Literally called 'the one who receives the light',
Boy group SHINee has shone the light of kpop all across Asia and more.
Known for fashion, vocal ability and dance
One of the most popular groups of their generation, 11 years strong
This is the history of What Happened to SHINee
The year is 2008. SM Entertainment wanted an R&B boy group
that was much more than just a group.
SM wanted icons, groups like TVXQ and legendary group Super Junior
already debuted from SM.
But SHINee was meant to not only be a talented group but a fashionable one
And so Taemin, Minho, Key, Onew and Jonghyun were brought together to become SHINee.
The ageless song 'Replay' would be SHINee's introduction to the world.
Okay, so the fashion wasn't as forward as we expected,
but SHINee immediately became shining stars.
'Replay' debuted at number 10 in Korean Charts and would peak at number 8,
an incredible response from a brand new group
Even claiming awards such as 'Rookie of the Month' & 'Hot New Star', SHINee then released their first full-length album,
the 'SHINee World' and the title track 'Love Like Oxygen'
which turns out was a delightful cover of Martin Hedegaard's 'Show The World'.
Martin was a 15 year old contestant that won the UK X Factor back in 2008.
But this song 'Love Like Oxygen' gave SHINee their first win on M Countdown.
The follow up to 'Love Like Oxygen' was in the repackaged version of the 'SHINee World': 'Amigo'.
With 3 hits in one year, SHINee was awarded the 'Best New Male Group' at MAMA 2008.
Onew: Thank you so much to President Jun who also cheered for us here and is always supporting us.
And thank you Yoo YoungJin who always gives us good songs.
In the following year in 2009, SHINee returned with 'Juliette'.
And again, this song was a remake of Corbin Bleu's 'Deal With It'.
Yes, the same guy from High School Musical. What a strange time the early 2000s was ...
But SHINee was able to make this version an iconic one and won their second 1st place award on Music Bank.
Later in the year SHINee worked on a song that would become a kind of a joke among k-pop fans,
but it was actually SHINee's first song to reach worldwide.
Yeah, 'Ring Ding Dong' was 'fantastic' and 'elastic' and a song you just can't help but sing along with.
In 2010 the group dropped their second full-length album with the title track 'Lucifer'.
If you time traveled and landed in a time where this song was playing, you probably would say
''Ah yeah, this is definitely the second generation of Kpop.''
The choreography alone caused SHINee to win 'Best Dance Performance' award at the 2010 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
Ah, yes. 'Hello' was the next title track a part of the repackage version of 'Lucifer'.
It was much more bright and cheerful than what Lucifer was,
but now we see SHINee become what they were destined to be:
Versatile and not afraid to try something new.
SHINee would join the SM Family and SMTOWN Live World Tour in 2011.
Such a beautiful time that was.
Japan would welcome SHINee as they debuted with their Japanese version of 'Replay' becoming certified gold with over 100,000 copies sold.
SHINee would make headlines and cause a stir in London when SHINee became the first Asian artist to perform at the Abbey Road Studios.
Later, SHINee would release a Japanese version of the other hits 'Juliette' and 'Lucifer'.
SHINee would go back to London after being invited to the 6th London Korean Film Festival, selling out tickets in minutes,
making SHINee the first Korean act to hold a concert in London.
Continuously, SHINee would release Japanese versions of their songs and become a very successful group in the country.
Returning back from international ventures, SHINee was ready for a new comeback and I'm so curious to what that comeback would be like.
''SHINee's back''
With that trademark intro, SHINee came back with 'Sherlock', a detective theme music video with Girls Generation's Jessica.
''Sherlock'' was also one of the most sold albums in Korea in 2012.
SHINee would find themselves again winning 'The Best Dance Performance Male Group' at MAMA 2012.
2013 came around and SHINee would try something new.
Their comeback would be broken up into two.
With the songs 'Dream Girl', an electric pop track and 'Why So Serious', a heavy rock electric guitar track
but still felt light in contrast.
After coming back from Japan,
SHINee conceived their new release and it's something no one has seen coming and something SHINee hasn't ever done before.
''Everybody'' was SHINee's first take on dubstep. In a time when Skrillex was a rising artist in America,
''Everybody'' was a fusion of the newfound genre dubstep and Kpop.
It was difficult to pull off and many found it odd,
but SHINee displayed one of the hardest choreographies in modern kpop with this song.
From flinging Taemin from the ground to his feet
to this human-machine move.
Without realizing it, ''Everybody'' could have been SHINee's most legendary song and most underrated.
But it wouldn't go unnoticed by Korea as
SHINee won the grand prize of 'The Artist of the Year' at Melon Music Awards in 2013.
