Shinee (샤이니, stylized as SHINee, pronounced /ˈʃaɪniː/ "shiny") is a contemporary R&B South Korean boy band.[1] Formed by SM Entertainment in 2008, they made their debut on May 25, 2008 on SBS's Popular Songs with their promotional single, "Noonan Neomu Yeppeo (Replay)" ("누난 너무 예뻐 (Replay)", lit. "Older Girl, You're So Pretty (Replay)"). The group consists of Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho, and Taemin. Since their debut, Shinee has won numerous awards. They have also starred in their own reality show based on their song, "Noona Neomu Yeppeo (Replay)". Shinee is considered to be a fashion icon having started the "Shinee Trend".
2008: Debut and The Shinee World
In late May 2008 news articles started to surface online about SM Entertainment's new group, Shinee. On May 23, the group's first mini-album, Replay was released. Replay debuted at #10 on the Korean music charts and peaked at #8, selling 17,957 copies in the first half of 2008.
On June 7, 2008, Shinee participated in the Dream Concert in the Seoul Olympic Stadium along with other high profile Korean stars such as Epik High, Girls' Generation, Super Junior, TVXQ and the Wonder Girls.
The group won their first award, Rookie of the Month, at the Cyworld Digital Music Award on June 22, 2008.
Shinee took part in SMTown Live '08, which was held on August 18, 2008. They performed alongside labelmates BoA, Zhang Liyin, Cheon Sang Ji Hee the Grace, Girls' Generation, Super Junior and TVXQ.[8] On August 23, 2008, Shinee attended MNet's 20's Choice Awards 2008, where they won the "Hot New Star" award.[9] Shinee released their full debut album, The Shinee World, on August 28, 2008. The album debuted on the charts at #3, selling 30,000 copies.
Shinee performed at SM Town Live in Bangkok
The first single released from the album was "Sanso Gateun Neo (Love Like Oxygen)" (산소 같은 너 (Love Like Oxygen), lit. You Are Like Oxygen), a cover of "Show the World" by Martin Hoberg Hedegaard, originally written by the Danish songwriting and production team of Thomas Troelsen, Remee and Lucas Secon.On September 18, 2008, Shinee's "Sanso Gateun Neo (Love Like Oxygen)" was the No. 1 song on M! Countdown.
A few days later, Shinee received the "Mutizen" award for the single on SBS's Popular Songs. Shinee participated in the "5th Asia Song Festival", where they received the "Best New Artist" award with Japanese girl group Berryz Kobo.
Shinee attended the 2008 Style Icon Awards on October 30, 2008, where they won the "Best Style Icon Award".On the same day, they released The Shinee World as a repackaged album under the name Amigo. Included on album were three new songs: "Forever or Never", a remix of "Sa. Gye. Han (Love Should Go On)" (사.계.한) and the promotional single "A.Mi.Go (Amigo)" (아.미.고).
"A.Mi.Go" is a shortened version of the Korean phrase "Areumdaun Minyeorueljoahamyeon Gosaenghanda" (아름다운 미녀를 좋아하면 고생한다 lit. Heart Aches When You Fall In Love With a Beauty).
On November 15, 2008 Shinee won the "Best Male Rookie" award at the 10th annual MNET KM Music Festival, beating fellow newcomers U-KISS, 2PM, 2AM and Mighty Mouth.
At the 23rd Annual Golden Disk Awards, they performed a medley of their songs, "Noona Neomu Yeppeo (Replay)", "Sanso Gateun Neo (Love Like Oxygen)" and "A.Mi.Go (Amigo)" and won the award for "YEPP Newcomer Album".
SM Entertainment announced that Shinee would make their comeback with their second mini album Romeo on May 21, 2009.
On May 18, "Juliette", the first single was released;the song is instrumentally a remake of Corbin Bleu's "Deal with It".
It was later announced that their comeback was going to be delayed due to Onew damaging his teeth and the release of the mini-album was pushed back to May 25.
Shinee eventually had their return performance on June 5, 2009, on KBS's Music Bank, where they received the award for first place.
The group released their third mini-album, titled 2009: Year of Us, on October 19, 5 months after the release of Romeo. SM Entertainment stated that this EP would showcase the group's vocals and demonstrate their unique qualities.
The lead single "Ring Ding Dong" was released digitally on October 14; the group had their comeback stage on October 16, on KBS's Music Bank.
SM Entertainment revealed individual photo teasers of each member for the new album starting with Minho on July 8, 2010 and ending with Key on July 12. The group was originally set to have their comeback stage on KBS Music Bank, July 16, to kick start their promotions for the new album,but due to Minho injuring himself during a Dream Team 2 filming on July 8, the comeback was postponed to July 23.
The second full length album entitled Lucifer was released on July 19, 2010 in South Korea. The music video promoting Lucifer was released the next day on July 20, 2010.