“We might not be able to see them next year…”: 7 girl groups that are reaching the end of their contract  

Will these idols renew their contract, or will the jinx of the 7th year get them?  

The “7-year jinx” began to occur in 2009 when the Fair Trade Commission enacted a “standard contract for exclusive contracts under the standard terms and conditions of celebrities,” limiting the maximum expiration date of exclusive contracts to seven years and setting a path for each group’s renewal season.

Below are the girl groups that are ahead of the 2022 renewal season and groups that have already suffered from the “7-year jinx”.

1. Lovelyz

Lovelyz reported the expiration of their contract on November 16th, the seventh year since its debut. Out of eight members, all seven, except their leader Baby Soul, did not renew their contracts with Woollim Entertainment.

2. CLC

On February 3rd this year, the seventh year of their career, Elkie terminated her contract with her agency Cube Entertainment and withdrew from the group. In addition, according to Choi Yujin’s story, who participated in Mnet’s “Girls Planet 999”, CLC is actually in the process of disbanding. 

3. Brave Girls

Eun-young, Ye-jin, and Seo-ah withdrew in 2016, at the sixth year of their activities, and all five original members withdrew in 2017, the seventh year of their activities. Since then, Brave Girls has been facing a crisis of disbandment, but as “Rollin” went on the rise this year, they escaped the crisis and is actively working as a four-member group.

4. G-FRIEND

GFriend officially disbanded on May 22nd this year, the sixth year since their debut. Since then, Eunha, SinB, and Umji have re-debuted as a three-member girl group after moving to Big Planet Made Entertainment.

5. OH MY GIRL

OH MY GIRL’s contract is scheduled to expire within a year, but the contract has been extended until April 20, 2025, through an early renewal with five of the current seven members: Binnie, Seunghee, Arin, YooA and Hyojung. The other two members, Jiho and Mimi, are also expected among fans to renew their contracts without difficulty.

6. MAMAMOO

Hwasa, a member of MAMAMOO, extended her contract until June 17th, 2023, and Solar and Moonbyul until June 17th, 2024. Wheein has moved to Ravi’s agency, The Live Label. However, MAMAMOO said they will continue their activities until December 2023.

7. April

April, a group to which Lee Na-eun and Jin-sol belong, also debuted in 2015 and is reaching their contract renewal period for the seventh year.

Currently, April is said to have virtually ended its activities since February due to controversy over the bullying of former member Lee Hyun-joo and is taking legal action against Lee Hyun-joo.

8. TWICE

TWICE also marks their seventh year since their debut this year. TWICE, has been recorded as the world’s largest number of view music videos with more than 100 million YouTube views.

Jeongyeon, who had been temporarily suspended for health reasons, has re-joined the group and has continued her steady activities.

9. DIA

Girl group DIA also debuted in 2015 and has entered their seventh year. DIA members Jung Chae-yeon and Ye-bin has played the key members such as visuals and main vocal roles in project groups I.O.I and UNI.T, respectively, and Jung Chae-yeon has also debuted as an actress in drama in addition to her singing career.

In the case of Ki Hee-hyun, she has been showing good entertainment skills in entertainment programs such as “Law of the Jungle” and “Happy Together”. In the case of Eun-chae, she also played Oh Bit-na in “Shining Country” and played Jeong Si-yeon in the web drama “Do dream”, showing her acting skills.