Fiestar

Fiestar 피에스타
Fiestar at Gu-am park, Gayang-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, November 2013
Background information
Origin	Seoul, South Korea
Genres	K-pop, dance-pop
Years active	2012–present
Labels	Collabodadi
Associated acts	IU, LOEN Tree, Tiger JK, Kim Yeon-woo, Eric Benét
Members	Jei Cao Lu Linzy Hyemi Cheska Yezi

Fiestar (Korean: 피에스타) is a six member girl group from South Korea formed by LOEN Entertainment, but due to LOEN's multi-label system they are currently under Collabodadi.

The group consists of multi-national members: Jei, Linzy, Hyemi and Yezi from South Korea; Cheska from the United States; and Cao Lu from China.^[1] They made their debut in August 31, 2012 with their single, Vista.^[2]

They are also currently filming their own reality show Fiestar Channel in SBS MTV.

History

Pre-debut

While many of the members took part in various activities before the group's formal debut, according to their agency, all of them had been training together for two years and the average training time among the members was 4 years.^[3] Chinese member Cao Lu was previously a solo singer in Mainland China after winning a 2004 CCTV sponsored singing contest. Her album, titled Cat, was released in 2005 under her former stage name, LuLu.^[4]

Maknae and main rapper Yezi also became famous as an underground rapper even before she debuted, since she released various rap mixtapes on her account and garnered high praises from netizens before she was planned to become a member of the group.^[5]

Leader Jei did modeling for various online clothing stores ^[6] and was the female lead for boy band Infinite's music video for their song 'Paradise',^[7] Bongshil Sister's My Love ^[8] and also for Taw's music video for Happy Hours featuring Joo and the Lifestyle.^[9] She later replaced Joo on the promotions due her being diagnosed with a bump on her throat, and became fine right after the promotions ended.^[10]

Linzy was a trainee under YG Entertainment and was originally planned to be a 2NE1 member and is also one of the trainees to be originally planned to become a member from YG's new girl group (with the idea scrapped in 2012, and the group disbanded even before debuting) and recorded a song for the 2010 Korean drama Obstetrics and Gynecology.^[11]

Hyemi and Jei both starred in IU's Good Day and You & I music video as backup dancers, the whole group starred in Sunny Hill's Midnight Circus music video as backup dancers.^[12] Only Cheska was the member who have undergone the audition process.

2012: Debut & We Don't Stop

LOEN Entertainment initially announced that they would be debuting a six member girl group that contained not only members from South Korea, but from China and the United States as well.^[13] After revealing the names and pictures of the members, it was revealed that they would be singing a duet with label mate IU prior to their debut for their agency's artist collaboration album.^[14] Titled 'Sea of Moonlight', the song ranked high on the Korean music charts.

In August, the group's debut single "Vista" was announced and it was revealed that they would also be collaborating with hip-hop artist Tiger JK for a pre-release song called "Wicked", which received much attention for its Reggaeton influence. JYJ's Junsu made a guest appearance in the music video for "Vista" along with Seungah from Sunny Hill. Their song Vista charted high on charts, with the other songs all charting on the K-pop Billboard Hot 100, with two songs breaking up to Top 10.^[15]

On November 1, member Cheska revealed the girls were planning to comeback, which was later confirmed by LOEN following the release of the teaser image, along with the comeback date of November 9, 2012 with their second single album, We Don't Stop. We Don't Stop is revealed to be with the works of Hyuk Shin. The B-side for single, Sweet Love, was released on November 5 and featured ballad singer Kim Yeon-woo. The promotions followed on Music Bank on November 10, 2012. ^[16]

Members had some individual activities, like Jei appearing in TVN's love-reality show, Romantic and Idol, alongside AOA's Hyejeong, 4Minute's Jihyun, and more. Members Jei, Cheska, and Yezi appeared alongside IU for comedy show, Gag Concert. Linzy and Hyemi appeared in KBS's singing show 1000 Songs Challenge. The whole group also appeared in Weekly Idol, and on Dream Team 2. The group also made an endorsement with HIM Magazine.^[17]

2013: A-HA!, Whoo!, Major Label Re-Organization, & I Don't Know

Fiestar's begun the 2013 by ending their promotions of We Don't Stop on Simply K-pop, and also appearing KBS' 1 vs. 100. Cao Lu also appeared on Dream Team 2. They appeared on shows again last May 2013, appearing on various shows, with the whole group appearing on SBS' Ggurugi Life Inquiry, KBS' Family Love, MBC Music's All the K-pop with only Cao Lu and the show Stress Out along with Spica. Member and leader Jei also appeared on their brother group History, appearing in all individual teasers of each 5 members, with the theme "Romantic Dating Tips". Member Linzy joined the cast of the Korean musical rendition of the 2006-2008 musical movie hit High School Musical taking the role of Sharpay Evans, sharing the role with The Grace's Dana. The musical also shows a tremendous cast with Super Junior's Ryeowook, F.T. Island's Jaejin, f(x)'s Luna, AOA's Choa and musical actress Oh So-yeon. The photoshoot begun at June 28, and begun the show at July 2, at Blue Square Samsung Card Hall.^[18]

