The popular girl-group was officially formed in 2008 through an audition program in South Korea, but what fascinates us a lot is that the name and group ‘5 Pieces’ goes back a few years more. The members of the group are Emelia, Maria, Julia, Carolina and Hannah. All being of the same age they all met through school: born and raised in a small city in middle-Sweden, the story about 5 Pieces’ friendship can go all the way back to their time in kindergarten. Maria and Emelia went to the same kindergarten, though never being friends at that age they were in the same group throughout their first years since birth. For Maria, she grew up in the same neighbourhood as Hannah, and the two of them used to play games together with other kids on their street, but even the two of them never showed a close bond those years. It was in 3rd grade the three of them were placed in the same class, where Hannah and Emelia have said they became friends on the first day – and have been best friends ever since – while Maria had another group of friends at that time. Julia and Carolina grew up in another area of the city and though these two also didn’t bond closely at a start they could be seen hanging out from time to time. It wasn’t until 7th and 8th grade that 5 Pieces started to shape. The two different schools emerged into one for 7th grade, and it didn’t take long for the five of them to find each other among the 500 other students at the school. Emelia and Hannah were really close since 3rd grade already, but Maria soon joined them in 7th grade; by that time Maria was already listening to both K-Pop and J-Rock, and she was spending her days talking about it to her new friends. Only a while later did Carolina join the trio, and when summer break arrived the four friends grew closer spending a lot of time together. While not being the four of them all the time, Emelia and Hannah had a hobby of writing fictional stories together and it was something they had done for a while. That summer Emelia came up with the fictional story about 4 Pieces – four female pirates inspired from herself and her three friends. The inspiration for the pirate theme and the name 4 Pieces was basically from the Japanese manga and anime One Piece that the friends were reading, and the rebellious image was born with that. The pirate group became a band during the summer break as well; the interest in K-Pop had grown each day and when school began after the summer the four friends spent more time in the school’s music room than anywhere else. The idea of becoming 4 Pieces – a rock band – was thrilling for them. Just a few weeks later, Carolina came up to her friends one morning with a classmate of hers, introducing the new friend Julia, who though had just wanted to hang out a bit during the day ended up becoming the fifth member of the band. Given an instrument to learn, Julia didn’t feel all too lonely as the new four loud friends of hers explained all of them had learned the instruments over the past few months to create this band, more than welcoming her. And like that, 4 Pieces was changed into 5 Pieces, a name they used among themselves, but that soon would be heard all around the world.       2008: Audition, [Moon Child] & Antis At the start of 2008, during 5 Pieces’ 9th grade in school, the application for an audition came out. The audition was created by one of South Korea’s top record labels called SM Entertainment, and they would allow foreigners to participate in winning a music contract in hope to bring in something new to the music industry of K-Pop, and SM Entertainment was also the home of many idols for 5 Pieces: The friends decided without hesitation to make a video of their band and send it in, thinking they wouldn’t get in but at least they would show their passion for their idols’ record label that their music has reached Sweden. A few weeks later they received the acceptation for the audition – the next round would take place in Seoul, South Korea. It was a tough decision for 5 Pieces to decide whether to go or not because by next semester they would all begin high school so the time of the audition was at the same time as finals and high school applications. But with a lot of yes or no, the answer became a big YES. 5 Pieces went to Seoul and took part of the SM Live International Audition 2008, an audition that would change their lives completely. What they thought would be one performance and get home in time for finals became a few months of auditioning as this program was aired on Korean television as an Idol audition. The audition consisted of a lot of different talents, and among the talents, 5 Pieces was far from the best ones. As a band Maria took the vocals, as a young girl who only sang rock and never had taken lessons along with her friends that had been self-taught with their instruments a year before, this band did not seem to have a good start at the audition. They passed each week though, surprising a lot of people but there was something with these 15 year old friends that caught the attention of judges. 