Brave Girls (Hangul: 브레이브걸스)
Number of Members: All currently inactive
Origin: Seoul, South Korea
Lineup Dates:
- 1st Lineup – 8 April 2011
- 2nd Lineup – 16 February 2016
- 3rd Lineup – March 2017
- 4th Lineup – August 2018
Inactive as of: 16 February 2023
Debut Label: Brave Entertainment
Fandom Name: Fearless
Debut Company: Brave Entertainment
56-5, Gangnam-daero 37-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06734, REP. OF KOREA
Menu
- Introduction
- Members
- Part One – Original Lineup (April 2011 – February 2016)
- Part Two – OT7 (February 2016 – January 2017)
- Part Three – Back to five, but not the same (March 2017 – August 2018)
- Part Four – And then there were four (August 2018 – February 2021)
- Part Five – Rollin’s Reverse Climb (February 2021 – May 2021)
- Part Six – Brave Girls’ New Lease on Life (June 2021 – End of 2021)
- Part Seven – They Were Always Meant to Be Queens (January 2022 – )
- Part ? – Final Members Leave Brave Entertainment (February 2023)
- Awards & Music Show Wins
Introduction
Brave Girls (Korean: 브레이브걸스) is a South Korean girl group formed by producer, Brave Brothers of Brave Entertainment. The group debuted in 2011 with five members, Eunyoung, SeoA, Yejin, Yoojin and Hyeran. However, now the group currently consists of four members, with no original members active. The current members are Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji, and Yuna. Eunyoung, SeoA, Yejin, Yoojin, Hyeran and Hayun are all now considered ‘former members’.
Members
Active Members
- Main Vocal
- Stage Name: Minyoung (민영)
- Real Name: Kim Minyoung (김민영)
- Birthdate: September 12, 1990
- Blood Type: AB
- Height: 166cm
- Education: She is currently under a leave of absense from Hanyang University Dance Arts program.
Minyoung is the eldest member of the group and trained from age 21. In the past she was a part of the project trio HavyT and the group ZZBest (the group never formally debuted) and had a small stint with the dance team Rosemass. She finally got to formally debut at the age of 27 (Korean age) with Brave Girls. She has stated in the past that there were many times that she thought of quitting and that she thought she would never debut.
One of her talents is dancing. She majored in traditional Korean dance and has also done ballet. It is her legs on the cover of Brave Girls album, “High Heels”.
In 2019, she featured on a song that was released by fellow Brave Entertainment artist and producer Chaukun, titled “Tears (2019)”.
Social
- Instagram: instagram.com/nyong2ya
- Pet Instagram: instagram.com/yam2da
- Twitter: @nyong2ya
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bravegirls_my
- Vocal
- Stage Name: Yujeong (유정)
- Real Name: Nam Yujeong
- Birthdate: May 02, 1991
- Blood Type: AB
- Height: 163cm
- Education: Sungshin Women’s University Media Communications
The members (and Yujeong herself) consider her one of the ‘cutest’ members of Brave Girls. She has very flexible lips and can contort them into different shapes (she can make a face that makes her look like Pokemon’s Squirtle). She says she’s the best at giving objective reactions to what the members say/do. Yujeong is the one that often handles public speaking and interviews for the group, and even had a temporary position on KBS’ Entertainment Weekly during Brave Girls promotions. In 2017, she participated in KBS Idol Rebooting Project – The Unit, but was eliminated in the second round.
Social
- Instagram: instagram.com/braveg_yj
- Pet Instagram: instagram.com/yj.withdogs
- Twitter: @bgyjnice
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yjistimeless
- Main Rapper/Vocal
- Stage Name: Eunji (은지)
- Real Name: Hong Eunji (홍은지)
- Birthdate: July 19, 1992
- Blood Type: AB
- Height: 168cm
- Education: Myongji University Film and Musical (leave of absence)
Eunji was showing up on the music scene even before her debut with Brave Girls. She appeared in the music video and stage performances for Lim Chang Jung’s “Shall We Dance With Dr. Lim” (2014) when she was a trainee at NH Media. Even though she is shown rapping in “Shall We Dance With Dr. Lim”, the rapping vocals for the song were done by EXID’s LE. She was also in the music video for Bigstar’s “Full Moon Shine” in 2015, presumably after she moved to Brave Entertainment.
Eunji participated in KBS Idol Rebooting Project – The Unit, but was eliminated in the first round. In 2019, Eunji joined Park Bom in performances of her new song, “Spring”, as Dara (whose voice was featured in the song), was unable to as well was Bom’s dance fill in for the competition show, Queendom.
