Loona


Loona is a South Korean girl group formed by Blockberry Creative. Its twelve members were revealed in a periodic fashion, corresponding to their Korean name Idarui Sonyeo, which translates to "Girl of the Month".
Loona commenced their pre-debut project in October 2016, with each member releasing a promotional single over the next eighteen months. The group has formed three sub-units: Loona 1/3, Loona Odd Eye Circle and Loona yyxy. Their debut EP as a full ensemble, + + |, was supported by the lead single "favOriTe" and the title track "Hi High."

Name

Loona's English name is derived from the Hangul letters ㅇㄷㅇㅅㄴ, each an initial consonant in the syllabic blocks that make 이달의 소녀. When rearranged to ㄴㅇㅇㄷㅅ, it resembles LOONA in the Latin alphabet.

History

2016–2018: Pre-debut project and ''Mix Nine''

On October 2, 2016, Blockberry Creative announced through Naver that they would be debuting their first girl group through an 18-month long pre-debut project. Between October 2016 and January 2017, four members were revealed; each member released a single album typically consisting of a solo track and another track performed with other revealed members, under the group's Korean name Idarui Sonyeo In March 2017, the group's first sub-unit, Loona 1/3, was introduced, consisting of previously revealed members HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul and a new member, ViVi. Loona 1/3 released the extended play Love & Live and accompanying single of the same name on March 13, 2017, with a television promotion on SBS's Inkigayo, They released a repackaged edition of the extended play, titled Love & Evil, on April 27.
Between April 2017 and July 2017, members ViVi, Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry released their single albums, continuing the same Girl of the Month pattern. In September 2017, three members, HeeJin, HyunJin and HaSeul, auditioned for JTBC's reality show Mix Nine; HeeJin and HyunJin passed the audition stage making it onto the show, where HyunJin placed Top 18 and HeeJin placed fourth in the finale. The group's second sub-unit, Loona Odd Eye Circle, consisting of JinSoul, Kim Lip and Choerry, released the extended play Mix & Match on September 21, 2017, and began promotions on Mnet's M Countdown. The English version of their song "Loonatic" was released on October 23. On October 31 they released a repackaged edition of the extended play, titled Max & Match, which included three new songs.
Between November 2017 and January 2018, they released the solo single albums for new members Yves, Chuu, and Go Won, continuing the monthly pattern along with the digital single "The Carol 2.0" sung by Yves, Vivi, and Choerry. In March 2018, they released the solo single album for final member, Olivia Hye. On May 30, 2018, the group's third sub-unit, Loona yyxy, made their debut with the extended play Beauty & the Beat. The single "love4eva" featuring Canadian musician Grimes was released the same day with an accompanying music video.
On August 7, 2018, Loona released "favOriTe" as a digital pre-debut single. The video was to be their first as a full group and focuses on the group's choreography.

2018–present: Debut with ''+ +'', ''X X'', and ''#''

On August 15, Blockberry published the official tracklist for + + |' as their debut extended play as a full group. The extended play included "Favorite" and was released on August 20, 2018 alongside the title track, "Hi High". ' was repackaged as + + | on February 19, 2019, with six additional tracks, including a new single, "Butterfly".
On August 17, 2019, Loona made their first appearance in the United States, performing at KCON 2019 in Los Angeles. On December 13, 2019, Loona released a single called "365" as an appreciation song for their fans.
On January 7, 2020, Blockberry Creative announced that leader HaSeul would not participate in promotions of the upcoming album due to mental health concerns. She was said to be diagnosed with “intermittent anxiety symptoms” and would be taking time to focus on her health.
On February 5, 2020, Loona released their second EP titled Hash |, along with the title track "So What". Although HaSeul did not contribute to title track, her voice can still be heard on three of the songs on the album, including “365”.
On March 12, 2020, Loona took their first music show trophy with "So What" on Mnet's M Countdown.

Members

Adapted from their Naver profile:
;Extended plays

Headlining

Award ceremonyYearCategoryNominee/workResult
Asia Artist Awards2018Most Popular Artists – Top 50Loona
Asia Artist Awards2019Popularity Award Loona
Asia Artist Awards2019Focus Award Loona
BreakTudo Awards2019K-pop Female GroupLoona
Golden Disc Awards2019Rookie Artist AwardLoona
Golden Disc Awards2019Popularity AwardLoona
Genie Music Awards2018The Top ArtistLoona
Genie Music Awards2018The Female New ArtistLoona
Genie Music Awards2018Genie Music Popularity AwardLoona
Genie Music Awards2019The Top ArtistLoona
Genie Music Awards2019The Female New ArtistLoona
Genie Music Awards2019Genie Music Popularity AwardLoona
Genie Music Awards2019Global Popularity AwardLoona
Korea First Brand Awards2019Most Anticipated Female Rookie IdolLoona
Melon Music Awards2018Best New Artist Loona
Mnet Asian Music Awards2018Best New Female ArtistLoona
Mnet Asian Music Awards2018Artist of the YearLoona
MTN Ad Festival Awards2019Commercial Star RookieLoona
MTV Europe Music Awards2018Best Korean ActLoona
Seoul Music Awards2019New Artist AwardLoona
Seoul Music Awards2019Popularity AwardLoona
Seoul Music Awards2019Hallyu Special AwardLoona
Soribada Best K-Music Awards2019Performance AwardLoona