Pictured from left to right: Saerom, Jisun, Jiwon, Seoyeon, Chaeyoung, Nagyung, Hayoung and Jiheon
"Promise now, cherish it preciously. We will grow as into your idols. Hello, we are fromis_9!"
A girl group formed from an Mnet Idol survival show "Idol School", fromis_9 is an 8-member Korean Girl Group. Having made their debut on January 24, 2018 as a 9-membered group, Gyuri left on July 31, 2022 to pursue her acting career. Throughout their years, they have been through multiple company changes, being under HYBE Labelsnote for now.
After the success of Produce 101, Mnet was inspired to form another girl group from a survival show — this time, the group would last for more than just a few years. Thus, in 2017, Idol School was made. With over 41 participants in the show, it was slowly whittled down to the final 9 contestants that made it into the group we see today. Originally named just "fromis_", they changed it to add on 9 at the end.
Debuting under Off The Record Entertainment, a label co-managed by both MMO Entertainment and CJ ENM, they released three E Ps and three single albums. It's worth noting that their original contract contract lasted for five years, ending on 2022. Due to the demolishment of the label, they were promptly moved to Pledis Entertainment. All but Gyuri signed a contract extension with Pledis for a few more undisclosed amount of years.
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Members
Current Members:
- Saerom (Lee Saerom, born January 7, 1997) – Leader, lead dancer, vocalist.
- Hayoung (Song Hayoung, born September 29, 1997) – Co-Leader, main dancer, lead vocalist.
- Jiwon (Park Jiwon, born March 20, 1998) – Main vocalist, dancer.
- Jisun (Roh Jisun, born November 23, 1998) – Lead dancer, vocalist.
- Seoyeon (Lee Seoyeon, born January 22, 2000) – Main rapper, dancer, vocalist.
- Chaeyoung (Lee Chaeyoung, born May 14, 2000) – Main dancer, lead rapper, vocalist.
- Nagyung (Lee Nagyung, born June 1, 2000) – Lead dancer, vocalist.
- Jiheon (Baek Jiheon, born April 17, 2003) - Vocalist.
Past Members:
- Gyuri (Jang Gyuri, born December 27, 1997) - Vocalist.
Discography
Single Albums
- From. 9 (2018)note
- Fun Factory (2019)
- 9 Way Ticket (2021)
- Talk & Talk (2021)
Extended Plays
- To. Heart (2018)
- To. Day (2018)
- My Little Society (2020)
- Midnight Guest (2022)
- From Our Memento Box (2022)
Studio Albums
- Unlock My World (2023)
fromis_9 provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Warehouse: In the "DKDK" music video, this is one of the sets they're dancing in. By the end of the music video, there's a giant cat in the warehouse too!
- Album Intro Track: To. Heart and To. Day has a form of Spoken Word in Music to kick off the album.
- Album Closure:
- Midnight Guest ends with "0g", a city pop song about how empty one's heart is, a fitting end to a night-themed album.
- On a barely lighter note, From Our Memento Box ends with "Rewind", a deep house song about how their time with someone is up. Fitting for their last 9-membered group.
- Unlock My World caps off the album with "Eye Contact", a fun cheery song about wanting to stay close to their fans forever.
- The Ace: Hayoung is known particularly for being able to serve as both the group's main vocalist and main dancer. Talk about ace!
- Adorably Precocious Child: Being younger than most of the group, Jiheon is often babied by the rest of them and always coddled.
- Animal Motifs: Saerom's is a fox, Hayoung's is a cat, Jiwon's is a rabbit, Jisun's is a sheep, Seoyeon's is a panda, Chaeyoung's is a squirrel and, Nagyung's is a chick.
- Averted with Gyuri and Jiheon, whose representative emojis are tangerine and a jar of honey specifically.
- Be Yourself: This is the main theme of Unlock My World, the themes especially obvious in some of their teaser pictures and "In The Mirror".
- "I don't need to be perfect."
- Book Ends: The "#menow" music video starts with Saerom watching an airplane flying and ends with an airplane flying over them.
- Celebrity Resemblance: Gyuri is often said to look similar to Blackpink's Jisoo.
- Curse Cut Short: Numerous times through "Wishlist", they cut themselves off before finishing their sentence.
- "I'm not for you, so I don't give a—"
- Call-Back: They did a fun one for "Fun!" when they sang it in the "Stay This Way" bridge.
- Fun!: "Come on girls, get on the floor! Fromis get set ready show."Stay This Way: "Get on the floor and show me some more!"
- Concept Video: They got a lot of ones, but the most remarkable is "Fun!" where they did various commercial parodies in the music video.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: For their first two mini albums, they had an Spoken Word album intro which they promptly dropped for their future mini albums afterwards.
- Fun with Acronyms: "DM" stands for 'Doesn't Matter', which confused many people who are used to it standing for 'Direct Message'.
- Fairytale Motifs: This is the main lyrical motif of "Glass Shoes", which uses the story of Cinderella.
- "It’s past 12 o’clock and I have to go back."
- Foreshadowing: Just a month before Gyuri's departure from the group, there were a few ominous lines in From Our Memento Box.
- Stay This Way: "I just want to stay."Rewind: "Our time together is running out."
- Hair Flip: In some performances, the intro of "DM" choreograph has the girls doing this instead of taking off their hairtie.
- Hotter and Sexier: Starting with "Escape Room", they started a trend of having a sexy/girl crush b-side to promote alongside their title tracks.
- Incredibly Long Note: Hayoung gets one with "Rewind", Gyuri gets one with "Love Rumpumpum" and Jiwon gets one with "Fly High".
- Mood Whiplash:
- In Unlock My World, one might be still reeling from the intense climax of "Attitude" only to be hit by the midtempo title track "#menow". On the same album, one might be surprised by "Bring It On" being between two equally intense songs "Prom Night" and "What I Want".
- On From Our Memento Box, the emotional ballad "Blind Letter" is followed up by a fun, chill song "Cheese".
- Shout-Out: In "Fun!", they had an amusing line regarding Ariana Grande.
- "In my imagination I’m Ariana Grande, but someone might say “What’s wrong with her?”"
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: For the final chorus of "Stay This Way".
- Title Track: For "To Heart".
- Vocal Tag Team: Both Hayoung and Jiwon serve as the group's dual main vocalists, hitting high notes and doing the adlibs.
