U (Super Junior song)

Prior to "U", Super Junior was known for their member line-up, a concept very similar to Japanese girl group Morning Musume. Certain members of Super Junior's first generation were to be switched out and new members were to be added, which would form a second Super Junior generation. However, after the addition of the thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, the group ended their status as a project group and began to release productions as a group with permanent status. "U" is Kyuhyun's debut single.

"U" was made available for download on May 25, 2006, via Super Junior's official website. The second track from the single, "Endless Moment", became available for download four days later. "U" had over 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads with 12 days, crashing the server.^[1]

Composed by Norwegian composer Ken Ingwersen and British musician Kevin Simm with the arrangement of Korean musician Hwang Sung-jae, the song was promoted to be a song of "pure pop and dance" with contemporary R&B influences and harmonization.^[2] The rap lyrics of the song were written by Eunhyuk, in which the rap is divided to two solos, the first half for Eunhyuk and the second half for Kibum. Donghae also rapped in the background of Kibum's solo. The song lyrics was written by Tae Hoon, who also wrote the song lyrics for another Super Junior song, Dancing Out.

Several remixed versions of "U" were performed, but none of them were released as official singles. One remixed version of the song contains a dance bridge in the middle of the song right before the rap, and another version had the song completely mixed, creating a different pop vibe throughout the whole song.^[2]

The music video for "U" contains only scenes of the Super Junior members performing their group dance. Yoona of fellow SM Entertainment group Girls' Generation provides the only female role in the music video. The four-minute video mainly consists of the thirteen members performing their choreographed dance. Much popping, sliding, and waving were used in the performance, like many of Super Junior's other street dancing techniques. Chest movements and hip movements are heavily used and the pelvic thrust is also used in the dance, which became a famous action in future "U" parody dances. The music video on SM Town's YouTube channel, originally uploaded on September 28, 2009, was remastered in high definition and in 4K on January 5, 2022.

"U" received five first place music program awards on SBS's Inkigayo and Mnet's M Countdown. Super Junior won their first award since their debut on Inkigayo on June 25, 2006, and received two more awards on the program in the following weeks. On July 6, they received their first win on M Countdown. Before promotions for "U" ended, "Dancing Out" was released on July 23, 2006, as part of SM Town's annual summer album, grabbing two awards as soon as it was released. Commercially, "U" peaked at number one on the monthly MIAK album chart and sold 83,010 copies by 2007.^[3] The Taiwanese edition of "U" peaked at number five on the Five Music J-pop/K-pop Chart of Taiwan and charted in the top ten for six weeks.^[4] At the 2006 Mnet KM Music Festival on November 25, Super Junior won Best New Group while "U" received a nomination for Best Dance Performance.

Credits adapted from U's liner notes.^[10]

Studio

• SM Blue Ocean Studio – recording
• BJJ Studio – recording
• Root Lab – recording
• SM Yellow Tail Studio – mixing
• Sonic Korea – mastering

Personnel

• SM Entertainment – executive producer
• Lee Soo-man – producer
• Super Junior – vocals
  • Eunhyuk – Korean lyrics
• Tae Hoon – Korean lyrics
• Ken Ingwersen – composition
• Kevin Simm – composition
• Hwang Sung-jae – producer, arrangement, recording
• Hong Jun-ho – guitar
• Yoon Won-kwon – recording
• Heo Jeong-hee a.k.a. KAT – recording
• Lee Seong-ho – mixing
• Jeon Hoon – mastering

"U" is the first promotional single for Super Junior-M, the third official sub-unit of Super Junior. The song and music video were released online in China on April 8, 2008, on the day of Super Junior-M's debut. The song, including the rap, is completely performed in Mandarin, which differs from the previous Mandarin version done by Super Junior, where the rap segment is performed in Korean. Although the lyrics convey a similar meaning, the lyrics of the two Mandarin versions are different.

"U" is one of the twelve tracks featured in Super Junior-M's debut studio album, Me, which was released in April 2008 in China and South Korea, and later throughout Asia in May 2008. Super Junior-M's modified version of "U" contains heavier bass instruments, a closer musical approach to hip hop and jazz. The song also has extra music bridges, such as a violin bridge performed by Henry (reminiscent of Super Junior's Don't Don) and an added dance bridge, which makes the song almost a minute longer than the original Korean release. Super Junior member Yesung appears in the song as a stock vocal as his parts are originally from the original Korean version of "U".

The dance choreography for Super Junior-M's "U" is also completely changed from the original. The choreography contains a variety of styles, such as different elements of street dancing and jazz dance to complement the maturity in the song, which slightly differs the image from the main group. The music video features the now f(x) member and leader Victoria, with her face dominating the mirrors, and the Super Junior-M members searching for her presence.