1998–2001: Formation, commercial struggles, and mainstream breakthrough With the already established acts of
H.O.T. and
S.E.S., SM Entertainment sought to release another group to capitalize on the two formers' successes. Composed of members
Mun Eric,
Lee Min-woo,
Kim Dong-wan,
Jun Jin,
Shin Hye-Sung, and
Lee Andy, the group was named Shinhwa, the
Korean word for
myth or
legend, The group also became embroiled in controversies when the
1998 Sokcho submarine incident occurred, and "Eusha! Eusha!, which was about a fun trip at the beach, was used as a reminder of the event.
Resolver underperformed commercially, and the sextet almost disbanded. Shinhwa's found mainstream success with their next few albums. Their sophomore album,
T.O.P. (April 1999), was met with positive reviews for its title song and the group's edgier concept. The group received the Best Music Video from a New Male Pop Group award from the
Mnet Asian Music Awards. Buoyed by three singles, "Only One", "All Your Dreams", and "First Love", it sold over 423,000 copies, and Shinhwa won three awards that year: the
SBS Gayo Popularity Award, the KMTV song Bonsang Award, and the Popular Singers Award. That January, Shinhwa held their first concert, First Mythology. Shinhwa's fourth album,
Hey, Come On!, was released on June 8, 2001, debuting at No. 3 and was promoted with two singles: "Hey, Come On!" and "Wild Eyes", the latter of which spawned various dance covers due to its choreography incorporating the use of chairs. and ranked No. 11 on the 2001 year-end chart. Shinhwa was also associated with several controversies at the time, including scrutiny over the absence of member Andy and the alleged copying of Shinhwa's popular single, "Hey, Come On!" by
Taiwanese
boy band,
Energy. A few months after the release of
My Choice, Shinhwa released their fifth
studio album,
Perfect Man, on March 29, 2002. The album marked the return of member Andy.
Perfect Man debuted atop the Korean monthly chart, becoming Shinhwa's second chart-topping album. Along with the title track, the group promoted the album with the second single "I Pray 4 U". Final sales were over 355,000 copies and the album was ranked No. 14 on the year end Top 100 Albums in 2002 Chart, with over 362,00 copies sold. The album debuted and peaked at No. 3 and sold over 273,700 copies.
Wedding also marked the expiration of their contract with SM Entertainment, who offered all the members except Dongwan a second contract. They held their second concert The Everlasting Mythology from April 18 to 20, 2003, and also embarked on the Winter Story Tour, traveling to six cities:
Seoul,
Pusan,
Daejeon,
Incheon,
Daegu, and
Kwangju. They later traveled to Japan for the Shinhwa First Live in Tokyo, holding a Japanese fan meeting called Have Fun With Shinhwa On M.Net Tour
. 2004–2006: Creative control, commercial success, and first Asia Tour Shinhwa's first album with Good Entertainment,
Brand New (August 2004), debuted at No. 3 on the monthly Korean chart, peaking at No.1 in November and selling over 320,000 copies. The album saw increased creative control by the members, with Eric and Min-woo contributing to its production and Jun Jin with the choreography, leading to more
dance songs being included in the final release instead of their usual
pop music. It won several accolades for the group, including Best Artist of The Year for the first time at the
Seoul Gayo Daesang Awards. Several weeks later, on December 29, Shinhwa was awarded their second
daesang at the 2004
SBS Gayo Daejun Awards, winning two of the possible four d
aesang in that year with
Rain and
Lee Soo Young receiving the other two. In 2004, of all musical artists and groups, Shinhwa received the most awards, totaling thirteen or more, from various places: the m.net KMTV Music Video Festival, Seoul Gayo Daesang, Golden Disc Awards and
MBC,
KBS,
SBS Gayo Awards. The awards other than Best Artist of the Year included Best Male Artist, Best Dance Artist, and Overseas Choice Award. After the success of
Brand New, Shinhwa embarked on a tour, holding a Korea-China-Japan summer camp called Shinhwa Summer Story 2004. The camp was dedicated entirely for their non-Korean fans. Although, Shinhwa was mostly on hiatus throughout 2005, they released two popular singles, "How Do I Say" and "Hey Dude!" and held the Tropical Summer Story Festival concert. For a majority of 2005, Shinhwa hosted a reality show called ''Let's Coke Play Battle Shinhwa!
, a competition to find the next Shinhwa, with the winning group debuting as the short-lived boy band Battle under Good Entertainment. To end the year, Shinhwa released Winter Story 2004-2005,'' which sold over 102,300 copies. After renewing their contract with Good Entertainment for another 3 years, the group's
State of the Art was released on May 11, 2006. The album debuted atop the chart and sold over 215,600 copies domestically.
Brand New and
State Of The Art became their first consecutive No. 1 albums, with the latter becoming the third best selling album in 2006, behind
SG Wannabe's
The 3rd Masterpiece and
TVXQ's
"O"-Jung.Ban.Hap.. Following a performance at Tokyo's
Budokan Hall to celebrate the founding of Mnet Japan, their
Japanese language album
Inspiration #1 and the lead single, "This is the Sun in Our Hearts" released on June 14, 2006. The album released in Japan on August 16 peaked at No. 4 on
Oricon Chart, selling in excess of 100,000 copies each. Shinhwa later embarked on their first Asia tour, Shinhwa 2006 Tour: State of the Art, kicking off with two concerts at the
Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul and visiting Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries. They also performed at Budokan Hall in
Tokyo, and
Osaka-jo Hall on September 24 and 26, as part of the 2006 Japan Tour Inspiration#1.
