NU’EST
NU’EST
from left to right: Aron, Ren, JR, Baekho, Minhyun
Also known as
Pledis Boys
Origin
Seoul, South Korea
Genre(s)
K-pop, Electropop
Years active
2012-2022
Label(s)
Pledis Entertainment
Members
Aron
Baekho
JR
Minhyun
Ren
Associated acts
NU’EST M
NU’EST W
Wanna One
Website
nuest.co.kr
NU’EST (Hangul: 뉴이스트; acronym for New Establish Style Tempo, formerly known as Pledis Boys and After School Boys) was a South Korean boy group formed by Pledis Entertainment in 2012. The group consisted of five members: JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun and Ren.
History
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Pre-debut
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Prior to debut, NU’EST made numerous appearances in their labelmates’ music releases. NU’EST were backup dancers for After School Blue’s Wonder Boy, and appeared in their label’s Christmas release Love Letter, along with releasing their own music video for the song.
JR also appeared in Orange Caramel’s Bangkok City music video and was also featured in Uee’s solo song Sok Sok Sok. Baekho appeared in After School’s Play Ur Love music video, and Minhyun starred in Orange Caramel’s Shanghai Romance music video.
JR, Minhyun, Aron and Ren were featured, along with After School’s Lizzy, in a commercial for New Balance. JR and Baekho appeared on KBS‘s “Hello” and were revealed by After School Kahi as two of the members of the group. This drew attention from the viewers, so they became a topic of interest on the internet
2012–2014: Re:BIRTH and Japanese debut
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NU’EST made their debut with their first single Face on March 15, with their debut stage on M! Countdown that same day. NU’EST began airing their first reality show, Making of a Star: NU’EST Landing Operation, during their promotional period.
NU’EST returned with their first mini album, Action, on July 11 and became ambassadors for Korea’s Scout Association. During their promotional period and the rest of the year, NU’EST began to expand to the global market, having events in Japan, Australia, other parts of Asia, and the United States, including KCON. During December, NU’EST began endorsements with McDonald’s.
Baekho and Ren began acting with appearances in labelmate Uee’s drama Jeon Woo-chi during January. NU’EST returned with the second mini album, Hello, on February 13. During the promotional period, NU’EST was cast for SBS MTV Diary, along with their now former label mate Hello Venus. On 8 April, Aron became a DJ for Arirang’s Music Access.
NU’EST returned on August 22 with their third mini-album Sleep Talking. NU’EST began to enter the Chinese market in November with the addition of a new member Jason, exclusively for Chinese promotions, undertaking the name NU’EST-M for the project. NU’EST-M recorded Chinese versions of Face and Sleep Talking and promoted them throughout China. During December, Minhyun began acting and was made a regular for the sitcom Reckless Family 3.
To celebrate Music Core’s 400th episode, Ren performed Girl’s Day’s Something along with BTOB’s Minhyuk, A-JAX’s Seungjin, and VIXX’s Hongbin.
NU’EST returned on July 9 with their first full album Re:BIRTH with “Good Bye Bye” as the title track. NU’EST debuted in Japan with their single Shalala Ring on 5 November.
2015–2016: Japanese promotion, Q Is and Canvas
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NU’EST released a digital single I’m Bad,on 27 February 2015, with a limited edition physical release on 15 March 2015 to celebrate their third anniversary. Baekho did not appear on the title track due to him still recovering from his vocal cord polyps surgery, but did appear on the B-side track. On 2 April, Minhyun collabrated with Korean indie artist Fromm on the single “The Aftermath.” On 19 April 2015, Aron ended his position as a DJ at Arirang’s Music Access. NU’EST released their second Japanese single Na.Na.Na on 20 May.
On 14 August 2015, Aron took up a position as a DJ on SBS PopAsia with his own show Aron’s Hangout. NU’EST released their first Japanese album on Bridge the World, on November 18 2015, after pre-releasing tracks Bridge the World, Cherry, Access To You and Eternal Rain.
NU’EST returned on February 17 2016, with their fourth mini album Q Is and the title track “Overcome”. They began promotions for the album the following day.
They released their fifth mini album Canvas and the accompanying single “Love Paint (Every Afternoon)” on 29 August 2016. After four years of promotion, the group finally received their first music show nomination on The Show. As of September 20, they have been nominated for 1st place three times in a row. On 6 October 2016, the music video for the new duet track “Daybreak” from the group’s extended play Canvas was released. The unit is made up of Minhyun and JR. They also released a choreography video for Look and said to have filmed a music video for R.L.T.L both from their Canvas album.
