AOA

*See also: AOA Black, AOA White, and AOA Cream*

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**AOA** (에이오에이; an acronym for **Ace of Angels**) is a South Korean girl group formed by FNC Entertainment. Originally, AOA debuted as an eight-member girlband that consisted of Choa, Jimin, Yuna, Youkyung, Hyejeong, Mina, Seolhyun, and Chanmi. AOA is currently promoting as a five-member girl group. Member Choa officially left in June 2017, while Youkyung left from the group in October 2016 following termination of her contract and would be a guest member in any future AOA Black activities. Mina left the group on 13 May 2019 following the termination of her contract due to her personal wishes of pursuing a solo career. The group officially debuted by having their debut music stage on August 9, 2012, on M Countdown.

On March 11, 2017, AOA held their first Korean solo concert "Ace of Angels" at Olympic Hall in Seoul.

## History

### 2012: *Angel's Story* and *Wanna Be*

The eight members were introduced individually through teaser photos from July 16 to 23.

AOA's debut single album *Angels' Story* was leaked on July 28, two days before the official release. The music video for the title track "Elvis" was released on July 30. AOA had their debut stage on August 9 on M Countdown and then Music Bank on August 10.

FNC confirmed that the group would be making a comeback with a second single album "Wanna Be" on October 10.

The third single was performed soley by the five-person band, AOA Black, who made their first comeback appearance on the October 10 broadcast of KM's *Music Triangle* and performed the band version of "Get Out" for the first time. The band made their second appearance on the October 12 broadcast of Music Bank.

### 2013: *Moya* and *Red Motion*

On July 11, it was announced that AOA Black would be making a comeback with their third single album with the title song "MOYA". The third single album and "MOYA" music video were released on July 26 and AOA Black had their first comeback stage on KBS Music Bank on the same day.

None of the singles up to this point had been significant successes, so AOA abandoned the band concept altogether, adopted a completely different image and approach. Beginning with the single "Confused", a new "sexy" image would become their hallmark. On October 9, the music video for "Confused" was released. The album, *Red Motion*.

### 2014: *Miniskirt*, *Short Hair* and *Like a Cat*

On January 16, AOA came back with another sexy concept and released their fifth single album (along with a music video) entitled "Miniskirt", it was produced by Brave Brothers, ElephantKingdom and Galactika. With this hit track, AOA achieved immense success. On February 9, AOA celebrated their first music show win on *Inkigayo* with "Miniskirt".

AOA released their title song, "Short Hair" in their first mini album on June 19. The album ranked No. 1 on different charts and also topped the *M Countdown* chart in July. "Short Hair" the music video for "Short Hair" ranked eighth on Billboard's "Most Viewed K-pop Videos Around the World" for June. AOA performed the Girls' Generation song "Mr.Mr." with groups BESTie and Girl's Day for the "Half-Year Special" Edition of Music Bank on June 27.

On November 11, 2014, the group released their second mini-album, *Like a Cat*. On November 19, AOA had their second win on *Show Champion* with title song "Like A Cat".

### 2015: *Heart Attack* and *Ace of Angels*

AOA released a Japanese version of *Like a Cat* on February 25, 2015; the single also came with the Japanese versions of "Elvis" and "Just the Two of Us". On February 2, FNC released the short version music video of "Like a Cat", and it ranked No. 1 on Gayp! views daily and weekly ranking. *Like a Cat* ranked #6 on Oricon Daily Chart and ranked #1 on Tower Records Shibuya on the first day of its release; it also ranked No. 3 as their peak on Oricon Daily Chart.

AOA's first reality show "Open Up! AOA" premiered on February 26 on portal site Naver. The series consisted of 10 episodes, each 10 minutes long, and aired every Thursday. All eight members, including drummer Youkyung, were on the program. AOA started filming their new variety show with MBC Music called *AOA One Fine Day* in Nanwan Monkey Island, Hainan, China on April 7, 2015. 'One Fine Day' started broadcasting on June 13, 2015.

On June 2, 2015 AOA confirmed their comeback for mid-June entitled "Heart Attack" and their comeback showcase was held on June 22, 2015 at AX-Hall Seoul.

In August 2015, the group made their first appearances in the United States performing at KCON 2015 in Los Angeles on August 2 and New York on August 8. In the same month, it was revealed that AOA would make a comeback in Japan with a full-length album, being the first full-length album for AOA to release, featuring 8 of their previous Japanese singles and 3 new songs, including the title track,"Oh Boy". This album was later released on October 14, 2015.

Seolhyun was chosen to host the 2015 KBS Entertainment Awards alongside comedian Shin Dong-yup and singer Sung Si-kyung.

### 2016: *Good Luck*, *Runway*, and Youkyung's departure

On January 1, it was announced that AOA would be having a comeback in the first half of the year, and that AOA Black would also be releasing new music.

On January 27, FNC said in interview that "Chanmi, Hyejeong and Yuna will promote as a unit group. They are planned to release a new song in February. We ask for a lot of anticipation." On the January 31. they announced that the new sub-unit was called *AOA Cream* and that they would make their debut on 12 February. On the next day they released the teasers on their official page. The title track "I'm Jelly Baby" was composed by Black Eyed Pilseung.