5 Pieces had done their first audition shaky and nervous, they hadn’t performed that well, but they looked to have fun. The first few weeks of audition went shaky for 5 Pieces. In one round they stood there as one of the two groups that would go pack their bags and go home. The judges then asked 5 Pieces a question they hadn’t considered before; “If you leave your instruments and become a girl-group, you can stay, if you can’t, we will send you home. Can you do become a girl-group?” A week later, 5 Pieces took on the stage as a girl-group, performing Christina Aguilera’s [Can’t Hold Us Down] that still today is one of their most outstanding performances. It was the first time all five members sang on stage and though they were far from being good singers they pulled off a charismatic and fun performance where they had the live audience get up on their feet and move their hands along to the beat. 5 Pieces were outstanding! They didn’t have the voices or the perfect looks but they had the raw talent to entertain an audience, and that is what took them to the final of the audition program. Something that impressed the viewers of the program was the constant improvement that 5 Pieces made. Within a few weeks they had gone from a rock band covered in black clothes and makeup to a vocal group that took on the stage in matching outfits and dancing routines.   After winning a contract with SM Entertainment it took less than three months for 5 Pieces’ debut single to be released: November 7, 2008, the first single [Moon Child] came out. After ending the audition with such brilliantly the expectations for 5 Pieces’ debut was big and a lot of people said their first single flopped, saying it was too rushed and that 5 Pieces couldn’t even promote themselves correctly because of the lack of language skills. Not just did the debut single fail to impress listeners as hoped, 5 Pieces had to face a lot of hate for the simple fact that they were not Koreans. They had a lot of support from other idols but those idols’ fans did not seem to like 5 Pieces at all. Fans of DBSK went to the extreme a few times by throwing things on stage when 5 Pieces was going to perform, shouting things and stopping live music programs just to not let 5 Pieces perform. This was as soon as 5 Pieces debuted; they were unable to perform a lot of times because of the audience’s response to them and while doing interviews and variety shows the girl-group seemed to make a lot of mistakes all from sounding rude to not understanding questions and conversations at all. The promotion was cut off short and it didn’t take long until people spread rumours that 5 Pieces had disbanded and was trying to end their contract with SM Entertainment to go back to Sweden. 5 Pieces’ image at that time was not good. They were seen as rude and they weren’t allowed to attend events because of their bad reputation and for being foreigners, on top of that they had a lot of antis spreading rumours about them where they even brought in another idol to say 5 Pieces had ignored this person and badmouthed the idol who was both older and a senior in the industry. The idol in the rumour commented that he had met 5 Pieces once and was never treated badly, wishing people to stop these rumours.       2009: [Once Upon A Time] The beginning of 2009 was an endless of bad rumours and antis badmouthing 5 Pieces to the extreme that even SM Entertainment came out with a statement to address the rumours. The reason 5 Pieces came off as rude was their lack of understanding the Korean language and from bad editing on TV they would seem to not care about this for the viewers. In April 2009, SM Entertainment announced 5 Pieces’ comeback – a full-length album. It was a challenge to come out with an album after the flop of their debut single, but SM Entertainment commented to media that 5 Pieces was ready to show the reason they won the audition a year earlier. The first album [Once Upon A Time] came out on April 24 after that several of teasers had been released, and the album received a lot of positive reviews and their songs started to be played on the radios. But it was still difficult for 5 Pieces to promote themselves as their image made people turn them down. They made a few appearances together when the album first came out, and it did not take long for their schedule to fill out as viewers and listeners heard the improvement in their Korean. A popular comedian said in an interview that 5 Pieces was the most misunderstood group at the moment, because they have never been rude, people are missing the sight of the apologetic 5 Pieces every time they have made mistakes. The comment about 5 Pieces changed a lot, but what matter the most was the view of 5 Pieces as they attended events and showed their politeness in person. Not just towards other idols but towards their fans. In an interview for the album, Carolina commented “our fans are the most precious to us, they believe in us, so we have to live up to that belief”. And they did: on May 17, 5 Pieces’ song [Once Upon A Time] won on a music program in South Korea. It was their first time winning a price and since the show Inkigayo is only the place where popular songs receive a price, it was a big moment of celebration for 5 Pieces where they cried as they thanked their fans. The album did a lot better than expected and turned 5 Pieces’ image around to a more positive one, though they still came off as a tough girl-group that you should keep a little distance from. Though the album came out as a success, when promotions ended the five members went back to Sweden to continue their studies. While working in Korea they had studied over the internet, but once in a while they would go back to Sweden when needed.       2010: Solo, [Original], Life of Pieces & Accident In the start of 2010, 5 Pieces came out with their very first sub-group – 5 Pieces’ Trio – that was a ballad trio consisted of Maria, Carolina and Julia. It was a side project while Hannah was making her career as an actress in Japan with the successful drama Fist of Victory and Emelia was preparing for her solo single [Strong] that came out on March 4. With some solo promotions it seemed that 5 Pieces could do surprisingly well outside the group, but what to come would be even greater.   