Social
- Instagram: instagram.com/bg_eunji92
- Pet Instagram: instagram.com/dodos_world_
- Twitter: @braveunji
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bravegirls_eunji
- Lead Rapper/Vocal/Maknae
- Stage Name: Yuna (유나)
- Real Name: Lee YuNa (이유나)
- Birthdate: April 6, 1993
- Blood Type: A
- Height: 163cm
Yuna is considered the charismatic and ‘boyish’ member of Brave Girls. She considers one of her talents to be her ability to ‘look tough’ and chic. Yuna loves dogs and she and her family have raised and loved several schnauzers. She has also shared support for dog rescue charities on her social media. There have been articles in the past due to some seeing a resemblance between Yuna and Red Velvet’s Irene. She participated in the audition for KBS Idol Rebooting Project – The Unit in 2017, but unfortunately did not make it any further. In 2018, Yuna released an original song along with fellow artist Park Soojin on her Soundcloud titled, “With U”.
Social
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/u.nalee/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/una93
- Pet Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luna__ne/ (for her dog Luna which passed away in 2019)
- Pet Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kka_kong/ (for current pets)
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bravegirls_u_na
Former Members
- From: New 2016 Lineup
- Birthdate: 1994.08.29
- Hometown: Jinhae
- Position: Sub-Vocal, Lead Dancer
- Departed group: mid-2018
Before she was in Brave Girls, Hayun had been part of a group called 슈티/Super Pretty and then a duo called Date (데이트). Joining Brave Girls, Hayun became the ‘new’ maknae of the re-vamped 2017 lineup. She was the ‘bouncy’ ball of the group, and seemed to have never-ending energy. She went on hiatus just before “Rollin’ (New Version)” was released in 2018, and while her leaving was never officially confirmed, Brave Brothers called Brave Girls a ‘4-member group’ in later interviews. Hayun is now active on TikTok and Twitch.
Social
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/hayoon.y
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ZoZuYh_8FztmPCIt92OUQ
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dalha_
- Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dalha_
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Part One – Original Lineup (April 2011 – February 2016)
Brave Girls debuted on April 8th, 2011, with the single album, The Difference. The song “Do You Know” was the main promoted single and music video, but they also performed the song “So Sexy” during music shows and eventually released a music video for the song.
On July 29th, 2011, they made their comeback with the reggae song “Easily featuring Skull”, from their mini album Back to Da Future. Later on, the group began promoting a remix version of “Easily” on August 13th and released the audio on August 26th, 2011.
In their debut year they made various appearances, such as appearing on KBS’ Gag Concert, attending the 3rd Idol Star Athletics Championship and they made a cameo in the film Mr. Idol. They were awarded Rookie of the Year for the 19th Korea Culture Entertainment Awards, and were nominated for Best New Female Artists for the 13th MNet Asian Music Awards.
Brave Girls didn’t come back again until February 22nd, 2012 with the mini-album, “Re-Issue”, and the promoted track of “Nowadays You”. After that, activity dropped off and nothing new was released until Yoojin and Hyeran’s song, “For You”, on August 31st, 2013.
Though Eunyoung, Seoa and Yejin had been rumored to have left the group in 2013, no official announcement was made until February 3rd, 2016 via a post on Brave Girls fan cafe.
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Part Two – OT7 (February 2016 – January 2017)
At the beginning of 2016, after a two and a half year hiatus, the group announced they would be making a comeback in February with five new members, as well as original members Hyeran and Yoojin.
On February 16th, 2016 they returned with the digital single, “Deepened”, with the seven member line up of Minyoung, Yujeong, Yoojin, Eunji, Yuna, Hyeran and Hayun. The song had a peak chart position of 131. Beyond just music show performances, the group took the stage on KBS’ Immortal Songs, performing a rendition of the song, Mapo Terminal.
June 27th, 2016, Brave Girls released their 3rd EP, High Heels, and promoted a song of the same name. The album peaked at 22 on the Gaon Weekly Chart and came in at 87 on the Gaon Monthly Chart. The song, High Heels, peaked at 135.
On September 1st, 2016, Brave Girls released a gift song for their fans, Fearless, titled “Yoo-Hoo”. It was an un-promoted single and was the last song and music video to feature all seven members that had made their comeback in February 2016 with Deepened.
September 27th, 2016, a MakeStar crowdfunding event was set up to fund their eventual next release, with different rewards for donations. On the MakeStar website, the members released incentive videos and photos to encourage donations. At the end of the crowdfunding period, the group had raised $18,721.73 (US dollars).
