Mamamoo

Mamamoo (Hangul: 마마무), sometimes stylized as MAMAMOO,^[1] is a South Korean girl group formed by Rainbow Bridge World (formerly WA Entertainment) in 2014. The group officially debuted on June 18, 2014 with the song "Mr. Ambiguous".^[2] Their debut was considered by some critics as one of the best K-pop debuts of 2014.^[3][4] They are recognised for their retro, jazz, and R&B concepts and strong vocal performances.^[5][6]

Career

Pre-debut

Prior to their official debut, Mamamoo collaborated with several artists. Their first collaboration titled "Don't Be Happy" with Bumkey was released on January 8, 2014.^[7] A second collaboration with K.Will titled "Peppermint Chocolate" featuring Wheesung was released on February 11, 2014.^[8][9] "Peppermint Chocolate" ranked 11th on the Gaon Digital Chart in its first week.^[10][11] On May 30, Mamamoo released a third collaboration with rap duo Geeks called "Hi Hi Ha He Ho".^[12]

2014: Debut with Hello and Piano Man

	Mr. Ambiguous A sample of Mamamoo's track "Mr. Ambiguous"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The group made their official debut on June 18 with lead single "Mr. Ambiguous" from their first mini album Hello. The music video for "Mr. Ambiguous" contained cameo appearances from many well-known K-pop industry figures such as CNBLUE's Jonghyun, Baek Ji-young, Wheesung, Jung Joon-young, Bumkey, K.Will, and Rhymer of Brand New Music.^[13] The album contained three previously released collaborations and four new songs.^[13]

The group made their first live appearance on the June 19 episode of M! Countdown.^[14] On June 27, Mamamoo performed "Peppermint Chocolate" with K.Will and VIXX's Ravi on the Music Bank "Half-Year" Special.^[15] On July 5, the group held a guerilla concert at Hongik University in Hongdae, Seoul.^[16] In July, Mamamoo released their first original soundtrack contribution titled "Love Lane" for the Korean drama Marriage, Not Dating.^[17]

On November 21, Mamamoo released their second mini-album Piano Man with the title track of the same name.^[18] The title song peaked at 41 on Gaon's Digital chart.^[19] By the end of 2014, Mamamoo ranked tenth highest among idol girl groups for digital sales, 19th in album sales, and 11th in overall sales according to Gaon's year-end rankings.^[20]

On the January 10 episode of competitive singing show Immortal Songs 2, Mamamoo performed a rendition of Joo Hyun-mi's "Wait a Minute", reaching the final round before losing to Kim Kyung-ho.^[21]

2015: Pink Funky and rising popularity

Mamamoo performing in August 2015

On April 2, 2015, Mamamoo released "Ahh Oop!", the first single of their third mini-album titled Pink Funky.^[22] "Ahh Oop!" marks the group's second collaboration with label mate Esna, after she was featured in "Gentleman" on their second mini-album Piano Man.

On June 13, the group traveled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to perform at an event sponsored by the South Korean Embassy with Crayon Pop and K-Much. The event was a commemorative concert held in honor of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Korea and Mongolia.^[23]

On June 19, Mamamoo released their third mini-album Pink Funky and lead single "Um Oh Ah Yeh". The song was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the Gaon Chart, becoming their first top three single.^[24] On August 23, after promotions concluded, Mamamoo held their first fan meeting, entitled "1st Moo Party", for a total of 1,200 fans at the Olympic Park in Seoul. Tickets for the fan meeting sold out within one minute, so the group added an additional meeting for 1,200 more fans the same night.^[25][26] They also held another "Moo Party" in Los Angeles, which took place on October 4. This was their first trip to the United States. Mamamoo also collaborated and performed with label mate Basick on the Korean rap survival show Show Me the Money.^[27]

On August 29, Mamamoo returned to Immortal Song 2 with a rendition of Jo Young-nam's "Delilah".^[28] On October 31, Mamamoo returned to the Immortal Song 2, singing a rendition of Korean trot singer Bae Ho's song "Backwood's Mountain" (두메산골). Their performance earned their first overall win on Immortal Song with 404 points.^[29]

