Blockberry Creative invested 10 billion won on LOONA’s debut but only 2 members actually stay with them

nganha275January 14, 2023Last Updated: January 14, 2023

2 minutes read

LOONA is facing the crisis of disbandment after losing 4 more members following Chuu’s withdrawal last year.

LOONA, which introduced 12 members one after another over 542 days, from Heejin on October 2016 to Olivia Hye in March 2018, before the group’s official debut, is on the verge of disbanding. It took LOONA 684 days to debut as a full group, and the cost invested in LOONA’s debut project is known to amount to 10 billion won. Following the forced withdrawal of Chuu, 4 members Heejin, Kim Lip JinSoul and Choerry also won the contract termination lawsuit against Blockberry Creative. As a result, there are only 7 members left in the 12-member girl group LOONA.

On January 13th, the Civil Affairs Division 1 of the Seoul Northern District Court ruled that out of 9 LOONA members who filed the injunction to terminate their exclusive contracts with Blockberry Creative, 4 members won and 5 members lost.

In particular, Heejin, Kim Lip, Jin Soul, and Choerry are those who won the lawsuit, while Haseul, Yeojin, Yves, Go Won and Olivia Hye lost. The 4 winning members will end their contracts with Blockberry right away on that day. In the case of the remaining 5 members, the court judged that their contracts were not unfair enough for a forced termination because the members did change the terms of their contracts 1 or 2 years ago. Hyunjin and Vivi did not participate in the lawsuit.

Earlier in November last year, Blockberry Creative expelled Chuu from LOONA with the reason that she abused her power and made rude remarks toward staff. However, Chuu explained, “I have not been contacted or know anything about the ongoing circumstances, but what is clear is that I have never done anything to embarrass my fans”, causing their conflict to be deepened.

After Chuu was kicked out, LOONA was supposed to be reorganized as a group of 11 members right away for activities, but 9 members, excluding Hyunjin and Vivi, filed a lawsuit for the termination of their contracts. At that time, the agency refuted the lawsuit rumor, but it turned out to be true when the court ruling was reported on January 13th.

Blockberry Creative originally planned to promote LOONA’s comeback on January 3rd. The first teaser was released on the 12th of last month, following the announcement of LOONA’s comeback with 11 members. However, the agency later postponed the comeback, saying “We believe that comeback activities are meaningless without resolving the various concerns regarding the members’ situation. Therefore, the album ‘The Origin Album [0]’, which was scheduled to be released on January 3rd, 2023, has been decided to be postponed indefinitely.”

As the controversy over Chuu’s withdrawal continued to intensify ahead of LOONA’s comeback, the agency seems to have made a special move. As the agency and the members were in conflict over contract termination, it was difficult to push ahead with an 11-member comeback.

One out of 12 members already left, then 4 more are getting ready to leave. There are only 7 members, but 5 of them stay just because they lost in the contract termination lawsuit. This situation makes fans and netizens question whether LOONA will be able to continue as a group. LOONA was created with a large investment of 10 billion won to aim for the ‘miracle of a small and medium-sized agency’, however, only 2 members stay with the agency until the end.