Last July 25, LOEN released a picture with Jei, Cheska, and Cao Lu holding up a book while looking at the camera, and released a statement that Fiestar will be creating an educational program entitled, "Fiestar's A-HA! For the Global K-Pop Fan", for international viewers who wants to learn the Korean Language. The first video is released on July 26, with their main topic, "Daebak", with Jei speaking Korean, Cheska in English, and Cao Lu translating it in Chinese. ^[19]

Fiestar made a CF for the Samsung's Zoom Camera Feature for Samsung Galaxy S4, with the full commercial released on June 30. Member and leader Jei had a pictorial with SURE Magazine, hinting of a comeback somewhere beginning on the second half of 2013, and another album with the help of Eric Benét. Member Cheska also updated their fancafe, hinting of a comeback drawing near. Their comeback is announced on August 22 with a digital single, and is said to be with the works of Eric Benet. The digital single is titled "Whoo!", with a sneak peek 10-second audio clip released at the end of the group's 'A-HA' 5th lesson video.^[20] LOEN Entertainment announced that Whoo! will just be a pre-release single for their upcoming comeback. The whole song collaboration with Eric Benet is released on August 27, and featured a Latin R&B music, introducing a new sound from Fiestar. The song ranked high on music charts, despite no live promotions.^[21]

In September, LOEN announced a major reorganization and created a multi-label system, splitting LOEN into two parts: LOEN Tree, which houses IU, History, SunnyHill; and Collabodadi, which owns Zia and Fiestar.^[22] Few days after the creation of the multi-label system, their agency's Twitter released a statement that Fiestar will indeed have a comeback in November 1, and on the same day, also released BTS videos of their music video for their third single.^[23] On Fiestar's 12th episode of 'A-HA!', the whole six members released an audio teaser by the end of the video, and hinted more of the audio on Fiestar's thirteenth episode and last of Season 1's 'A-HA!'. A few days later, on October 23, Fiestar released a black-and-white teaser image of their third single, titled Curious. They also released another teaser on October 28, featuring the girls making a 'Shh!' pose, and on the same day, released the album jacket image and the tracklist for their third single, with the title track entitled "I Don't Know". They announced that Fiestar will be sporting the cutely sexy concept, doing a 90 degree change on their image, and said it will be still as powerful as their past singles. They released the video teaser on October 31, and on the same day, various celebrities released supporting messages to Fiestar, featuring Clara, IU, Kim Suk Hoon, and the Gag Concert team. They released the full music video on November 1.^[24] The single ranked high on digital music charts despite the heavy competition with fellow artists. They made their first comeback stage on Music Core on November 2.

The group had their own TV reality show titled "Channel FIESTAR!" which is currently airing on SBS MTV. Their program features skits, activities, commercials, and the private lives of each members.^[25] The show's first episode aired on November 28.

Members

Stage name[26]		Birth name		Country	Date of Birth
Romanized	Hangul	Romanized	Hangul
Jei	재이	Kim Jinhee	김진희	South Korea	September 5,1989 (age 24)
Cao Lu	차오루	Cao Lu	차오루	China	August 30,1987 (age 26)
Linzy	린지	Im Minji	임민지	South Korea	October 22,1989 (age 24)
Hyemi	혜미	Kim Hyemi	김혜미	South Korea	August 10,1990 (age 23)
Cheska	체스카	Francesca Ahn	프란체스카 안	United States	March 11,1992 (age 21)
Yezi	예지	Lee Yeji	이예지	South Korea	August 26,1994 (age 19)

Discography

EP's

• 2014: TBA

Single Albums

• 2012: Vista
• 2012: We Don't Stop
• 2013: Curious

Digital Singles/Collaborations

• 2012: "Sea Of Moonlight (with IU)"
• 2013: "Whoo. (with Eric Benét)"
• 2014: "Such a Woman. ( Cheska and Yezi with ZIA)"

Awards

Fanclub

• Official Fanclub Name: Let★s / Let's

External links

• Fiestar on LOEN Entertainment
• Fiestar on Daum Cafe
• Fiestar on Facebook
• Fiestar on Twitter
• Fiestar on Instagram
• Fiestar's channel on YouTube
• International Forums

References