Rainbow (girl group)
South Korean girl group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rainbow (Korean: 레인보우) was a South Korean girl group formed in 2009 by DSP Media. The group was composed of seven members: Woori, Seungah, Jaekyung, Noeul, Yoonhye, Jisook and Hyunyoung. They debuted on November 12, 2009, with their first EP, Gossip Girl. The group went on to release two studio albums and four more extended plays before disbanding in 2016. They reunited in November 2019 for their tenth anniversary, releasing their sixth extended play.
Rainbow | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Seoul, South Korea |
| Genres | K-pop |
| Years active |
|
| Labels | |
| Spinoffs |
|
| Past members | |
History
2009–2010: Formation, debut and rise in prominence

During late October and early November 2009, DSP Media released daily teasers in the form of pictures of Rainbow, and then a music video for "Gossip Girl" on November 6, 2009.[1][2] On November 12, the five-song EP Gossip Girl was released.[3] On August 12, 2010, Rainbow released the single "A". A second single, "Mach", was released on October 20.
In April 2011, Rainbow released their second EP, So Girls. One song from the EP, "To Me", was released as a single. On September 7, 2011, Rainbow topped Recochoku's weekly download rankings for the Japanese release of their "A" music video. On September 14, 2011, Rainbow released their debut single in the Japanese market, "A", and reached No. 3 on Oricon's daily single chart, selling 10,141 copies.[4] The single release included a Japanese remake of their debut single "Gossip Girl", as well as an exclusive DVD. Rainbow made their Japanese TV debut on the show Sukkiri, performing "A". On December 7, 2011, the group released their second Japanese single, a Japanese version of the song "Mach" (Japanese: マッハ), and reached No. 9 on Oricon's weekly chart.[citation needed]
2012–2013: Rainbow Pixie, Over the Rainbow and Rainbow Syndrome

On January 3, 2012, DSP Media announced that a section of the group will be formed as a trio. On the same day, DSP drops a teaser image with revealing "Rainbow Pixie" as the trio's name. On January 4, 2012, another image revealed the members of the group as SeungAh, Jisook and Hyunyoung. The group released their debut song, "Hoi Hoi", on January 12, 2012,[5] and held their first performance on Show! Music Core.
Rainbow released a Japanese single on March 14, 2012, entitled "Gonna Gonna Go!" (Japanese: ガナガナGO!).[6] Their Japanese debut album, Over the Rainbow, was released on March 28.
The group released the first part of their first studio album, Rainbow Syndrome, on February 13, 2013.[7]
2014–2016: Rainbow Blaxx, Innocent, Prism and disbandment

