AriaX

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Template:Group Template**AriaX** is a South Korean duo under EXP Entertainment, consisting of Ianthe and Yuri. They debuted on April 6, 2022 with the mini album THE ARIA.

## History

### Predebut-2018: Childhood friendship, signing with YBK Entertainment

Ianthe and Yuri have been friends since childhood. Both girls wanted to become idols. In 2015, YBK conducted auditions in all the major cities in Korea, including Busan, where both girls are from. As they said in one interview, they were the only ones from 30 people who passed the audition (the company was small, so not everyone wanted to actually become a trainee under YBK). In 2018, both girls were meant to debut as soloists, but they refused and offered the CEO to become a duo instead. Six months later, in August, they debuted as a duo with **Last Evening**.

### 2018: Release of *Last Evening*, *FELICITY*, and *Imagination*; First controversy

AriaX's debut with Last Evening was met with positive reviews and the duo gained a decent fanbase considering the size of their company. Last Evening promoted on music shows but did not win any. Their first mini album, FELICITY, was met with even more positive reactions and sold about 5,500 copies.

During promotions of FELICITY, it was noticed by Korean netizens that neither of the girls had bowed towards some senior groups while on a music show, supposedly because they were mad they didn't make it to the top three. The situation became widespread among Korean social media and eventually made its way into international K-pop communities. Even though there was proof that the girls did in fact bow towards one of the senior groups, not only was it buried beneath people angry about the situation, it was also shown that the girls *didn't* bow to the other two senior groups on the show. The girls quickly responded to the controversy through their Twitter, saying that they did bow to one group but didn't to the others since they were so starstruck and it was their first time being nominated for a music show win, so they got caught up in their nerves. However, YBK Entertainment kept quiet about the drama, leaving the girls to fend for themselves.

The release of Imagination was met with mixed reviews, even though their controversy was months old and cleared up by the girls themselves by the time Imagination was announced. Dedicated XMelodys were still very supportive throughout this comeback, however antis had begun a campaign to vigorously try to get AriaX to not return to a music show. These efforts were futile, though, and the girls still promoted on music shows.

### 2019: Release of *Mystery Woman*, *YOUR FANTASY*, *TROUBLEMAKERS*, and *MELLIFLUOUS*; Second controversy

By the release of Mystery Woman, their previous controversy had faded out, the only people bringing it up being hardcore antis. Mystery Woman was met with good reviews, but nothing to write home about. In the summer, their second mini album YOUR FANTASY was released, and was met with far more praise than usual from XMelodys, casual listeners, and non-AriaX fans. It was noted for being far more cohesive than FELICITY and with a much richer soundscape than any of their other releases.

However, during promotions, an anonymous Twitter account was opened and began posting that Ianthe and Yuri were school bullies and that the girls had harassed the anonymous account's best friend at the time and other students with verbal and physical assaults. The account later posted proof of complaints to the school of Ianthe and Yuri's alleged behavior, as well as two other students' verbal accounts of the bullying. The controversy spread like wildfire, and promotions for YOUR FANTASY were put on hold for a few days. Yet again, the girls were the ones to respond to the accusations and not YBK. Yuri herself proved that the supposed proof was entirely faked and the two student accounts were the same person, just with the pitch of their voice edited to be higher and lower. Eventually the account itself admitted to being fake, but made a remark about AriaX being as fake as they seem, pointing out their previous music show drama. During this whole debacle, YBK Entertainment released one statement that they were looking into the situation, but it was revealed by Ianthe that they only said that for damage control and did not help whatsoever. The girls returned to promotions a week later, but it was noticed by fans that they seemed much less cheery and happy during the rest of promotions.

A few months after YOUR FANTASY's release, TROUBLEMAKERS was released. The title track by the same name was about the bullying scandal they had went through, as well as the music show scandal as well. Although the girls were criticized for writing a song about the perpetrator, giving them more attention, the album was otherwise praised once again for its cohesiveness and rich soundscape.

In the winter, their first studio album, "MELLIFLUOUS", was released. This album was notable for the intro, interlude, and outro tracks being fully acapella, showing off the girls' voices and vocal talents. The title track, also called MELLIFLUOUS, also had a focus on their vocals, showing Ianthe's range and Yuri's rhythm and flow. An Ianthe fancam went somewhat viral due to her high note, which drew some more attention to the girls.

