NU’EST

NU'EST (Korean: 뉴이스트; short for New Establish Style Tempo) is a South Korean boy
band formed by Pledis Entertainment. The group debuted on March 15, 2012, with the
digital single "Face". The group consists of five members: JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun,
and Ren.

History

Pre-debut
Prior to their debut, NU'EST made appearances in their labelmates' music releases.
They were backup dancers for After School Blue's "Wonder Boy", and featured in their
label's Christmas release "Love Letter". They also released their own music video for
"Love Letter" as Pledis Boys. JR 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 also featured with After School's Lizzy in a
commercial for New Balance. JR and Baekho appeared on the KBS television program
Hello Counselor and were revealed by After School's Kahi as two members of the
group. This drew attention from viewers and they became a topic of interest online.
Minhyun and Ren also gained attention modeling for designer Park Yoon-so's F/W 2012–
13 Seoul Fashion Week show, titled 'Big Park'.

2012: Debut with Face and Action

NU'EST made their debut with their first single, "Face", on 15 March 2012. Their debut
stage was on M! Countdown on the same day.

The group began airing their own reality show, Making of a Star: NU'EST Landing
Operation, during the promotional period.

They returned with their first EP, Action, on 11 July, 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, holding events in Japan, Australia, other
parts of Asia, and the United States, including performances at KCON. During
December, NU'EST began endorsements with McDonald's.
2013–2014: Hello, Sleep Talking, Re:BIRTH and
Japanese debut
Baekho and Ren made acting appearances in the drama Jeon Woo-chi alongside label
mate Uee in January 2013. The group returned with their second EP, Hello, on 13
February. They held their first exclusive concert, Show Time NU’EST Time, on the same
day to commemorate the release. During the promotional period, they were cast for
SBS MTV Diary along with their then-label mate Hello Venus. In March, NU'EST
celebrated their first anniversary through a concert in Japan, NU′EST Debut 1st
Anniversary Live Show Time. On 8 April, Aron became a DJ for Arirang's Music Access.

On 22 August 2013, NU'EST released their third EP, Sleep Talking, with the title track of
the same name.

To celebrate Music Core's 400th episode in March 2014, Ren performed Girl's Day's
"Something" alongside BtoB's Minhyuk, A-Jax's Seungjin, and VIXX's Hongbin.

On 9 July 2014, NU'EST released their first full album, Re:BIRTH, with the lead single
"Good Bye Bye". They also debuted in Japan on 5 November, with the single "Shalala
Ring".

2015–2016: Japanese promotions, Q Is and Canvas

NU'EST released the digital single "I'm Bad" on 27 February 2015, with a limited edition
physical release on 15 March to celebrate their third anniversary. Baekho did not
participate in the title track as he was recovering from vocal cord polyps surgery, but
he did contribute to the B-side track, "A Scene Without you." On 2 April, Minhyun
collaborated with Korean indie artist Fromm on the single "The Aftermath". On 19 April,
Aron ended his position as a DJ at Arirang's Music Access. The group held their first
solo showcase in North America in Dallas, put together by My Music Taste, on 3 May.

NU'EST released their second Japanese single, "Na.Na.Na", on 20 May. On 14 August,

Aron took up a position as a DJ on SBS PopAsia with his own show Aron's Hangout.
NU'EST released their first Japanese studio album, Bridge the World, on 18 November,
after pre-releasing the tracks "Bridge the World", "Cherry", "Access to You", and
"Eternal Rain".

Their fourth EP, Q Is, was released on 17 February 2016 with the lead single
"Overcome". They began promotions for the album the following day.

NU'EST released their fifth EP Canvas and the accompanying single "Love Paint (Every
Afternoon)" on 29 August 2016. After four years of promotions, the group received their
first music show nomination on The Show. On 6 October 2016, the music video for the
duet track "Daybreak" from Canvas was released. "Daybreak" was a special unit track,
sung by Minhyun and JR.

2017–2018: Produce 101 Season 2 and NU'EST W

Four members (JR, Baekho, Minhyun, and Ren) participated in the reality television
series Produce 101 Season 2 during the first half of 2017. During their appearance on
the show, previously released albums, including Q Is and Canvas, rose on South Korean
album charts, reflecting a sudden surge in popularity of the group.

Produce 101 Season 2 concluded with Minhyun, Baekho, JR, and Ren ranking 9th, 13th,
14th, and 20th respectively. Minhyun's ranking in the final episode gave him a place as a
member of the temporary boy group Wanna One. Due to the nature of the contract
between the Wanna One members and CJ E&M, Minhyun was unable to participate in
NU'EST promotions for a period of 1.5 years in order to promote exclusively as a
member of Wanna One.

After the final episode of Produce 101 Season 2 aired, NU'EST's previous releases shot
back up on music charts and topped the Gaon Chart. Shortly after, the remaining
members of NU'EST announced that they would be promoting as a four-member special
unit, NU'EST W, until Minhyun's return following Wanna One's disbandment. Due to the
group's sudden surge in popularity, they (as NU'EST W) returned to music shows to
promote their single "Hello" (first released in 2013), and ranked number 11 on Inkigayo.

Following the conclusion of Produce 101 Season 2, JR and Ren also became models for
the cosmetics company Labiotte. Subsequently, Baekho and Aron also joined their
groupmates in promoting the brand. Ren joined the JTBC variety show Learning the
Hard Way, of which he is a fixed member. Aron featured on Raina's single "Loop".

While Minhyun's Wanna One contract officially ended on December 31, 2018, he did not
officially return to NU'EST until a month later. This was due to Pledis and Swing
Entertainment coming to an agreement that allowed Minhyun to attend scheduled year-
end shows and award ceremonies throughout January 2019 as a member of Wanna
One. Minhyun's final Wanna One activity before returning to NU'EST was a final concert
(titled Therefore) that was held across four days, ending on January 27, 2019.

2019: Happily Ever After and The Table

After reuniting, NU'EST announced their contract renewal with Pledis Entertainment.
On March 15, they released a special digital single "A Song For You" to celebrate the
seventh anniversary of their debut.

On April 3, Minhyun released a digital solo single "Universe" as the pre-release single
from the upcoming NU'EST album. The single is accompanied by the music video shot
in Budapest and Milan. The group held their first solo concert in six-years titled "Segno"
on April 12–14 to an audience of 36,000. Their sixth EP Happily Ever After was released
on April 29 with the lead single "Bet Bet". It is their first release in three years and the
last in the three-part series of "Knights searching for the Queen" narrative which began
with their fourth EP in 2016.

On October 21, the group released their seventh EP The Table with the lead single
"Love Me".

Sub-groups
NU'EST M

On 8 October 2013, Pledis Entertainment announced to launch a sub-group formed to

target the Chinese market, NU'EST M, consisting of six members: JR, Aron, Baekho,
Minhyun, Ren, and one Chinese member from Yuehua Entertainment, Jason. NU'EST M
is specially targeted to the Chinese market, and thus will only carry out promotions in
China. The group recorded Chinese versions of the lead singles "Face" and "Sleep
Talking". In 2014, Pledis Entertainment's contract with Yuehua Entertainment
dissolved, so Jason left the group and they changed their promotional name to NU’EST
China

NU'EST W

On July 17, 2017, NU'EST W was formed by Pledis Entertainment. The group consisted
of four NU'EST members, promoting in the absence of Minhyun (who at the time, was
exclusively promoting with Wanna One.) NU'EST W released a total of three EPs (W,
Here, Who You, and Wake;N,) before disbanding on December 31, 2018, with the return
of Minhyun.