After another trip to Sweden, 5 Pieces prepared to release their first mini-album the summer of 2010. It was a year after their album release and people still had doubts whether 5 Pieces was a promising group or not. Along with the teasers for the comeback titled [Original], MTV announced the reality show of 5 Pieces to begin airing – Life of Pieces. 2010 is considered the breakpoint for 5 Pieces, it became the year when they did everything and they did everything with success. Sub-groups and solo activities, they did acting and Carolina even helped out writing songs for their mini-album – and they were good at all of it! [Original] came out on June 11 and right away all the songs on the mini-album hit the music charts in South Korea, proving there were no longer any doubts left in listeners that 5 Pieces in indeed a successful group. [Original] was strong and powerful like their previous songs but it had this addicting sound and choreography that made fans and viewers want to come along and shout ‘we are original!’ At the same time as [Original] was becoming the most popular song of the summer, the reality show Life of Pieces showed an honest and fun side of 5 Pieces that people had forgotten about from their audition tapes. 5 Pieces showed a lot of entertainment on their reality show just by being themselves and it was no question that a second season would be made.   Continuing with their popularity streak, Hannah made an eye-catching solo debut with her single [Burning], showing a new side from being the innocent member of the group to be the y girl. She was the first member of 5 Pieces to receive a price for a solo project, winning first place on the music program Music Bank.   Accident 5 Pieces seemed to have a great 2010. Their popularity was rising and they were becoming one of the top celebrities in the K-Pop industry, when fall came with darker happenings. Hannah had made her solo debut and just won first place on Music Bank when media started to say that 5 Pieces had been in a car-accident. Maria, Hannah and Julia were in the van when their female-manager had lost control of the van in the rainy weather and slippery road. The van tumbled down from the road and landed upside down, causing traffic to stop. Due to the bad weather and the traffic it took hours before they arrived at the hospital. Both Maria and Julia got away with minor injuries, which were told to the media pretty quickly, while the condition of Hannah was more of a question-mark. In the end fans were told Hannah was in a coma, idols were using twitter to show their support for Hannah to be well and the other members received a lot of love from fans and friends to keep their hopes up. Emelia broke the heart of fans when writing on twitter that it is the worst week of her life. Hannah was in a coma for almost two weeks; when waking up she has later revealed that she was unable to move her body and the doctors said she might not be able to ever stand on the stage again. Keeping the hope up, Hannah worked hard to be able to be on the stage again and by New Year she attended the music festivals with 5 Pieces. It was their first time attending the yearly music festivals to end the year and though she could not perform she attended the show making both 5 Pieces and fans happy.       2011: [I Love You] & Artist of the Year 5 Pieces went back to Sweden in the first half of 2011 to do finals and graduate from high school. With the lack of communication it seemed like fans in Asia got nervous when June came, saying 5 Pieces has disbanded because even with events planned for all the other SM TOWN artists for that month, 5 Pieces would not attend and it just seemed like 5 Pieces would continue studying after graduation. SM Entertainment explained that 5 Pieces could not attend the events that month because their graduation was the same week, and a few days later 5 Pieces announced their return to Korea – pleasing media and fans all at once.   The second season of their reality show Life of Pieces was being filmed during the summer as 5 Pieces was preparing for their 2nd full-length album and started to air in late July, just in time for their comeback.   August 1st, the second album [I Love You] was released with the opposite concept from how citizens had seen 5 Pieces before. With a cute and bubbly concept, 5 Pieces surely shocked their fans and viewers, but this song was strongly welcomed and gave them a lot of recognition with a new nickname: Chameleon. A group that could do a various set of concepts without problems: that was 5 Pieces. In the middle of promotions, SM Entertainment announced that 5 Pieces would continue promoting as four members, as it turned out Hannah was not allowed to promote with them for the repackage album [One and Only] that came out October 25th. SM Entertainment explained that she was still recovering from the car-accident a year ago and needed a few weeks to rest after the hectic schedule with their album; fans worried and got scared by the words, but soon Hannah came back to join 5 Pieces after a few weeks and she showed to be of great health after getting some rest.   During 2011 and 2012, Julia was part of the virtual program We Got Married in Korea pretending to be the “wife” of ZE:A’s Kevin. She got more recognition from the show as people got to see more of her personality. All members of 5 Pieces also got their own variety show called Best of 5! Pieces where they invited other idols and challenged them in a variety of fun games: It was such a popular show that a season 2 came out in early 2012.   At Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2011, they received their biggest award so far for [I Love You], which was the Artist of the Year Award. In 2011, 5 Pieces became the most successful girl-group, competing alongside Girls’ Gener