On March 3, Jimin made her solo debut with *Call You Bae*, featuring EXO's Xiumin.

In April 12, AOA hosted their own reality show, "OnStyle Live" – "Channel AOA". "OnStyle Live" is a series that features stars hosting their own live shows, the shows are broadcast live and then repeated the next day.

FNC Entertainment announced on the 1st of May that AOA would release their 4th mini-album *Good Luck* on the 16th of the same month.

On August 8 and 9, AOA members – including Youkyung – posted 9 tiles combination pic of their message to Elvis, name of AOA fans, on a piece of paper on their respective Instagram account to celebrate their 4th Anniversary. They also surprised their fans by releasing a making film of "Cherry Pop."

On October 15, 2016, it was announced that Youkyung had left the agency and group following the end of her contract, but would be a guest member in any future AOA Black activities. Soon afterwards Jimin posted a photo of all eight members on Instagram with the caption simply reading "AOA".

On November 29, 2016, FNC Entertainment officially announced that AOA was preparing for their first studio album comeback during the winter. Jimin later told Elvis to look forward to it since it would include a song for them.

### 2017: *Angel's Knock* and Choa's departure

AOA released their first Korean studio album titled *Angel's Knock* with their double titled tracks *Excuse Me* and *Bing Bing* on January 2, 2017 through digital and physical platforms, which came more than four years after the group's debut back in July 2012. Various teasers were revealed from December 21, 2016 to January 1, 2017 through a special web page designed for the group and various social media networks.

On June 22, Choa announced her departure from the group. FNC Entertainment later denied the statement. On June 30, they confirmed that Choa had left the group.

In November, AOA attended an event in Icheon, where they were appointed goodwill ambassadors for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

### 2018–present: *Bingle Bangle*, Mina's departure, *Queendom*, and *New Moon*

On May 28, 2018, the group returned with their fifth mini album titled *Bingle Bangle* with a title track of the same name. The album's single peaked at #4 on Gaon Digital Chart and the group received a Bonsang at the Soribada Best K-Music Awards.

In late April 2019, contract negotiations had begun in light of the members' impending contract expiration. FNC responded to reports shortly after stating that contract negotiations with the members were ongoing and discussions about resigning were going positively. Mina had ultimately decided not to renew her contract and departed from the group to pursue a solo career. In their statement, they confirmed that the group would continue as five.

In August 2019, AOA joined Mnet's reality survival show *Queendom*, which saw six female K-pop acts competing in a series of preliminary performances, and in the show's finale, each act would release a final song on the same day to compete for the top spot. The series began airing on August 29, and following the premiere, AOA had begun to receive a lot of positive reception and widespread attention for their appearances on the show. The performance for their cover of Mamamoo's "Egotistic" became a trending topic on Naver, and the digital release of their cover entered many Korean music charts. On October 25, *Queendom*'s six contestants released their final songs on Korean streaming services. AOA released "Sorry," which would be their first official release as five members.

AOA released their sixth mini album *New Moon* with the title track "Come See Me" on November 26, 2019.

## Members

* Yuna (서유나)
* Hyejeong (신혜정)
* Seolhyun (김설현)
* Chanmi (김찬미)

Former members

* Youkyung (서유경)
* Choa (박초아)
* Mina (권민아)
* Jimin (신지민)

Timeline

* **Orange**: member of AOA Black only
* **Black** (vertical): studio album
* **Blue** (vertical): extended play album

Sub-units

* AOA Black: Jimin, Yuna, Choa, Mina, Youkyung
* AOA White: Hyejeong, Seolhyun, Chanmi (non-promotional sub-unit)
* AOA Cream: Yuna, Hyejeong, Chanmi

## Discography

*Main article: AOA (Discography)*
* *Ace of Angels* (2015)
* *Runway* (2016)
* *Angel's Knock* (2017)

### Reality series

 2015
 MBCevery1
 2016

## Tours

### Headlining

* 2017 AOA 1st Concert [Ace of Angels] in Seoul (2017)

### Mini Concert

* 2015 AOA Heart Attack Tour (2015)
* AOA 1st Concert in Japan: Angels World 2015 ~Oh Boy Academy~ (2015)
* AOA Mini Live: Good Luck to Elvis (2016)
* AOA Summer Concert in Japan: Angels World 2016 (2016)

### Showcases

* AOA Like a Cat Mini Album Showcase (2014)
* AOA Heart Attack Comeback Showcase "League of AOA" (2015)
* AOA "Good Luck" Lucky Guard Showcase (2016)

## Awards and nominations

*Main article: AOA (Awards and nominations)*
AOA has received eight music and entertainment awards and ten music program awards. On February 9, 2014, they received their first number-one win on South Korean music program *Inkigayo* with the song "Miniskirt".

## Trivia

* AOA's fandom name is Elvis.
	+ Alternatively, they call themselves AOE (Ace of Elvis).