Bottom left pic L-R: Chaewon, Jiwon, Eunjung, Hyomin

Did You Know that Eunjung and Hyomin were in Mnet Media and were training to debut in a dance group with Yang Jiwon (of SPICA) and FT Island’s Lee Jaejin’s older sister, Lee Chaewon?

Welcome to Diadem’s very first edition of Did You Know?  where Diadem’s staff and members will share their interesting and commonly unknown facts with the QUEEN’S community. This series is for new and old fans alike and gives us a chance to look back (in this post’s case we are looking way, way back!) and learn more about the girl group we love today.

Its well known that before T-ara debuted under Core Contents Media as the six members we know them as today, T-ara was a 5-member ballad group consisting of Eunjung, Hyomin, and Jiyeon, as well as SPICA’s Yang Jiwon and Jevice’s Lee Jiae. Not only did they have a different line-up, but they had a whole different agency as well – T-ara was originally in Mnet Media until they moved to Core Contents Media on July 9th, 2009.

T-ara’s first group images premiered via Mnet’s website in the summer of 2009

Although the last minute agency switch-up was a surprise for their few fans back then, it was not a big change for T-ara since Core Contents Media is just a subsidiary of Mnet Media and CEO Kim Kwangsoo used to be a big-name over on at Mnet.

If we take a look one step further back into 2008, we will know that before Mnet Media formed T-ara, which was planned all along to be a ballad group, Mnet Media was preparing to debut a girl group tentatively titled “Crystal“. Crystal was not a ballad group like T-ara; Crystal was going to a typical idol pop-dance group.

Crystal was a 4-member group group that included Eunjung, Hyomin, as well as Jiwon, who later went on to become a T-ara member. The fourth member was Lee Chaewon (real name Lee Jaekyung) and back in the day Lee Chaewon was the most famous girl out of the four because she is actually FT Island’s Lee Jaejin’s older sister! Even back then, Jiwon was more popular than Eunjung and Hyomin because of her participation in Battle Shinhwa and how she originally was preparing to be part of the girl group “Five Girls” with G.NA and some other popular girl group members.

Jiwon with Good Entertainment’s girl group Five Girls / Lee Chaewon with her brother, FT Island’s Lee Saejin

Additonally, Crystal went on to shoot some promotional pictures as seen in the first image, but no other information ever came out of the quartet. Eunjung, Hyomin, and Jiwon went on to become T-ara members and move to Core Contents Media, while Lee Chaewon moved to Mnet Media’s other subsidiary company, FNC Media (home of FT Island and CN Blue).

Originally, it was believed that Jiwon’s decision to not debut in T-ara was her choice, but she actually revealed last year that she was cut and removed from the T-ara line-up one month before their debut along with Jiae because they did not fit Core Contents Media’s image for T-ara after the change of direction for the group (ballad group to a dance/idol group).

Nowadays, Jiwon is seeing some success promoting as a member of B2M Media’s SPICA while Lee Chaewon left FNC Media and decided to pursue a career as a model and actress.

It’s exciting to dive into T-ara’s pre-debut history since there is so much that the members have gone through to get to the point they are now. Being in different companies or preparing to debut with other groups, winning different competitions, having a famous family, or being famous ulzzangs — T-ara all came from different backgrounds and faced different struggles before becoming part of T-ara.

Did you already know that Eunjung and Hyomin were preparing to be part of Crystal before? Leave your thoughts and reactions about Diadem’s very first edition of Did You Know? below!