4Minute

Cube Entertainment assembled the Seoul-based dance-pop quintet 4Minute in 2009, bringing together Heo Ga-yoon, Jeon Ji-yoon, Kim Hyun-a, Kwon So-hyun, and Nam Ji-hyun. Their opening release, the synth-driven pop track “Hot Issue” laced with rap verses, anchored the August 2009 EP For Muzik. That December the five members joined Korean vocalists Mario and Amen on the holiday single “Jingle Jingle.” In 2010 the group inked an international licensing deal with Universal Music Group and began booking shows beyond South Korea, among them dates in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Later the same year they issued the EP Hit Your Heart and made their Japanese bow with Diamond, which registered on charts across several Asian territories. Spring 2011 brought the first full-length Korean album 4Minutes Left, another multi-chart entry, while Kim Hyun-a simultaneously dropped her solo EP Bubble Pop!. Volume Up arrived in 2012 alongside the retrospective Best of 4Minute, and the group performed that year at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, during KCON 2012. Subsequent EPs followed with Name Is 4Minute in 2013 and 4Minute World in 2014. Their sixth mini-album, Crazy, surfaced in February 2015 and became the first 4Minute release to top Billboard’s World Albums chart.