2016–present: Melting and Memory

On January 26, 2016, Mamamoo pre-released an R&B ballad, "I Miss You", from their first full-length album Melting.^[30] On February 12, another track, "1cm/Taller than You" was pre-released with a music video. The full album was released on February 26, debuting at number 3 on the Gaon chart. The title track "You're the Best (넌 is 뮌들)" also debuted at number three but peaked at number one the following week, becoming their first number-one single.^{[31][32][33][34]}

On March 6, they received their first music show win with the song "You're the Best" on Inkigayo^[35], followed by wins on Music Bank,^[36] M! Countdown,^[37] and other music shows. They received eight wins in total for the single.

On March 16, Mamamoo performed in Austin, Texas at South By Southwest's K-Pop Night Out. ^[38] A little over three months later, they returned to the United States, performing at KCON NY in Newark, New Jersey on June 25.^[39][40]

Alongside girl group GFriend, they have also starred in Season 7 of reality television show "SHOWTIME".

On August 31, Mamamoo released the singles "Angel" and "Dab Dab" as subgroups consisting of vocalists (Solar and Wheein) and rappers (Moonbyul and Hwasa).^[41]

On September 21, Mamamoo released their follow-up digital single "New York" and accompanying music video.^[42][43]

After wrapping up promotions for "New York" Mamamoo's agency announced that the group will make their comeback on November 7 with their fourth mini album, Memory.^[44] The lead single for Memory was announced to be "Décalcomanie." ^[45]

Members

Solar

Solar (솔라) was born Kim Yong-sun (김용선) on (1991-02-21) February 21, 1991.^[46] In August 2015, Solar participated in singing competition King of Mask Singer, disguised as a sunflower.^[47] Solar joined virtual marriage show We Got Married with Eric Nam as her partner.^[48]

Moonbyul

Moonbyul (문별) was born Moon Byul-yi (문별이) on (1992-12-22) December 22, 1992.^[46] Moonbyul was cast as the lead in the web drama Start Love (스타트 러브) with SS501's Kim Kyu Jong.^[49] She is the main rapper and rap lyricist of the group.

Wheein

Wheein (휘인) was born Jung Whee-in (정휘인) on (1995-04-17) April 17, 1995.^[46] In May 2014, Wheein featured on Phantom's "Under Age's Song" from their studio album Phantom Power.^[50] In December 2014, she featured on "The Sunlight Hurts" from Standing Egg's album Like.^[51] She also was featured on CNBLUE's "Domino" from their album 2gether in September 2015 and Louie's "Please Let Go" in October.^[52] Wheein and Kim Heechul released a duet in April 15, 2016. The single was written by Heechul and produced by Jungmo of TRAX, and is Heechul's first collaboration with a female artist.^[53] On May 9, 2016, Monsta X teamed up with Wheein and released a pre-comeback track titled "Ex Girl".^[54]

In April 2016, Wheein participated in King of Mask Singer under the alias "Like a Half Moon". She advanced to Round 2 but lost to "Express Roller Coaster", the alias of Ulala Session's Kim Myung Hoon, through audience voting. She sang JYP's "Who's Your Mama?".

Hwasa

Hwasa (화사) was born Ahn Hye-jin (안혜진) on (1995-07-23) July 23, 1995.^[46] Hwasa performed with Hyuna for her track "Ice Ice" on August 20, 2015.^[55] She also featured on a song entitled "Drinks Up" by Korean hip hop artist Ja Mezz in 2015, "Love Talk" by Kisum and "Mileage" by Primary featuring Paloalto in the same year. She also featured High4's sub-unit High4:20's debut song "HookGa".^[56]

Discography

• Melting (2016)

Production credits

Concert

• Mamamoo 1st Concert: Moosical (2016)^[57][58]

Filmography

Drama

TV Shows

Awards and nominations

Asia Artists Awards

Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards

MelOn Music Awards

Seoul Music Awards

Seoul Success Awards

Bugs Awards

Mnet Asian Music Awards

Music programs

The Show

Show Champion

M! Countdown

Music Bank

Inkigayo

References

External links

• Official website

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