None of the Brave Girls members renewed their contracts with Brave Entertainment

girl group brave girls [BRAVE ENTERTAINMENT]

All four members of girl group Brave Girls will leave Brave Entertainment after their exclusive contracts expire, the agency said Thursday.

“Four artists — Min Young, Yoo Jung, Eun Ji, and YoonA — have exclusive contracts with their agencies that expire today. [Feb. 16]. Therefore, Brave Girls will wrap up its official campaign with the digital single “Goodbye,” which was released today,” the statement read.

The agency explained that the decision to leave was made after discussions with members over a long period of time.

“We would also like to thank and applaud Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji and Yuna for their passionate work over the past seven years […] We will always support our members,” the agency said.

The statement concluded with a summary of Brave Girls’ career, describing the girl group’s “chart climb” in 2021 with their hit single “Rollin.”

In K-pop, “chart climbing” is when a song gains popularity and tops the streaming charts months or even years after its release. “Rollin'” was released in 2017 and topped the charts in early 2021.

Brave Girls originally debuted in 2011, but all of the original members left the group after seeing lukewarm success. The group’s producers, Brave Brothers, refer to the four members — Minyoung, Yoojung, Eunji and Yuna — as the second generation of Brave Girls.

The second generation also didn’t see commercial success and were about to disband and look for other work until a YouTube video about “Rollin'” went viral in early 2021. The video, which shows a compilation of YouTube comments under the Brave Girls performance, revealed that the song was popular among South Korean military personnel, as the girl group often performed at military bases to entertain troops. The viral popularity has earned the brave girl the nickname “Army President”.

Cao Yongjun [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]