The Grace (band)

The Grace (Korean: 천상지희 더 그레이스; hanja: 天上智喜 The Grace ) is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment in 2005. The group consisted of Lina, Dana, Sunday and Stephanie. In 2011, they formed a sub-unit duo group The Grace - Dana & Sunday.

Names

The band had been known as TSZX prior to the promotion of their third Korean single around the end of 2006, at which time the group added The Grace to the name. TSZX was the romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation, Tiān Shàng Zhì Xǐ which was also simplified to CSJH, the romanization of the Korean pronunciation, Cheon Sang Ji Hee and the simplifications are still sometimes used to refer to the band despite the change in the official name. In Japan, the group is still officially known as Tenjōchiki, which is also abbreviated (albeit less frequently) as TJCK.

History

2005: Debut with Too Good and Boomerang

The Grace's first official performance occurred on April 29, 2005, in China. They performed their new songs "Too Good" and "Boomerang", and it was broadcast weeks later by the Chinese channel CCTV. The verses in Boomerang were also sung in Chinese. The quartet debuted with "Too Good" on SBS's music program Inkigayo on May 1, 2005. They promoted the song for a few months before switching to "Boomerang".

After 7 months of promoting their first singles in Korea, the group headed off to promote in China. The Chinese version of the single was officially released in March 2006. The single included three new tracks: the Chinese versions of "Too Good" and "Boomerang" and the pre-group track "Fight To The End". After promotional activities concluded, The Grace headed to Japan.

2006: Japanese debut and My Everything

The debut Japanese single "Boomerang" was released January 25, 2006. Later, the song was re-recorded and released with Japanese lyrics and an altered instrumental track. The Japanese single also had a B-side called "Do You Know?", a solo song by member Sunday. The "Boomerang" single ranked No. 110 in the Singles Top 200 chart.

On March 8, "The Club" along with a solo song called "What U Want" (sung by Stephanie) was released. It reached No. 131 on the Japanese Oricon Charts. The single was also promoted briefly in South Korea. After quick promotional activities in Korea, the group went back to Japan for their third Japanese single, "Sweet Flower" which was used as the theme for the month of April on the TBS Radio & Communications music show, Count Down TV. "Sweet Flower" entered the charts at No. 151. The single was also released in Korea by SM, but it was left unchanged from its Japanese version.

Between the third and fourth single releases, there were official releases in other Asian countries. The Japanese single "Boomerang" was released in China on June 19 by Avex Trax's official Chinese distributor CRSC. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, a new edition of the Korean version of "The Club" single was released and contained a Chinese version of "The Club" plus a DVD with the Korean music video.

Even with the first few singles having low sales, another single was scheduled to be released. "Juicy Love" was in stark contrast with The Grace's previous singles, as it had a reggae beat. Japanese reggae singer Corn Head was featured in this song. The B-side was "Sayonara no Mukō ni", The Grace's first Japanese ballad written and sung by Dana. Like the previous single, "Juicy Love" was released in Korea, left unchanged.

The single "My Everything" was released on November 3, 2006. The song is a ballad track unlike their previous singles.^[1] Other songs in the single include an a cappella version of George Michael's "Faith", which had already been performed during the first single promotion, and new songs "The Final Sentence" and "Iris (할 말이 있어요)". However, the changes did not greatly increase sales; the single entered at No. 30 on the Music Industry Association of Korea's monthly sales charts^[2]

2007: One More Time, OK? and Graceful4

The group's debut album, 한번 더, OK? (Hanbeon Deo, OK?, translated as "One More Time, OK?") was released on May 4, 2007."^[3] "One More Time, OK?" is The Grace's most successful song to date, topping Mnet M! Countdown and SBS Inkigayo charts. The album reached sixth place for the month.^[4] On June 15, the album was released in Taiwan, The Grace's first major release overseas.^[5] "One More Time, OK?" won the Best Dance Music award at the 2007 Mnet Asian Music Awards (M.Net KM Music Festival).

