Super Junior

Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어; Japanese: スーパージュニア; Chinese: 超级少年) is a South Korean boy band formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2005. The group debuted with 12 members: Leeteuk (leader), Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum and later added a 13th member named Kyuhyun. As of September 2011, eight members are currently active,[1] due to Han Geng's lawsuit (now pursuing his own singing career in the Mandarin pop entertainment industry), Heechul and Kangin's temporary leave of absence for mandatory military service, Siwon's filming for his upcoming drama Poseidon (in which shooting of the drama are located at the farthest areas of South Korea, making him to temporary halt his activities with the group)[2] and Kibum's pursuit of an acting career.[3] However, the other members have insisted that all four (Heechul, Kangin, Kibum and Han Geng) are still part of the group, despite mentioning that they are saddened by Han Geng's departure from the group.[4][5]

Super Junior has released and contributed 20 records with varying degrees of success.[6] Over the years, they have been divided into smaller subgroups, simultaneously targeting different music industries and audiences. Largely due to Super Junior's success as entertainers, other Korean entertainment managements began to train their music groups in other areas of entertainment, such as acting and hosting.[6] In addition to their commercial success, Super Junior has earned twelve music awards from the Mnet Asian Music Awards, eleven from the Golden Disk Awards, and is the second singing group to win Favorite Artist Korea at the 2008 MTV Asia Awards after jtL in 2003