A second subunit named Rainbow Blaxx, was formed in January 2014 consisting of Jaekyung, Woori, Seungah and Hyunyoung.[8] Their special album, RB Blaxx, was released on January 20, 2014.[9] The music video for the title track, "Cha Cha", was directed by Digipedi and was the fourth-most viewed K-pop music video globally in January 2014.[10][11] The music video, as well as the song's choreography, drew controversy for being "too sexual".[12][13]
Rainbow's third EP, Innocent, with the title track "Black Swan" were released on February 23, 2015.[14][15]
Their fourth EP Prism and the music video for its title track "Whoo" was released on February 15, 2016. They also held their commemorative showcase at the Yes24 Muv Hall in Seoul's Mapo-gu, which was broadcast through Naver's V App on the same day as the album release.[16][17] Rainbow held their first comeback stage with "Whoo" through SBS MTV's The Show on February 16.[18]
On October 27, 2016, it was confirmed that Rainbow would be disbanded on November 12 as the member contracts were set to end.[19]
2019: Tenth anniversary comeback
In November 2019, on their tenth anniversary, the group was re-formed.[20] Their self-produced single, titled "Over the Rainbow", was released on November 14.[21]
Members
Discography
Korean studio albums
| Title | Album details | Peak positions | Sales | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR [22] |
JPN [23] | |||
| Rainbow Syndrome |
|
2 | 164 |
|
|
6 | 234 | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. | ||||
Japanese studio albums
| Title | Album details | Peak positions | Sales | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPN [23] | ||||
| Over the Rainbow |
|
10 |
| |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. | ||||
Extended plays
| Title | Album details | Peak positions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| KOR [22] | |||
| Gossip Girl |
|
2 |
|
| So Girls |
|
3 | |
| RB Blaxx |
|
3 |
|
| Innocent |
|
5 |
|
| Prism |
|
8 |
|
| Over the Rainbow[31] |
|
— | N/a |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. | |||
Korean singles
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Sales[A] | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR Gaon [32] |
KOR Hot [33] |
US World [34] | ||||||
| "Gossip Girl" | 2009 | 62 | — | — | N/a | Gossip Girl | ||
| "Not Your Girl" | 2010 | 84 | — | — | ||||
| "A" | 9 | — | — |
|
So Girls | |||
| "Mach" | 19 | — | — | N/a | ||||
| "To Me" (내게로) | 2011 | 5 | — | — |
| |||
| "Sweet Dream" | 8 | — | — |
| ||||
| "Tell Me Tell Me" | 2013 | 14 | 13 | — |
|
Rainbow Syndrome | ||
| "Sunshine" | 13 | 8 | — |
| ||||
| "Black Swan" | 2015 | 43 | — | 16 |
|
Innocent | ||
| "Whoo" | 2016 | 40 | — | — |
|
Prism | ||
| "Aurora" | 2019 | — | — | — | N/a | Over the Rainbow | ||
| Rainbow Pixie / Rainbow Blaxx / Rainbow18 (sub-unit) | ||||||||
| "Hoi Hoi" (호이 호이) (as Rainbow Pixie) |
2012 | 35 | 35 | — |
|
Non-album single | ||
| "Cha Cha" (as Rainbow Blaxx) |
2014 | 20 | 26 | — |
|
RB Blaxx | ||
| "Festival" (as Rainbow18) |
2025 | — | — | — | Festival | |||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. | ||||||||
Japanese singles
Other charted songs
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR [32] | |||||||
| "Sad But Romantic" (슬퍼도 로맨틱) | 2010 | 62 | The Sparkling OST Part.1 | ||||
| "Kiss" | 115 | Gossip Girl | |||||
| "So Cool" | 2011 | 104 | So Girls | ||||
| "I Said You're The One" (너뿐이라고) | 111 | ||||||
| "I'm With You" (그대와 난) | 61 | City Hunter OST | |||||
| "A Story You Never Knew But I Know" (나만 아는 너는 절대 모를 이야기) |
2013 | 143* | Rainbow Syndrome | ||||
| "Golden Touch" | 200* | ||||||
| "*" denotes releases on domestic chart only. | |||||||
Soundtracks
| Year | Title | TV series/Film |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | "Love you, Like you" (사랑해, 좋아해) | KBS2 Secret Agent Miss Oh |
| 2011 | "Sad But Romantic" (슬퍼도 로맨틱) | MBC Sparkling |
| "I Love Zoobles" | SBS Zoobles! | |
| "The Adventures of Zoobles" | ||
| "You and I" (그대와 난) | SBS City Hunter | |
| 2012 | "Candy Girls" | TV Tokyo Zoobles! |
| "Sweet" (달콤해) | TV Tokyo Rainbow Rose | |
| Year | Title | Artist(s) | TV series/Film |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | "Galpangjilpang" | Hyunyoung, Gyuri | MBC Hooray for Love |
| 2012 | "We Shall Love" | Jisook, Min Hoon Ki | tvN I Love Italy |
Awards and nominations
| Award ceremony | Year | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyworld Digital Music Awards | 2010 | Rookie of the Month – September | "A" | Won | [44] |
| Mnet Asian Music Awards | 2010 | Best New Female Artist | Rainbow | Nominated | |
| Golden Disc Awards | 2011 | Hallyu Icon Award | Won | [45] | |
| Asia Model Awards | 2012 | New Star Award | Won |
Notes
- Korea sale is a digital sales only by Gaon Music Chart and Japan is a CD single sales by Oricon
- Korea sale is a digital sales only by Gaon Music Chart and Japan is a CD single sales by Oricon