A new Japanese single was released in August with three new songs: a dance number named "Piranha" and Japanese versions of the songs "My Everything" and "Just For One Day", which features TVXQ's Jaejoong. The single debuted at 26th place in the Oricon daily charts and ended at 50th place in the weekly charts. In November their first Japanese album was released. Graceful 4,^[6] consisted of nine previously released songs and new material, including "One More Time, OK?", a translated Japanese version of their first Korean album's title song.

2008: Stand Up People and Here

During the first months of 2008, The Grace still promoted themselves in Japan, performing on various events in support of their first Japanese album. They held three concerts in April and May named Graceful Party Vol. 1.^[7] The last one, at Daikanyama UNIT in Tokyo, featured "Here", a new song in collaboration with hip-hop group Cliff Edge.

Their sixth Japanese single, called "Stand Up People", was released on July 23. It featured "Dear Friend", a mid-tempo ballad, and remixes of the title song and "One More Time, OK". Their seventh single, "Here", featured a collaboration between Tenjochiki and Cliff Edge. It was set to be released on October 22, but after the song leaked, it was offered for free download for a limited time. "Here" was chosen to be the theme song of both the drama and movie of Homeless School Student, based on a Japanese best-seller book. A second song and music video were released, titled "Near." "Here" reaching to No. 16 at the Oricon Charts with sales of over 16,000.

2009-2010: Dear..., Subaru soundtrack and Indefinite Hiatus

The album titled Dear... was released on January 7, 2009. The album debuted on No. 14 on the Oricon chart.

The Grace appeared on the soundtrack of the Japanese movie Subaru with the songs "Sukoshi De Ii Kara / A Bit of Good" (少しでいいから) and "Coming To You".^[8] "Sukoshi De Ii Kara / A Bit of Good" is a part of The Grace's second Japanese Album Dear.... The movie also features member Stephanie as a ballet trainer^[9]

In 2010, all activities for the group as a whole were halted due to Stephanie sustaining a major back injury. Since then, the group has been focusing on their own solo activities, with Dana and Sunday becoming the subunit "The Grace: Dana & Sunday", Lina becoming an actress and marrying musical actor Jang Jeung So,^[10] and Stephanie joining Media Line Entertainment and then Mafia Records for her solo activities.^[11][12]

Subunits and Solo Activities

Dana & Sunday

On July 5, 2011, SM Entertainment announced the formation of its first official sub-group unit of The Grace. Breaking their 4-year hiatus, the duo is composed of Dana and Sunday.^[13] Their debut single, "One More Chance" (나 좀 봐줘), was released digitally on July 11.^[14] The music video for the single also released on the same day.^[15] Dana & Sunday's debut performance was on July 8 on KBS Music Bank^[16]

On September 23, they were featured on part four of the soundtrack for the drama Hooray for Love (애정만만세), "Now You" (지금 그대). Dana and Sunday's "With Coffee Project Part 1" was released on December 20 together with the music video of the song.^[17]

The duo also participated in the eighth winter compilation album from SM Town 2011 Winter SMTown – The Warmest Gift. The two performed the song "Amazing", which was released only as an offline physical album on December 13, 2011.^[18]

Stephanie

On October 8 of 2012, Stephanie released her first solo single album The New Beginning with the title track "Game" and its music video. Her single album consists of three tracks, "Game" (title track), "Dance" (a track featuring her labelmate from SM Entertainment, Amber of f(x)) and a remix version by DJ Koo of "Game". She was rumored to have a comeback in the summer of 2014 under Mafia Records, but the comeback song Prisoner was delayed release until early August 2015.^[19][20] The music video for the follow-up single Blackout was released in late September 2015.^[21]Stephanie released first mini-album Top Secret in October 2015.

Members

• Lina (Lee Ji-yeon; 이지연)
• Dana (Hong Sung-mi 홍성미)
• Sunday (Jin Bo-ra 진보라)
• Stephanie (Kim Bo-kyung; 김보경)

Discography

Tours

Awards

References

External links

• Official Korean Website (Korean)
• Official Korean Website (CSJH – Dana and Sunday) (Korean)
• Official Japanese Website (Japanese)