Only 9 Groups In K-Pop History Have Renewed Their Contracts And Kept Their Original Lineup
In the K-Pop industry, it’s fairly standard for a group to create a contract with their company that has the members commit to a 7-year-long career with their label. While the length of time does vary and there have been plenty of cases of members leaving before their contract is up, this is one of the most common situations when a group debuts.
When it gets close to a group’s contract ending, fans of the artist can get understandably concerned about whether or not all of the members will renew their contract. And when you look at the statistics on how many K-Pop groups that debuted between 1996 and now — over 500 — have renewed their contracts without losing any members, it’s understandable why this is a nerve-wracking time for fans.
Out of these hundreds of groups (with 3 or more members), only 9 of them have renewed their contracts at some point without losing a single member during the renewal process, and have still retained their original lineup.
This doesn’t include groups, such as GOT7, that are still together despite leaving their company, or groups that say they are still together despite one or more members leaving the company, such as MAMAMOO. Also not included are groups that lost members prior to or after their first contract renewal, such as Jay Park leaving 2PM beforehand, or Seungri leaving BIGBANG and Jessica leaving Girls’ Generation afterwards.
Perhaps one of the most well-known renewals is SEVENTEEN‘s renewal with Pledis Entertainment, which is particularly impressive considering they have 13 members! Interestingly, one of the other groups to renew their contract with all of their members is their labelmate NU’EST, whose 5 members decided to stay with the company back in January 2019. They renewed for three additional years and stayed together until the conclusion of their second contract with Pledis Entertainment. Afterwards, the group disbanded in 2022.
SF9 renewed their contracts with FNC Entertainment in March 2021, with all nine members of the group deciding to stay with the company.
Of course, all 7 of BTS‘s members made the decision to continue with BigHit and HYBE back when they renewed their contract in 2018, which was actually prior to their original contract ending date, which would have been in 2020. Rumors had it that BTS’s contract renewal was for an additional seven years, but that has never been confirmed by BigHit.
SHINee also deserves to be mentioned in this list. While Jonghyun passed away back in late 2017, they are one of the only groups in K-Pop history to renew with their label twice (once in 2014 and again in 2018) and still have all of their members, and with how close the members are and how much their music means to them, there’s little doubt that Jonghyun would have continued on with them at SM Entertainment as well, and he will always be an eternal member.
TWICE‘s contract renewal status was a bit talking point with ONCE worried about the status of their contract renewals. But in July 2022, JYP Entertainment shared all nine TWICE members decided to renew their contracts.
Red Velvet originally renewed their contracts in 2021 after their original seven-year contract they signed in 2014. Since then, Seulgi has been confirmed to have renewed a second time, with no news about the other four members.
Dreamcatcher debuted in 2017 with seven members after transitioning from the five-member group MINX. In November 2022, all seven members officially renewed their contracts with Dreamcatcher Company.
KARD debuted in July 2017 with four members and is one of the only co-ed K-Pop groups still promoting. In July 2022, all four members renewed their contracts with DSP Media.
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