shinhwa till the end of time”, they will be writing the legend who will be going forward like always. As they broadened the new world for 20 years, the ‘unique’ Shinhwa’s 20th Anniversary is getting a lot of attention.
Lastly, will show you the 20 years of the boys who became legend.
Source: Xports News
Translation: EricMun.tumblr
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