### 2020: Release of Posture and NO NO NO; Third controversy and beginning of their departure from YBK Entertainment

AriaX returned in the spring of 2020 with their single Posture. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of Posture's release, the girls had a limited promotion schedule, but tried to interact with XMelodys as often as they could. They held VLives nearly every day of the promotion period, almost mimicking music shows where they'd perform the title track Posture in their apartment living room at the beginning of the livestream and chat with fans for the rest.

The time between Posture and NO NO NO allowed for the girls to take a bit of a rest and reflect on their career thus far. The constant controversies and YBK's neglect to deal with the situations were starting to pile up. They decided they would do one more release for the year, and if they got into another controversy, they would terminate their contracts with YBK Entertainment.

They came back with NO NO NO, which was more of a vent piece about what they had gone through the past two years. The album was entirely self-written and the girls had a lot of control in the production and creative direction of the album. The intro track, "NOTHING/IMPORTANT", was a monologue written and spoken by both girls that was in Korean and English. The title track, "NO REMORSE", was brash and dark, with the lyrics criticizing YBK's treatment of them and their scandals. Another track from the album that was notable was the song "NO SHAME" which was one of the outlying tracks, being a little more upbeat than the rest of the tracks. It was also notable for portraying the romantic and intimate relationship between two girls in the lyrics as well as in the choreography. NO SHAME received some backlash when it was released, but the reaction got more prevalent when the performance video for it was released. The song and choreography was hit with immense backlash from Korean netizens and the general public, but continued to be praised for the same topics by their western audience. Because of this, a rumor began spreading that Ianthe and Yuri were dating, which only continued the online harassment from K-netz. Behind the curtain, YBK pressured the girls to come out with a statement on the song, fabricating the story that, although the song is meant to be a little ambiguous, it is about a man and a woman and the dance is supposed to reflect that, but "you can only do so much when two girls are performing it". Ianthe and Yuri refused, since they didn't want to lie about the meaning of their songs and especially about one that means a lot to a good portion of their fans. YBK released the statement anyway, as well as disputed the dating rumor claim.

YBK Entertainment going behind the girls' backs to deliver a statement they didn't agree with was the straw that broke the camel's back. The moment promotions for NO NO NO ended, they began working on the process of terminating their contracts. YBK was stubborn during the whole process, causing it to take far more time than it should've, but eventually their contracts were finally terminated.

### 2021: Official departure from YBK Entertainment, hiatus, beginning of rebrand

In March 2021, YBK Entertainment announced that AriaX would be parting ways with the company due to "contractual issues and personal reasons". The girls opened an Instagram account shortly after they left the company, answering any questions they could about their time under YBK. They also said they would be taking a break from the music industry to rest and relax.

### 2022: Signing under and redebut under EXP Entertainment

In January 2022, AriaX signed with EXP Entertainment to make their redebut. They redebuted April 6, 2022 with the mini album THE ARIA. Ianthe had changed her stage name from her personal name, Chae-won, to what is currently is now. The girls had full control and creative direction with their releases from here on out.

In August, they had their first comeback under EXP Entertainment with THE X.

In late November, alongside the concept photos for Holiday {EXP}erience being released, they revealed that they were dating, and had been dating since their departure from YBK.

## Members

* **Ianthe**- leader, main vocalist, dancer
* **Yuri**- main rapper, main dancer, and maknae

## Etymology name meaning

### Fandom Name - XMelody

An aria is nothing without a melody. Same with AriaX and XMelody: AriaX is nothing without support from XMelodys.

## Discography

### Under EXP Entertainment

#### Mini Albums

* THE ARIA (2022)
	+ YOU KNOW BETTER (Title Track)
* THE X (2022)
	+ TURN ON (Title Track)

### Under YBK Entertainment

#### Singles

* **Last Evening** (2018) (Digital)
* **Imagination** (2018) (Digital)
* **Mystery Woman** (2019)
* **Posture** (2020)

#### Mini-albums

* **FELICITY** (2018)
* **YOUR FANTASY** (2019)
* **TROUBLEMAKERS** (2019)
* **NO NO NO** (2020)

## Trivia

* Ianthe and Yuri are dating.
	+ They are both bisexual.

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