The group changed once again on January 13th, 2017, with an announcement on MakeStar and the fan cafe that Yoojin was leaving the group to study and Hyeran was going on hiatus. It was later confirmed by Hyeran on her Instagram that she left the group as well.
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Part Three – Back to five, but not the same (March 2017 – August 2018)
They made a comeback on March 7th, 2017 with “Rollin’” as a five member group including Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji, Yuna and Hayun. The album was funded and was the result of the earlier Makestar campaign. The album peaked at #30 on the Gaon Weekly Chart for the week after its release, and was #62 on the Gaon Monthly Chart for the month of March with 1,091 physical copies sold. In August of 2017, it was announced that Yujeong, Eunji and Yuna would be participating in the KBS elimination show, The Unit. While Yuna unfortunately did not make it past the original audition, both Yujeong and Eunji passed. They were then eliminated in the first and second elimination rounds.
Brave Girls’ next sign of life also brought some sadness. When the “Rollin’ New Version” remix was released on August 11th, 2018, Hayun was nowhere to be found. She also disappeared on social media, and did not attend military performances with her fellow members. Hayun later returned to social media and became active on TikTok and Twitch.
Like with most past Brave Girls group departures, Hayun’s leaving was never officially confirmed by Brave Entertainment (except to say it was a medical hiatus). However in articles and interviews, Brave Brothers has referred to the group having “4 members”.
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Part Four – And then there were four (August 2018 – February 2021)
Beyond small appearances and military performances, 2019 was a quiet year for Brave Girls. Though they did not have a comeback, some of the members participated in outside projects. In March 2019, Eunji was the stage fill-in for Dara in Park Bom’s song “Spring”, and later in the year in October she was Bom’s dance segment surrogate for the competition show, Queendom. In November, Minyoung featured on a song titled “Tears (2019)”, by fellow Brave Sound artist and producer, Chakun.
In 2020, the group consisted of four members, none of which were in the original 2011 debut lineup: Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji and Yuna. On July 22nd, 2020 during a military performance, Minyoung announced that the group was preparing for a comeback in August.
That promise actually became reality, when Brave Girls returned with ‘We Ride’ on August 14th, 2020 after a three year hiatus from promotions (as the new version of Rollin’ was not promoted on music shows). ‘We Ride’ was a retro-inspired song in the style of city pop, about coming to the realization that interest in a relationship had faded. Though it didn’t give them the success they were hoping for, it gave their fandom a small sigh of relief in seeing them perform again.
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Part Five – Rollin’s Reverse Climb (February 2021 – May 2021)
It wasn’t until 2021, when Brave Girls and Fearless received their next glimpse of hope. On February 23rd, 2021, the YouTube channel, Viditor, released a compilation video for the song “Rollin'” that managed to grab the attention of Korean viewers, with a little help from the YouTube algorithm and former Korean military members that had seen the girls perform at military concerts. The compilation video received nearly one million views in two days, which kicked off a trend of the song moving up the Korean music charts. On February 27th, 2021, Brave Girls received their first #1 song ranking with “Rollin'”, on the Bugs real-time hourly music chart. The song also began to trend on other charts as well.
As “Rollin'” climbed higher on Korean charts, eventually reaching no. 1 on almost all major real-time and daily music service charts, Brave Girls began receiving love calls from music shows, radio shows, reporters and variety shows. Brave Girls officially began Rollin’ promotions again on March 11th, 2021 with a return stage on Mnet MCountdown.
On March 12th, 2021, Brave Girls received their first ever “Perfect All-Kill” for “Rollin'”, where a song is #1 on all Korean realtime/hourly and daily charts counted by the charting system iChart, as well as #1 on iChart’s realtime and weekly charts. They were the first idol group to accomplish this for the year 2021.
Brave Girls received their first ever Korean music show win on March 14th, 2021 with “Rollin'” on the music show, SBS Inkigayo. From that day to May 9th, they received a total seven music show wins for their restarted promotions with “Rollin'”.
They continued to break records, when on March 20th, 2021 they became the girl group with the most “Perfect All-Kills” for a single song, surpassing the previous record of 130 hours atop all Korean music charts, as certified by Instiz iChart.
On May 5th, 2021, Brave Girls (with their second lineup) received their first Korean awards show win, receiving the Popular Singer award at the The 9th Annual Korean Arts and Culture Awards.
