MAMAMOO

Built on infectious, bubblegum hooks and fun, flirty confidence, Mamamoo brought retro R&B grooves and glossy 1990s girl group glamour to the K-pop scene when they first appeared in 2014, and steadily became big stars across Asia with hits such as “Egotistic”, “Starry Night” and “Decalcomanie”. Formed by the entertainment company RBW (Rainbow Bridge World), Solar (vocals, leader), Moonbyul (main rapper), Wheein (vocals, lead dancer) and Hwasa (vocals, rapper) all went through extensive auditions and training before making early guest appearances on tracks by Bumkey and K.Will, and releasing their debut single “Mr Ambiguous”. Nicknaming their fans as "MooMoos", they worked with producer Kim Dohoon on the top ten hits “Um Oh Ah Yeh”, “I Miss You” and “Taller Than You”, before landing their first number one single in Korea with the sassy, quirky pop gem “You’re the Best” in 2016. They were also named Rookie of the Year at the Seoul Success Awards and New Artist of the Year at the Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards, and their first full album Melting was a collision of classic doo-wop melodies, strutting trap beats, up-tempo R&B singalongs and even swinging bossa nova shuffles, all bound together by the exuberant, bubbly personality of the quartet. Popular EPs “Purple” (2017) and “Yellow Flower” (2018) continued to help cement their place in Korea’s crowded pop market, while the single “Decalcomanie” established a loyal fan base in Japan and “Egotistic” notched up over 49 million views on YouTube in eight months. Always colourful, upbeat and full of feel-good, funky, pop hooks, they returned again in 2019 with Latin electro-rap banger “Gogobebe”, and their EP White Wind made the top five of the Billboard World Albums chart in the US. Continuing to make waves in the industry, the group released another three hit EPs between 2020 and 2022: Travel, WAW and Mic On, as well as Korean (2021) and Japanese (2022) versions of greatest hits album I Say Mamamoo – The Best, which charted at number 8 on the Korean charts. In February 2023, Mamamoo performed “MMM Simile” live on Hwasa Show (television show), which charted in the Top 100.