MOMOLAND Profile: Successful With Various Hits, Disbanded After 7 Years

MOMOLAND (MLD Entertainment)

MOMOLAND became the first female K-pop group to disband in early 2023. The news of their disbandment has actually been expected by the public but the confirmation of the last six members is the end of everything.

Hyebin, Jane, Nayun, JooE, Ahin, and Nancy wrote letters in Korean and English to fans. They released a letter as a confirmation after the six decided not to continue the contract with MLD Entertainment.

After discussion, six members decided to support each other to start a new start. "Even though we are walking alone, MOMOLAND will always be our team," reads one of the contents of the MOMOLAND letter.

MOMOLAND's success and ups and downs were unable to save the group to survive. They added to the row of K-pop groups of women who disbanded before reaching 10 years.

The Finding Momoland competition event was created by MLD Entertainment in 2016 to find members who will join MOMOLAND. The winners of the event were Hyebin, Yeonwoo, Jane, Nayun, JooE, Ashin, and Nancy.

At that time they failed to undergo their last mission of collecting 3000 people and singing two songs from their debut album. But they only managed to get 2300 people so the members would train once again.

Daisy, Shin Si Ah, and Hee Jae were eliminated back to training status. They also managed to collect up to 134 percent funding on Makestar. MOMOLAND officially debuted on November 10 with Jjan! Koong! Kwang! Through the M Countdown program.

In March 2017, MLD Entertainment added two new members: Daisy who became a trainee and briefly performed on Finding Momoland and Taeha. Then they released one single album and one mini album.

January 2018, MOMOLAND released their third mini album titled Great! with the title track Bboom Bboom. This song is the turning point of their career where this song occupies both South Korean and international music charts.

Until this writing was released, the Bboom Bboom music video has been watched by more than 593 million. This song also led MOMOLAND to get Bonsang at the Seoul Music Awards.

This song is like a lucky ball that fell into our hands. To be honest, we didn't expect the song to be this successful. When we first heard of it, there were some members who cried because they didn't want to sing this song. But it turns out that we received a lot of love through this song, "Nayun's story, one of the MOMOLAND members in 2018.

After Bboom Bboom, MOMOLAND reaped similar success with the song Baam which was released in June 2018. They even became the first K-pop group to receive Platinum certification from Gaon Music Chart.

They started promoting in Japan by releasing their hits in Japanese.

In March 2019, MLD Entertainment announced Taeha and Daisy did not join the promotion of MOMOLAND's latest album, Show Me. The agency said the two were absent due to health and personal problems.

It was decided that MOMOLAND members Taeha and Daisy took a break from this album for health and personal reasons so the latest comeback will be made by seven members. Two members will return to the next album," the agency said at the time.

At that time Yeonwoo, who started acting, was announced out of the group with Taeha. The agency said they were discussing with Daisy for her future with the group when MOMOLAND was preparing a single album titled Thumbs Up.

Two months later, Daisy made a claim that the Finding Momoland competition event was manipulated. Even though she was eliminated at the event, she was then contacted to join the group. May 2020, Daisy was declared out of the group.

MOMOLAND signed a contract with ICM Partners in June 2020 to expand into the American market. They also released a single album Ready or Not with the main track of the same name written by PSY.

Then they also collaborated with CHROMANCE to sing the song Wrap Me in Plastic. One of the members, Ahin, had a duet with DJ Soda for the song Okay! with Lost Chameleon.

On January 14, 2022, MOMOLAND released the Yummy Yummy Love in collaboration with Natti Natasha. In the same year, they became the first Korean group to be invited to the 2022 Juventud Awards in Latin America.

One year later, MLD Entertainment announced that all members would not continue their contracts with the agency. However, the agency did not explain whether the group had disbanded until members declared MOMOLAND disbanded on February 14, 2023.