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Part Six – Brave Girls’ New Lease on Life (June 2021 – End of 2021)
In April of 2021, Brave Girls CEO and producer, Brave Brothers, announced on an appearance of the Korean television show, I Live Alone, that he was working on a new album for the group, including a main promoted title. A follow-up song was briefly teased during the show.
Brave Girls did indeed come back with a new album released on June 17th, 2021, titled Summer Queen, and featured the main promoted song of “Chi Mat Ba Ram”. Both “Chi Mat Ba Ram” and “Pool Party” were promoted on music shows and the former received three music show wins.
Upon release, the song and mini-album received decent attention, with the mini-album peaking at number three on the Gaon Digital Chart, and “Chi Mat Ba Ram” peaked at number three on Gaon’s Digital, Download, and Streaming charts in it’s second week after release.
On August 23rd, 2021, Brave Girls released a repackaged version of Summer Queen, titled After ‘We Ride’, that included a new song also titled “After ‘We Ride'” as well as the original songs from Summer Queen along with alternate and remixed versions of the songs. While “After ‘We Ride'” had a music video, it was an un-promoted single and Brave Girls did not attend any music shows or do any promotions for the song.
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Part Seven – They Were Always Meant to Be Queens (January 2022 – )
On January 14th, 2022, it was announced that eldest member Minyoung would be taking a hiatus for health reasons. However, the hiatus would not last long as on February 21st, 2022, it was announced by Korean television channel, Mnet, that Brave Girls would compete in the second season of their musical competition show, Queendom 2, set to air its debut episode on March 31st, 2022..
Not long after, on March 3rd, Brave Entertainment announced that Brave Girls would be making a comeback with their sixth mini-album on March 14th, 2022, titled: Thank You along with a main title song of the same name. Due to three of the four members of the group contracting Covid-19 before release, promotions for the album and song were delayed.
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Part ? – Final Members Leave Brave Entertainment (February 2023)
Yes, there are parts of their timeline before this missing, but this had to be added.
On their seventh anniversary, February 17th, 2023, it was announced the Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji and Yuna would not be renewing their contracts with Brave Entertainment, effectively ending all Brave Girls promotions. Though in social media posts they said they are not disbanding and would welcome being able to do activities in the future as four together, at this time they are going their separate ways and Brave Girls is now considered inactive. They released a song titled, ‘Goodbye’ to commemorate the end of their time together.
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Awards & Music Show Wins
Awards
| Year | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 19th Korea Culture Entertainment Awards (Note: The first Brave Girls lineup) | Rookie of the Year |
| 2021 05.20 | The 9th Annual Korean Arts and Culture Awards | Popular Singer |
| 2021 09.07 | 2021 Brand of the Year Awards | Female Idol of the Year Hot Icon of the Year |
| 2021 09.10 | 48th Annual Korean Broadcasting Awards | Best Female Singer |
| 2021 10.02 | The Fact Music Awards | Artist of the Year |
| 2021 11.12 | Forbes Korea K-Pop Awards | Best Female Who Shone in 2021 – Female |
| 2021 12.02 | Asia Artist Awards | Hot Trend Award Best Artist Award |
| 2021 12.04 | Melon Music Awards | Hot Trend Award |
| 2021 12.11 | Mnet Asian Music Awards | KTO Breakout Artist Award |
| 2021 12.19 | Asia Model Awards | Popularity Award |
| 2022 01.08 | Golden Disc Awards | Best Group |
| 2022 01.23 | Seoul Music Awards | Main Award (Bonsang) |
| 2022 01.27 | Gaon Chart Music Awards | Song of the Year – June (“Chi Mat Ba Ram”) |
Music Shows
| Date | Show | Song |
|---|---|---|
| March 14th, 2021 (21.03.14) | SBS Inkigayo | Rollin’ |
| March 16th, 2021 (21.03.16) | SBS MTV The Show | Rollin’ |
| March 17th, 2021 (21.03.17) | MBC Music Show Champion | Rollin’ |
| March 18th, 2021 (21.03.18) | Mnet MCountdown | Rollin’ |
| March 19th, 2021 (21.03.19) | KBS Music Bank | Rollin’ |
| March 21st, 2021 (21.03.21) | SBS Inkigayo | Rollin’ |
| May 9th, 2021 (21.05.21) | SBS Inkigayo | Rollin’ |
| June 22nd, 2021 (21.06.22) | SBS MTV The Show | Chi Mat Ba Ram |
| July 3rd, 2021 (21.07.03) | MBC Show! Music Core | Chi Mat Ba Ram |
| July 4th, 2021 (21.07.04) | SBS Inkigayo | Chi Mat Ba Ram |
