SeeYa

SeeYa (Hangul: 씨야) was a South Korean female group originally made up of Kim Yeonji, Lee Bo Ram, and Nam Gyuri. In 2009, Nam Gyuri left the group to pursue a solo career. She was replaced by Lee Soomi until 2010. The group continued as a duo consisting of Yeonji and Bo Ram until their disbandment in 2011. They were known for their 2007 hit song Love's Greetings and won the Best Female Group Award. When they debuted, they were marketed as the female version of SG Wannabe.^[1]

History

Their debut album, The First Mind, was released on February 24, 2006,^[2] and was launched with the singles "A Woman's Scent" and "Shoes". They did "Crazy Love Song" for The Invisible Man soundtrack.^[3]

Their second album, Lovely Sweet Heart, was released on May 25, 2007.^[4] The album sold 81,723 copies in 2007, making it the fifth best-selling album in Korea that year, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea.^[5] The first single, "Love's Greeting",^[6] won awards at the 2007 Golden Disk Awards and the MKMF Awards.^[7] Follow-up singles were "Shall We Marry" and "Ice Doll".

On January 2, 2008, SeeYa released California Dream,^[8] a "special" album that included songs that had been individually released as side-projects like "The Day," which Kim Yeonji sang along with Brown Eyed Girls' Jea;^[9] "Flying In The Deep Night" (깊은 밤을 날아서), which Nam Gyuri sang for a movie's original soundtrack; an O.S.T. song "The First Time In That Place" (처음 그 자리에) from the TV drama "Full House" originally performed by Bo Ram, and others. The album also included three new songs, including the single "Sad footsteps" which was first released online in mid-December and went on to top the charts.^[10] On January 31, SeeYa won the Main Award at the 2008 Seoul Music awards.^[11]

In May 2008, SeeYa collaborated with girl group label-mates Davichi and Black Pearl to form the project group Color Pink. Color Pink released one single called "Blue Moon."

Their third album, Brilliant Change, was released on September 26, 2008, with the lead single "Hot Girl", an "electronica" song, contrasting the ballads that SeeYa was known for.^[12] During the promotion for the album, the group played down the common perception that the group was mainly a vehicle for raising Nam Gyuri's celebrity profile, openly addressing the expression "Nam Gyuri and Others," which was by then being widely used by KPop followers to mock the Nam-centered promotion of the group.^[13]

In April 2009, Core Contents Media (CCM), SeeYa's record label and management company, announced that Nam Gyuri had stopped participating in the group's activities and that it might take legal action against Nam. Nam claimed that her contract was over and she was no longer bound to the company or SeeYa. On her blog, she seemed to refer to the head of CCM as "the devil" and accuse the other members of the group of making her feel lonely.^[14]

In May 2009, SeeYa formed a project group with Davichi and T-ara to release the single "Women's Generation/Eternal Love." SeeYa member Kim Yeonji described the project group as a "continuation of the Color Pink project."^[15] During a press conference at the music video shoot for the song, SeeYa members Kim Yeonji and Bo Ram acknowledged that they had not been able to make contact with Nam for some time, and confessed that they were disappointed by the manner of Nam's departure and puzzled by claims attributed to Nam and her "close acquaintances" that Nam had not been treated well. A tearful Lee cited the company's accommodating Nam's wishes to change personnel to the point that "there were no more stylists left for us to work with," and Nam's bargaining to participate in studio albums only if she was given more parts. Lee argued that the whole group revolved around Nam's wishes, and emphasized that the members had received an advance for a contract of five years (SeeYa was three years into their contract when Nam's contractual dispute arose).^[16] As of June 8, 2009 "Women's Generation" had topped the Korean mobile charts for four consecutive weeks and was ranked #4 in mobile downloads for 2009.^[17]

On July 15, 2009, CCM announced that Nam Gyuri had resumed activities with the group. However, this return was short-lived, as CCM soon announced that Nam had permanently left the group on August 13, 2009. Nam also released a press release through her lawyers stating that she had left the group to focus on her acting career and had no intention of returning.^[18] In the statement, Nam announced that she was leaving the group because she was more interested in acting than singing, and could not simultaneously pursue an acting career and a singing career; therefore, she had turned down all other record label offers to recruit SeeYa as a group, and would henceforth embark on a new career as an actor and not a singer.^[18][19] While Nam did in fact resume singing as a solo artist soon after finding new management,^[20][21] negotiations for Nam to return to SeeYa ended with this announcement. SeeYa then began the search for a new member to replace Nam.^[22] Nam was replaced with Lee Soomi; a new mini-album, Rebloom, was released on October 28, 2009.

After finishing promotions for "Rebloom" SeeYa teamed up with Davichi and T-ara again for the release of the song "Wonder Woman" in January 7, 2010. In April, SeeYa released "Touch My Heart" for the soundtrack of the drama Personal Taste.

On July 23, 2010 CCM announced that Lee Soomi would leave SeeYa to join the company's new co-ed group Co-Ed School; SeeYa could continue as a duo.

On December 13, 2010 Core Content Media confirmed that SeeYa was going to disband after their next album release. The label claimed that the decision was made by the members, who wanted to go their separate ways, and the label head, Kim Kwang Soo, publicly called on Kim Yeonji to renew her contract with the label, stating that the group could go on if she were to decide to do so.^[23] However, some media reports and K-pop pundits were skeptical about the label's motives, noting its history of negative media attacks on artists who refused to renew their contracts, and suggesting that the label head's interview was a bad faith effort to hamper Kim Yeonji's future music career by making it more difficult for her to find a new label.^[24][25] Nam Gyuri decided to join her former members in their last remaining promotions. SeeYa released their last album on January 10, See You Again, a compilation album with two new songs. The group disbanded after a final performance (including Nam) on January 30, 2011, at Inkigayo. In November 2012, Core debuted a group that takes SeeYa as their role model, under the name The SeeYa.^[26]

Members

Last line-up

• Lee Bo Ram
• Kim Yeonji

Former

• Lee Soomi
• Nam Gyuri

Discography

Studio albums

Mini albums

Compilations

Awards

Music Programs

M!Countdown

Inkigayo

References