Super Junior

Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어), often referred to as SJ or SuJu (슈주), is a popular boy band from South Korea formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2005. The group debuted with 12 members: Leeteuk (Leader), Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum and later added a 13th member named Kyuhyun; they are one of the largest boy bands in the world. As of 2010, 10 members are active, due to Han Geng's lawsuit with SM Entertainment which led to him leaving the group (now pursuing his own singing career in the Mandarin-Pop entertainment industry), Kangin's temporary leave of absence for mandatory military service and Kibum's pursuit of an acting career.However, the other members have insisted that the three (Kangin, Kibum and Han Geng) are still part of the group, the group also mentioned that they are saddened by Han Geng's departure from the group.
Super Junior has released and contributed in 20 different kinds of records with varying degrees of success.Over the years, they have been divided into smaller sub groups, simultaneously targeting different music industries and audiences. Largely due to Super Junior's success as entertainers, other Korean entertainment managements began to train their music groups in other areas of entertainment, such as acting and hosting.In addition to their commercial success, Super Junior has earned seven music awards from the M.net Asian Music Awards, eleven from the Golden Disk Awards, and is the second singing group to win Favorite Artist Korea at the 2008 MTV Asia Awards after JTL in 2003.
In 2001, the company held their first overseas casting auditions and discovered Han Geng in Beijing, China, who was chosen from among three thousand applicants.That same year, Yesung was discovered under Seoul's casting system. Sungmin and Donghae became trainees after jointly winning the first place in Best Outward Appearance in an SM-sponsored contest. In 2002, Heechul and Kangin were recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in Los Angeles. Siwon was recruited in 2003 after being scouted at 16 in front of his high school, and Ryeowook in 2004, in which the latter was discovered through the Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition.In 2005, Shindong was selected. The last member, Cho Kyuhyun, was then discovered after winning third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005.
Super Junior 05 debuted on SBS's music program Popular Song on November 6, 2005, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)." A digital single with "TWINS (Knock Out)", "You are the one", and three additional tracks were released online on November 8. A physical CD single was scheduled to be released the following week but a more complete album, SuperJunior05 (TWINS), was released on December 6, 2005 instead. Their debut album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at #3 in the monthly chart of December 2005.In that same month, they released "Show Me Your Love," a collaboration single with TVXQ. "Show Me Your Love" became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling 49,945 copies that month.
On May 23, 2006, SM Entertainment revealed the thirteenth member Kyuhyun, who was discovered through a singing competition in 2005. They released their single "U" online for free download on May 25, 2006 in their official website. "U" had over 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and it ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server.The physical single of "U" with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, 2006, eventually selling over 81,000 units. The single became one of Korea's most popular songs of the year, yielding #1 spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top music programs.By the end of the year, Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies, winning the title as Best New Group of 2006.
Super Junior is receiving attention worldwide. Recently they have extended beyond Asia, gaining popularity in Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and various other locations worldwide. In the year 2010, Peru’s Listas put up the top 30 rankings of The Sexiest Men in the World, whereby all of the members’ names appeared on the list and a Slovenian newspaper also reported about their agency and album sales. Super Junior also appeared in a publication of a specialty magazine recently in Iran that contains a personal interview with all of the Super Junior members and their individual profiles, which is explained briefly in Persian.According to the Korea Cultural Foundation, Super Junior is selected by Brazilian fans as the Korea best group.Earlier this year, in a survey conducted by Brazil’s Rede TV, Super Junior was chosen as the number one Korean singer who should come to Brazil. The results concluded with Super Junior being the top artist of choice with 30.9% of the vote.They also won "Must-Follow Personality" at the Mashable Awards 2010 which was held in Las Vegas. Member Yesung was the winner of 2010 Cyworld Digital Music Award OST. Recently, Super Junior was chosen as the most popular Korean singers in a survey conducted by Mexico's TV Azteca, as well as the various mexican comunities of this band on the Internet. Also, England’s BBC acknowledged Super Junior as the icon noted for creating Hallyu effect.Super Junior was picked number one in the survey, the Hallyu star that you want to travel Korea with. Super Junior received overwhelming votes from Asia including China, Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries as well as Europe such as France.