2017–2018: Produce 101 Season 2, Minhyun’s promotions with Wanna One and NU’EST W
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Four out of the five members (JR, Minhyun, Baekho and Ren) participated in the reality television series Produce 101 Season 2 during the first half of 2017. While they appeared on the show, NU’EST’s previous releases returned to the domestic charts. The series concluded with one of the four competing members, Minhyun, ranking 9th and becoming a member of the temporary boy group Wanna One. Due to the nature of the contract given to all the winners, Minhyun will promote as a member of Wanna One until December 2018, after which he will return to promote as a regular member of NU’EST again.
The remaining four members are scheduled to have a comeback in the second half of the year as a subgroup called NU’EST W, although no date has been announced yet. The W reportedly stands for the word ‘Wait’, to signal the waiting of Minhyun’s return to promote with the group as NU’EST. On July 25, the unit released a special digital single titled If You, topping various digital music charts upon release.
2019: Minhyun’s return, A Song For You, Happily Ever After and The Table
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After 2 years of promoting with Wanna One, Minhyun returned to Pledis after Wanna One’s final four-day concert in January 2019 to promote with NU’EST once again. The group released their first digital single, A Song For You, on March 15 to celebrate Minhyun’s return from Wanna One after they disbanded as well as seven years since NU’EST’s debut.
The group then announced that they would be making a comeback in April. Their sixth mini album, Happily Ever After, was released on April 30 with the title track Bet Bet. “Universe” was Minhyun’s solo song that was released on April 3 as a pre-release single for the album as a CD only track. Bet Bet was the song that NU’EST got their second win.
After months of not doing promotions, NU’EST made a comeback on October 21 with their seventh mini album, The Table. The song Love Me was used as its title track.
2020: The Nocturne and Drive
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NU’EST’s next comeback was The Nocturne, their eighth mini album, which was released on May 11, 2020 with its title track, I’m in Trouble. They then released their second Japanese studio album, Drive, on October 7.
2021: Aron’s hiatus, Romanticize and Minhyun’s reunion with Wanna One
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On January 2 2021, Pledis had announced that Aron will be going on temporary hiatus due to health reasons.
The group then announced that they will be making a comeback on April 19 with their second studio album, Romanticize, in which Aron did participate in its recording, jacket shooting and MV filming, though he will not participate in the promotions of this album.
Aron then had confirmed via V Live on June 29 that he will officially return to activites after his six-month hiatus of anxiety recovery.
On December 11, Minhyun reunited with Wanna One and performed at the 2021 MAMA award ceremony.
2022: Disbandment
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On February 28, it was announced that the group’s contract with Pledis Entertainment would expire on March 14. JR, Aron and Ren decided not to renew their exclusive contracts, while Baekho and Minhyun will renew with the agency. Subsequently, it was announced through the members’ handwritten letters that the group would be disbanding and going their seprate ways after releasing one final album, their best album Needle & Bubble, on March 15 before making a new start following the past 10 years as NU’EST.
Subgroups
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Discography
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Main article: NU’EST Discography
Videography
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See also: NU’EST Videography
Concert tours
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- NU’EST “The 1st Face to Face”(2012)
- NU’EST Show Time In Seoul (2013)
- NU’EST Debut 1st Anniversary Live Show Time (2013)
- NU’EST L.O.Λ.E. TOUR (2013)
- NU’EST Debut 2nd Anniversary Live Show Time 2 (2014)
- NU’EST Japan Tour One L.O.∧.E (2014)
- NU’EST Latinoamerica Tour (2014)
- NU’EST Autumn Live (2014)
- Re:Sponse Europe Tour (2014)
- NU’EST Re:Birth In Thailand (2014)
- NU’EST Live Tour Show Time 3 (2015)
- NU’EST First Solo Show In Dallas (2015)
- NU’EST Summer Vacation In Korea (2015)
- NU’EST World Tour Concert RE:VIVE (2015)
- NU’EST Japan Tour “Bridge the World” (2015)
- NU’EST “Bridge the World Live” (2015)
- NU’EST Live Tour Show Time 4 (2016)
Gallery
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To view the NU’EST gallery, click here.