Before School-S

Before School - S official logo.

Iseul Lewis

Jeon

Yejun

**Before School – S**, often referred to as **BS-Simlish**, is a boy band formed in 2014 by K-Sims Entertainment. The band is the first international boy group to have members from both Appaloosa Plains and Shang Simla.

Before School – S is the third and most successful subgroup branched off from the band Before School. The group originally consisted of leader Jiwoo Hua, Jeon, TYoung, Yejun, SI-U, and two additional members appearing exclusively to the subgroup, Iseul Lewis and Adrian Bae. In May 2015, Jiwoo Hua filed a lawsuit against K-Sims Entertainment and left the group, resulting in the group's temporary disbandment. Jiwoo Hua was later replaced by Before School members Seon and Min-su Cheon, which coincided with the release of the group's second EP Destiny in July 2016. After Jiwoo Hua's leave, the group considers Min-su Cheon as the new "leader", as he is the oldest member of the team. However, K-Sims Entertainment has not released any statements about electing a new group leader.

On November 11, 2018, BS Label released a statement announcing Adrian Bae's departure from the group, leaving Iseul Lewis as the only member from Shang Simla.

## History

### **Name origin**

Before the official name of the subgroup was released, they were known by "Before School Simla". On February 22, 2014, K-Sims Entertainment announced their official name to be Before School – S, with "S" representing "Simla" & "Simlish", Simla being Shang Simla where the Chinese members of the group come from, and Simlish being the main language they will sing when promoting in that group.

### **2013: Formation and boycotting**

In June 2013, K-Sims Entertainment announced that a new Before School subgroup would debut in China in 2014. Before School's original member Jiwoo Hua, and a new member Adrian Bae, who performed the violin solo of Before School's "Don't Don"; along with his brother who played the guitar, were announced to be the first two of seven members representing the subgroup. Some of Before School's official fanclub, After School, signed online petitions and held protests to express their dissatisfaction and opposition of adding a young member to the group that hadn't had any proper training, fearing that a new member would lower the groups overall quality and would mess up when performing ruing the performance for everyone. Many fans boycotted Before School's products and held silent protests in front of K-Sims Entertainment's main building in Appaloosa Plains.

Over one thousand fans appeared in front of the K-Sims Entertainment building on After School's third protest on October 17, 2013. Instead of a silent protest, the fans sang various Before School songs and shouted "trained members only". Fans of the group Before School and of the group trainee group Butterfly Effect started to pool their money together and took every chance they had to buy K-SIms stocks. They released a statement through the media, stating that they would obtain all chances to prevent K-Sims Entertainment from debuting any one that wasn't properly trained to be an idol. Fans of Before School and then trainee group Butterfly Effect agreed that if someone hadn't trained for at least a year at K-Sims Entertainment before debuting in any form they would boycott.

They had cited K-Sims Entertainment's own release about how their training process works, "All trainees go through a detailed background check, a rigorous training program to find out what position they are best suited for, and take multiple classes on Languages, Acting, Variety, Vocal and Dance also called the LAVVD Program(pronounced: Lav-ed). Fans stated that if they debuted Adrian Bae in 2014 with the group then he couldn't have gone through the proper training that all of the other K-Sims trainees go through. K-Sims Entertainment released a statement saying that Adrian Bae showcased raw talent through his cover videos and that when he signed his trainee contract he also did a crash course in the LAVVD program and passed all the classes so they deemed it unnecessary for him to have to retake the program at a normal rate.

### **2014–2015: Debut and mild success**

From March 3 to March 6, 2014 the seven members of Before School – S were individually announced to the Chinese media in a chain of short trailer clips. The first member, Jiwoo Hua, was announced to be the subgroup leader on March 3. On March 4, TYoung and Jeon were revealed to be the second and third members. On March 5, SI-U was announced to be the fourth Before School – S member, following the new member, Adrian Bae, as the fifth. Yejun and another new member, Iseul Lewis, were announced to be the final two members on March 6. A trailer of all seven members was released on the group's debut day, March 7.

