Pre–debut In March 2010,
Starship Entertainment announced that their new 4-member female group, "Sistar," was scheduled to debut in April. Starship described Sistar as a girl group with both talent and style, creating a new cultural code with unique music, choreography, and fashion. Starship added that they are also a versatile group that can digest a variety of genres, from ballads to hip-hop, and will emerge as a style icon for those in their teens and twenties. Even before their debut, Sistar attracted much attention and topic among music industry experts with their outstanding vocals. Many groups devise a mystical strategy for disclosing the identities of members before their debut, but Sistar were first introduced through a fashion photoshoot in collaboration with casual brand
FUBU, where only top stars appeared, which is unusual for a rookie group. Later that month, Starship announced that the recording process for the debut single album of the group had already been completed. Media outlet Sports Chosun mentioned that Sistar is a 'Super New Girl Group' that attracted much attention toward their debut. Over the past two years of training, they have gained a reputation for training their vocal and dancing skills under the likes of Jo Young-soo,
Shinsadong Tiger, and
E-Tribe. Music industry professionals shared high expectations for the group, calling them Korea's "
Destiny's Child."
2010–2012: Debut, finding success with So Cool, Alone and Loving U Festival in 2010 Sistar began their group activities early in 2010 with commercials and magazine photoshoots. They made their official debut with the song "Push Push" on 3 June 2010,'' The group returned on 25 August with their second single, "Shady Girl", the music video featured
Kim Hee-chul of
Super Junior. The group received much media attention when a fan-taken video was uploaded online showing the group filming their performance at "Let's Start Sharing Concert" on 28 August. During the middle of their performance, member Bora suddenly fell onstage, fracturing her thumb. This prompted the other members to stop singing and assist her off the stage with the help of staff. Several minutes later, Bora returned to stage along with the other members to finish filming their performance. The video went viral on the internet and was featured on G4's online show
Attack of the Show!, and an
RTL Television news segment. On 14 September, Sistar was invited to perform at Japan's "Hallyu Music Festival" as the only Korean girl group present. On 10 October, Sistar performed on the show
Teen Superstar in Thailand. The group released their third single, "How Dare You," in November. On 9 December, the group attended the
Golden Disc Awards and won the "Newcomer Award." On 27 December, Sistar won their first music show award for "How Dare You" on
Music Bank. in 2011 On 27 April 2011, it was announced that Sistar would debut a
sub-unit,
Sistar19, with members Hyolyn and Bora. Sistar19 had their debut performance on 5 May and promoted throughout the month.< Sistar returned on 9 August with their first studio album entitled
So Cool. On 11 September, Sistar won their first "Mutizen Award" on Inkigayo''. In early April, it was announced that Sistar was going to broadcast their "So Cool" comeback showcase globally in 41 countries. Their first
mini album, entitled
Alone, was released on 12 April and contained seven songs, with the title track produced by
Brave Brothers. Their second mini album,
Loving U, was released on 28 June. The EP contained the title track, "Loving U", produced by
Duble Sidekick, one new song "Holiday" and remixes of the groups' past hits.
2013–2015: Give It to Me, summer hits and solo/duo activities Festival in 2013 Sistar19 released their first mini album,
Gone Not Around Any Longer, and its title track of the same name on 31 January 2013. Their recording label, Starship Entertainment, announced on 16 May 2013, that Sistar will return mid-June, with another confirmation on 2 June, stating that they will be making their comeback with a second full album. On 3 June 2013, teaser photos featuring members Dasom and Bora were released. The following day, Sistar released photo teasers of all the members for
Give It to Me and revealed that they will have a
Moulin Rouge theme. A video teaser for "Give It to Me" was released on 6 June. Sistar's second studio album,
Give It to Me, was released on 11 June with the title track of the same name. On 26 October, Sistar represented South Korea at
ABU TV Song Festival 2013 in
Hanoi, Vietnam, performing "Give It to Me". Three more singles off the album: "The Way You Make Me Melt", "Crying" and "Bad Boy", as well as two promotional singles, were also released to promote the album. On 26 November, Hyolyn released her debut studio album
Love & Hate, which reached number five on Gaon. On 5 June 2014, Sistar's label, Starship Entertainment, told Newsen that the group was working on a new album and would come back in the beginning of July. On 21 July, Sistar released their third mini album,
Touch N Move along with its title track "Touch My Body". EP was commercially very successful, peaking at numbers two and eight on Gaon and Billboard's US World Albums charts, respectively. Another single "Naughty Hands" was released in late July. On 26 August, Sistar released their fourth mini album and second summer special album titled
Sweet & Sour, shortly after the promotions of "Touch My Body". EP contained two new songs "I Swear" and "Hold on Tight" and four remixes for singles "Loving U", "Gone Not Around Any Longer", "Give It to Me" and "Touch My Body". In December, Sistar won the Best Female Group Award at the
2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards. , 14 August 2015. Left to right: Soyou, Bora, Hyolyn and Dasom On 22 June 2015, Sistar released its fifth mini-album,
Shake It, along with its title track of the same name. It debuted at number three on Gaon, and two new singles, "Shake It" and "Don't Be Such a Baby" were released in late June. In August, Hyolyn was confirmed to join the second season of
Unpretty Rapstar. On 1 August, Sistar performed in
Los Angeles, California at
2015 KCON. On 14 August, they performed at The 70th Independence Day of the
Republic of Korea, their home country. On 7 September, Hyolyn released a free single, "The Wall Destroyer" featuring one of Eluphant's member, Keebee. On 22 September, Soyou collaborated with singer Kwon Jeong Yeol of
10cm. Their single is titled "Lean on Me."
2016–2017: Insane Love, "Lonely" and disbandment On 21 June 2016, Sistar released their fourth extended play,
Insane Love, and its lead single "I Like That". The single debuted at number 1 on the
Gaon Digital Chart, continuing the group's string of summertime hit songs. "I Like That" also topped several K-pop music video charts in China, including
QQ Music,
iQIYI, and
YinYueTai. For the song, Sistar was awarded Singer of the Year for June in the Digital Music Category at the 2016
Gaon Chart Music Awards. On 22 May 2017,
Starship Entertainment announced that Sistar would disband following promotions for their final single, "
Lonely", to be released on 31 May. All the members wrote personal letters of farewell to their fans, confirming their disbandment. The group performed their most successful summer hits—"Touch My Body", "Shake It", "Loving U", and "I Swear"—along with "Lonely" on four major music shows before their final performance on
Inkigayo on 4 June. "Lonely" debuted at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart released on 8 June.
2022: Reunion performance On 22 July 2022, the members of Sistar reunited to perform several of their hit songs on the final episode of ''
You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook'' as a way to show support for Hyolyn's then-recent comeback. ==Other ventures==