Potential K-Pop artists will spend anywhere from a few months to several years as trainees. Living in dorms at their talent agencies, they’ll put in long hours taking daily classes in voice, dance, and language. All in hope of one day debuting as a part of a K-Pop idol group.
Need to hear something heart-warming, something to spark happiness and hope during these truly awful times? Well, look no further, because the story of Brave Girls is here for you.
For those of you not familiar with K-Pop, Brave Girls are THE topic of the moment.
Some history: K-Pop girl group Brave Girls first debuted in 2011. But after some initial success, they faced a series of setbacks.
In 2014, their producer stopped working on their first full-length album to focus on working with other, more popular K-Pop artists. This kicked off a period that would see the group go through multiple line-up changes*, endure multiple extended periods of inactivity and sporadically release singles to ever-diminishing returns.
*None of the original members are still in Brave Girls. The four current members all joined the group in 2016 as part of Brave Girls’ 7-person second line-up.
In 2017, they released their comeback single, Rollin’. It didn’t create much of an impact and it would be almost three years until their management would give them the go-ahead for their next single, We Ride, in 2020 (for reference, to stay in the public eye, most successful K-Pop groups release a new comeback single every six months).
Unfortunately, right after We Ride dropped, COVID-related restrictions on travelling and public gathering were increased, and the group couldn’t perform or promote their new single. And for a group that had been off the radar for three years, they needed to promote the fact that they were back. And when they couldn’t, We Ride quickly faded.
It was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for Brave Girls. The group’s members had moved out of their dorms at Brave Entertainment and started talking about giving up on their dream of being K-Pop idols, disbanding, and moving on with their lives.
And then something incredible happened. A mash-up video of the group performing Rollin’ at various military bases across South Korea went viral, with dozens of military servicemen commenting on the video how that song was an instrumental part of their military life. Unknown to many, it turned out that during their 2017-2020 hiatus, Brave Girls kept busy by performing for troops at over 100 (!) military shows.
This time around, the catchy song (along with the MV’s now-iconic choreography) caught on with the public, as did the back story of Brave Girls, themselves. Suddenly everyone was rallying for Brave Girls, the little-known K-Pop act who were giving their all in these military performances while their own futures seemed uncertain. As a result, Rollin’ started shooting up the charts. Like, right up the charts. And then it happened, 10 years after their debut, a four-year-old song had become Brave Girls first #1 single.
And it didn’t stop there. The group that had recently considered disbanding went on to win multiple music show awards, break the record for longest perfect all-kill streak (when a song simultaneously holds the #1 spot on all of Korea’s various K-Pop charts), and see their popularity rise to heights they never could have imagined.
And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group! I had not even heard of Brave Girls before this all went down, but I quickly became a fan watching their uplifting, feel-good story unfold over these past few weeks.
Now, I’ve only really just touched upon the highlights, so I highly recommend viewing the video below for the whole, heart-squishing story, including their acceptance speech at their first music show win and a call from one of their mother’s during a live interview (both subtitled).
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