New K-pop girl group NewJeans got everyone’s attention when it dropped its first single, Attention, on July 22 without warning. The peppy song is in fact one of four to be released from the upcoming debut album “Extended Play”, which will release on August 1. The group is also set to perform on various weekly music programmes, including M Countdown, Music Bank and Inkigayo on August 4, 5 and 6, respectively.
NewJeans is produced by Min Hee-jin, the CEO of Ador Entertainment – a sub-label of Hybe – and former creative director of SM Entertainment. He is known for being the driving force behind some of f(x), Exo and Red Velvet’s most iconic concepts.
“Just as jeans have withstood the test of time and found popularity among everyone everywhere, here’s to NewJeans becoming an icon of a generation – one you keep coming back to daily and never tire of putting on!” the company wrote on the group’s Instagram account.
But who exactly are the members of this exciting new quintet: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein?
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1. Minji
Minji quickly found all eyes on her after Attention’s debut thanks to her impressive dance moves in the video. The 18-year-old rookie was a trainee at Source Music before the company was acquired by Hybe in 2019. She joined its Plus Global Audition, a worldwide search for new K-pop girl group members, and the rest is history!
Before Attention, Minji appeared in BTS’ music video Permission to Dance in 2021 – the same one that also featured Ed Sheeran.2. Hanni
The other trainee appearing alongside Minji and BTS in Permission to Dance? Hanni! Minji’s now-bandmate was born Pham Ngoc Han in 2004 in Vietnam, and moved to Australia with her family when she was a child. She is Hybe’s first Vietnamese female idol, according to Vietnamese newspaper Tien Phong.
Interested in singing and dancing from a young age, the One Direction fan started out as a member of the Aemina Dance Crew in Melbourne. In NewJeans’ introduction video posted on YouTube, Hanni said she considers herself a curious person who “loves looking things up and learning something new”. She added that she can sometimes be “super bubbly and silly” and at other times “deep and serious”, making her “unpredictable”.
“These days, the thing I’m most curious and confused by is probably myself,” she said. “Even I don’t know who I am, in some ways I think that’s my charm.”
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3. Danielle
Like Hanni, Danielle, born in 2005 to an Australian father and a Korean mother, also came to South Korea from Australia, according to K Profiles. She entered the Korean entertainment industry at the age of just six when she appeared on children shows such as Rainbow Kindergarten in 2011 and then Jesse’s Play Kitchen in 2012. In Rainbow Kindergarten, she met Shinhwa’s Shin Hye-sung and seemed to take a shine to him, and was over the moon when Shin signed an autograph for her, according to theqoo. Perhaps this was the moment she decided to become an idol herself?
In the aforementioned YouTube intro by the girls, she described herself as “daring, adventurous, imaginative, energetic and nature-loving”.
4. Haerin
Once Attention was released, Haerin, 16, immediately got a lot of buzz for looking like Blackpink’s Jennie. According to fans, the two have very similar eyes and face shape.Her nickname is “voice fairy” and, despite her young age, she reportedly used to perform Pansori, a genre of Korean traditional musical storytelling by a talented singer and drummer. Just like Jennie, Haerin is expected to shine as the group’s lead vocalist.
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5. Hyein
Hyein is the group’s youngest member at 14. Despite her age, she will nevertheless be familiar to some for having been in the entertainment industry since she was eight! She began modelling at that age and then joined girl group USSO. Girl under the moniker U.jeong from the age of nine to 10, according to K Profiles. She was also cast through Jumbo Kids Model Selection 2014 and appeared on Pocket TV’s Play with Me Club.
Hyein is a huge fan of BTS and Harry Potter. In her vlog she did for Pocket TV on YouTube, she proudly showed off her collection of framed BTS photos and merchandise in her bedroom, joking that this particular corner would “bring joy to your eyes”. She also pointed out the fact that she has all the Harry Potter books in English and Korean, as well as a Harry Potter wand.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuqKzwLOgp52jZMC1xcueZpydnJqvs7XTsmaaqqSesK2xjmxocW5pbYJwucSeq2amlax6rHnPqKdmn5mnuW6uwKebZqaVrLemrc2sZKahnp%2B2bsPArGSbrKNiurd5xJ0%3D