Minho: To our members who have worked so hard for the past 6 years, I want to say thank you once again.
Lastly, I love my parents. Thank you SHINee World!
As you can see, it means a lot to the group.
From there, SHINee went on their sizeable tour 'SHINee World 3' with shows spanning from all the way in Latin America, Japan, and of course Korea.
The rest of 2012 is booked with concerts for SHINee performing in a total of 20 cities
2015: After wrapping up their tour in Japan,
SHINee went back to work on their fourth studio album 'Odd' and the title track 'View'.
Written and produced by member Jonghyun and LDN Noise,
'View' was a much more mature sounding and looking SHINee. Escaping the idol life for a moment,
the music video for 'View' was the most viewed kpop music video of the month.
'Odd' also made a splash in Billboard charts,
hitting number 9 in the Heatseekers Chart and number 1 in World Album Charts,
even breaking into the US market by selling over 2000 copies in the States.
Funny enough, 'View' could have gone to another SM group.
Girl group f(x) had a comeback in the same year with 'Four Walls'.
It is said in the beginning of the production for SHINee's comeback, 'Four Walls' could have been chosen for SHINee and f(x) could have gotten 'View'.
Months later SHINee said they're 'Married to the Music' in the repackaged version of the ''Odd'' album.
And this is around the time that I fell in love with SHINee.
I love their swag and their passion in 'View' and 'Married to the Music'.
Early 2016, SHINee was named one of the top Korean celebrities by Forbes Korean Power Rankings.
After another world tour, SHINee prepared a new album called ''1 of 1'' with the title of the same name.
Going back to the retro sound of the 80s,
''1 of 1'' embodied the era in a shiny way.
A repackaged version would be released with the title track 'Tell Me What To Do'.
SHINee would tour again in Japan before returning back home,
where the immense loss to the kpop world and the world in general happened. On December 20th 2017,
Member Kim Jonghyun was found unconscious and unresponsive in his hotel in Gangnam.
Rushed to the hospital,
Jonghyun was declared dead by the morning.
An investigation found burned cold briquettes which produce carbon monoxide.
It was a suicide attempt and Jonghyun's family didn't want an autopsy done.
Family and friends recall receiving a text from Jonghyun before he passed.
One text message read ''Final farewell'', while the other said ''I've had a hard time.
Please let me go and say I did a good job.''
Jonghyun was laid to rest on December 21st.
They did farewell by his band members, family and friends and countless other people and artists in kpop.
Jonghyun's last words saying he had a hard time shed light on depression in Korea,
a country where mental health and depression is a stigma, while growing up in a strict and competitive school system breeds mental stress.
Jonghyun started a movement and brought awareness to something almost everyone suffers through.
But yet, many felt comfort that day,
the day Jonghyun was laid to rest.
When fans looked up to the sky and captured these photos.
Fans say they witnessed the moon turn aqua pearl - SHINee's color.
Well, it may not actually be the moon,
It was a phenomenon captured showing that Jonghyun made it to where he will no longer feel pain.
Jonghyun touched many in his 27 years here.
He woke people up to a problem many are facing.
He will never ever be forgotten. You did well. Rest in peace, Kim Jong-Hyun.
SHINee as a group lost a vital part of them,
but continued as Jonghyun would have wanted
with a special comeback trilogy with ''Good Evening'',
''I Want You'' and ''Our Page'', where you can see glimpses of the member who is still with them.
Finishing up in 2018 with the Epilogue of ''The Story of Light'',
that would be SHINee's last activities together
as Onew, Key and Minho have enlisted into the military to serve their mandatory military service,
leaving Taemin the only member to continue to promote solo.
SHINee, over the course of their 11-year career,
has played a major part in kpop growing into a music genre
and into its own culture, spreading the sound all over the world, not choosing concepts but making them.
While awards and records may be important to some,
what's more important for SHINee is if they made an impact
and shined the light on everyone living in the dark.
Okay, um, first off, I want to apologize
that I couldn't get through that recording
as smoothly as I like, but still, two years later,
I still feel
raw emotion when talking about Jonghyun. Although it's tragic, it's
There's ... there's light at the end. I hope you guys enjoyed,
I had to stop many times while writing the script, while editing, while recording ...
It's a way of honoring them and in loving memory of Jonghyun.
Hopefully I did good, hopefully Jonghyun is smiling on me, on all of us
who's been touched by him.
Thank you guys for watching.
You know, the usual
YouTube whatever subscribe and all that. Thank you guys for watching. I'll catch you guys in the next one.
Annyeong.