Red Velvet

*For information see them on Red Velvet Wiki*

**Red Velvet** (Korean:레드 벨벳; Japanese:レッドベルベット) is a 5 member South Korean girl group formed under SM Entertainment. The group consists of members Seulgi, Irene, Wendy, Yeri, and Joy. They debuted on Aug 1, 2014 with their debut digital single "Happiness".

The group has 1 sub-unit, Red Velvet - Irene & Seulgi, which debuted in July with their first mini album Monster.

## History

### **Pre-debut**

Seulgi was the first member to be cast as an SM Entertainment trainee through an audition in 2007, while Irene was cast in 2009, and Yeri in 2011. In 2012, Wendy and Joy were cast through the SM Global Auditions in Canada and Seoul respectively. Irene and Seulgi were introduced initially to the public through the agency's pre-debut team SM Rookies in 2013, followed by Wendy in 2014. The three members were rumored to debut as a group in July, which was then confirmed by SM Entertainment. With the addition of member Joy, the four-member group would debut as Red Velvet, SM Entertainment's first girl group in five years since f(x).

### **2014–2015: Debut, new member Yeri, Ice Cream Cake and The Red**

On August 1, 2014, Red Velvet made their official debut stage on the music program Music Bank. Their debut single, "Happiness", was digitally released on August 4. The song was penned by Yoo Young-jin and composed by Will Simms, Chad Hugo (The Neptunes), Chris Holsten, and Anne Judith Wik (Dsign Music). It was described as an urban Europop song with a strong synth sound and an African tribal beat. The original music video for "Happiness" gained more than 2 million views on YouTube in its first 24 hours of release before being removed due to controversy over problematic background images and replaced with an edited version. "Happiness" was the second-most viewed K-pop music video worldwide for the month of August.

Red Velvet released their second digital single "Be Natural" and its music video on October 13, 2014. The song, which includes a rap verse by NCT member Taeyong, is a remake of the 2000 song of the same name by S.E.S., SM Entertainment's first girl group. The music video for the song was directed by Kwon Soon-wook and Shim Jae-won, choreographed by Kyle Hanagami, and features original choreography seen in a pre-debut teaser of Irene and Seulgi, which they performed as part of SM Rookies. The group started their promotions on October 9, making their first appearance on the music program, M Countdown. The song peaked at number 33 on the Gaon Digital Chart and at number 6 on Billboard's World Digital Songs chart.

On March 11, 2015, SM Rookies member Yeri was officially announced as part of the group. On March 15, the group's first mini-album Ice Cream Cake was released. The group promoted with double lead singles "Automatic" and "Ice Cream Cake" for which the music videos were released on March 14 and 15. On March 19, the group held their album showcase on Ice Cream TV, a program streamed through Naver Music and hosted by Shinee's Minho. On March 27, they won their first music show trophy on KBS's Music Bank. The album went on to become the best selling album by a girl group in South Korea for the first half of 2015 on the Hanteo Chart. In August 2015, Red Velvet held their first U.S. performance during the annual KCON convention and music festival in Los Angeles, California.

Red Velvet's first full-length album, The Red, was released on September 9, 2015, with a total of ten tracks including the lead single "Dumb Dumb". The album was an immediate success which was received positively by critics: Billboard's Jeff Benjamin called The Red "an impressive, solid debut album", stating that it "indicates big things for the act that needs to follow in the footsteps of their beloved female label mates Girls' Generation and f(x)."The Red debuted at #1 on Billboard's World Albums Chart and South Korea's Gaon Album Chart, and also appeared in Billboard's list of the "10 Best K-Pop Albums of 2015", which described the album as "one of the year's most enjoyable and experimental pop LPs." "Dumb Dumb" peaked at number three on Billboard World Digital Songs chart, making it the best-selling K-pop song in America of the week. The single also topped the list of the "Top 20 K-pop Tracks of 2015" by Dazed, which stated that the group has "surpassed their idol competitors" and "marked a monumental, career-crowning musical tornado". The music video for "Dumb Dumb" was included as the only non-English language entry in Rolling Stone's "10 Best Music Videos of 2015". On December 18, the group took part in S.M. Entertainment's special winter project Winter Garden, alongside label-mates f(x) and BoA, releasing a digital single titled "Wish Tree".

### Korean

#### Studio albums

* The Red
* Perfect Velvet (The Perfect Velvet)

#### Mini albums

* Ice Cream Cake
* The Velvet
* Russian Roulette
* Rookie
* The Red Summer
* Summer Magic
* RBB
* 'The ReVe Festival' Finale Day 1
* 'The ReVe Festival' Finale Day 2

#### Digital singles

* "Happiness"
* "Be Natural"
* "Wish Tree"

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### Japanese

#### Mini albums

* #CookieJar
* SAPPY

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* Naughty
* Diamond
* Feel Good
* Jelly