2007–2012: Solo activities, 10th anniversary, and mandatory military service In 2007, members expanded their solo activities even further while Shinhwa was on hiatus, with each members starting their own company – M Rising (Min-woo), New Dream Entertainment (Andy), JF Story Entertainment (Jun Jin), H2 Entertainment (Dong-wan), and Top Class Entertainment (Eric) – to manage their solo careers. Dong-wan also released his first album entitled
Kim Dongwan is on July 5, 2007. and though he had intended to release his third album in the U.S., he released it in Korea instead. Hye-sung released his second album on August 8, 2007. Although their ninth album was set to be released in October 2007, which debuted at No. 3 and sold 24,500 copies. Shortly after the release of
Winter Story 2007, Shinhwa staged their Asia Concert with a two-day performance on the December 8 and 9 in
Saitama, Japan, followed by a concert in Shanghai. Celebrating their anniversary, Shinhwa staged a 10th anniversary concert and released their ninth studio album
Volume 9. Because the concert was the last concert before the members left for the army, all 22,000 seats available for the concert were sold out. After their 10th anniversary and the release of their 9th album, the members continued to work on their individual activities until their
mandatory military service, with Eric enlisting in October 2008 and Dong-wan in November at
Gongju,
Chungcheongnam-do Both served non-active duty, e.g. they were public service workers, after undergoing four weeks of basic training. Jun Jin enlisted on October 22, 2009, at the Nonsan military camp in
Chungcheongnam-do Province for four weeks of basic training and continued as a public service worker. On January 11, 2010, Andy enlisted for
mandatory military service and was the only member to serve 21 months of active duty. Min-woo was the last of the members to enlist in February 2010. He also served non-active duty after undergoing four weeks of basic training. Hye-sung was exempt from military service due to serious and recurring injuries in his knee sustained during a concert in 2001. On October 30, 2010, Eric was discharged from military service. Dong-wan was discharged on December 17 after serving 24 months as an administrative worker at the
Seodaemun-gu District Office. Andy was discharged from active duty on October 31, 2011, from the
Ministry of National Defense in
Yongsan-gu,
Seoul. Jun Jin was discharged on November 14, 2011, after working at the Gangnam Management Corporation, managing the culture center's fitness club and parking lot. This was followed by Min-woo on March 2, 2012, after serving as a public service officer in
Seoul Station.
2012–2017: Shinhwa Company and touring After their contract with Good Entertainment expired, Shinhwa created their own company to manage their activities as a group, with Eric and Min-woo as co-CEOs and the remaining members as shareholders. Members' individual activities continue to be manage by their respective agencies. A press conference to launch Shinhwa's comeback was held on March 5, 2012, at
CGV cinema in
Cheongdam-dong, which was
streamed live by
Mnet Media. The group released their tenth studio album
The Return on March 23, 2012. To promote the album, Shinhwa embarked on the
2012 Shinhwa Grand Tour in Seoul: The Return, which kicked off at
Olympic Gymnastics Arena on March 24 and 25, 2012, and continued with shows in Japan, China, Taiwan and Singapore. They also hosted their first exclusive variety program,
Shinhwa Broadcast, which aired on cable channel
JTBC. The producers held a public shoot and press conference to showcase the program. The following year, Shinhwa resumed their music activities as a group with the release of their 11th studio album and 15th anniversary concert in March, in addition to the 2013 Shinhwa 15th Anniversary Concert: The Legend Continues at the
Olympic Gymnastics Arena in March. On the same day information on ticketing and a teaser video were released. The 25,000 tickets were sold out within five minutes of going on sale, by over 300,000 people who tried to buy the tickets. Their eleventh album
The Classic was released on May 16, 2013, followed by an Asian concert tour,
2013 Shinhwa Grand Tour: The Classic in support of the album. Their 16th anniversary concert, Here, was held on March 22–23, 2014 at the Olympic Park Gymnastics Stadium, which sold out its 27,000 seats and crashed the website server. Due to a gambling scandal, however, Andy was absent from the shows, making a surprise appearance during the last show to apologize to the audience. In 2015, Shinhwa announced it would be appearing on
Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS)'s 800th
Inkigayo episode, including the return of Andy from his extended hiatus. This was followed by the release of their album in over two years,
We (February 2015). The
LDN Noise-produced lead-single "Sniper" rose to the top of five real-time music charts, Bugs,
genie,
Olleh Music,
Mnet, and
Cyworld, and the music video for the single reached over a million
YouTube views within two weeks of the song's release. Shinhwa also won the
Show Champion for the song "Sniper" on March 11, 2015. Their thirteenth album,
Unchanging, was released on January 1, and peaked at No. 3 on the
World Albums Chart.
2018–present: 20th anniversary and Shinhwa WDJ before their concert in 2018 In commemoration of their 20th anniversary, Shinhwa released a re-recorded darker version of their song "All Your Dreams" from the album
Only One, in addition to filming a new music video. and performed for KBS
Music Banks twentieth anniversary alongside other artists. On August 28, they released their album,
Heart, with the title track "Kiss Me Like That" and promoted on music shows for three consecutive weeks. Their 20th anniversary concert, Heart Tour in Seoul, which will take place October 6–7, sold out within 5 minutes and crashed the website's servers upon ticket release. On April 20 and 21, 2019, they held their 21st anniversary concert, Chapter 4. On August 17, 2022, Liveworks Company announced Shinhwa's first sub-unit, Shinhwa WDJ, which consisted of
Minwoo,
Dongwan and
Junjin, to debut this winter. The release schedule for the album
Come to Life was released on December 6. == Legacy ==