Before School – S debuted in Shang Simla on March 8, 2014 at the 8th Annual Shang Simla Martial Arts compition. They released their debut album *爱你爱你 (Love Song)* in selected provinces of China starting March 23, 2014. A Korean version of the album with three bonus Korean-language tracks was released in Appaloosa Plains on March 30, 2014. Though a majority of the tracks in the album were and Chinese remakes of Before School's previous Korean hits, reviews were generally positive.

Following their debut performance in March 2014, the group made a few successful guest appearances in many chains of entertainment variety shows to promote their album. They appeared in an episode of the second season of ***Hero Bank*** a live action remake of the role-playing video game developed and published by Sega for the Nintendo 3DS, which made the show's ratings increase to 5.01%, ranking it the third most watched show ever in all of China. In August 2014, Jiwoo was cast in the live action remake of Fruits Basket a mini-drama dedicated to the Manga and Anime of the same name. Jiwoo portrayed Shigure Sohma, He is the Dog of the Chinese Zodiac and one of the oldest members of the Cursed Sohmas. Other members of Before School – S gave cameo appearances in a few of the episodes as various side characters.

In January 2015, Before School – S released their mini album, the EP *Super Girl*. The album garnered them a nomination for Best Vocal Group at the 21st Golden Llama Awards. The EP's title single "Super Girl" is Before School – S's most critically successful song to date, winning numerous accolades for its composition and performances.

### **2015–2016: Lawsuit, lineup changes and *Destiny***

In May 2015, Jiwoo Hua filed for contract termination from K-Sims Entertainment, claiming that the terms of his contract were unlawful, harsh, and against his rights. He also claimed that K-Sims Entertainment constantly put him dangerous situations. Before School – S immediately canceled all of their future activities and performances. They returned to Korea to begin preparing for Before School's fourth studio album. Jiwoo Hua, however, stayed in China and signed under a new management, releasing his debut solo album Let's Rock and Roll in April 2015.

In August 2015, the Appaloosa Plains Central District Court ruled in favor of Jiwoo Hua. However, K-Sims Entertainment announced that they will file an immediate appeal to reverse the decision. In September 2015, Jiwoo Hua and K-Sims Entertainment officially came to a mutual agreement regarding Jiwoo Hua's contract, closing the case.

In July 2016, Before School – S resumed their activities with two new members from the main group, Seon and Min-su Cheon, with the release of EP *Destiny*. The repackaged version of the album was released on December 29, debuted at number 2, and stayed on the chart for 10 weeks.

### **2017–2018: *GO!*, *Addiction (入迷)*, and Adrian Bae's Departure**

In April 2017, the group resumed their activities in China when they performed at Appaloosa Plains annual Spring festival along with other idols. This was followed by official from K-Sims Entertainment confirming that the group are in the planning stages of their comeback with a new album. On May 7, 2017, Before School – S released their second album, *GO!*, along with the music video for the lead single of the same name. A press conference took place in Beijing on January 7 and promoted the album in China.

Exactly one year after they released their second album 'GO!', Before School – S released their third EP album, *Addiction (入迷)* in China on April 2. The title song, Addiction (入迷), is a pop dance song that mixes in both R&B and electro sounds. The rest of members recorded a song titled "每天" *(Forever with You)* in Before School’s album Devil. Than, the group began a hiatus.

On June, 2018, Before School – S’s parent group Before School held its seventh world tour Super Show 7 in Taipei. Member Jeon mentioned that Before School – S plans to release new album some time in the future.

On November 30, 2018, Adrian Bae decided not to renew his contract with K-Sims Entertainment, and left Before School – S, leaving Iseul Lewis as the only member from Shang Simla.

## Discography

### Studio albums

* *爱你爱你 (Love Song) (2014)*

* *GO! (2017)*

### Mini albums

* *Super Girl (2015)*

* *Destiny (2016)*

* *Addiction (入迷) (2018)*