Bonamana (Korean: 미인아; RR: Miina; literally: Beauty) is the fourth studio album by South Korean boy bandSuper Junior. It is the first album with ten out of the original 13 members to take part, also marking the first album not to feature all active members. It was first released as Version A, on May 13, 2010, by SM Entertainment.[1] This was followed by Version B on May 20, which included behind-the-scenes photos from their stage performances and music video shoots.[2] A repackaged version C was released on June 28, with four new tracks including follow-up single "No Other".[3]
The album was listed by Gaon Album Chart as the best-selling release of 2010 in South Korea, with 200,193 copies sold, with the repackaged version at ninth with 99,355 copies. Taken together, these sales made Bonamana the second best-selling album of the year, behind the combined total of 334,785 copies sold of Girls' Generation's Oh! and its repackage.[4]
Recording and production
The group first announced that they were working on their fourth full-length studio album in January 2010 while presenting an award at Thailand's KPN Awards. A week later, Kibum, who participated very little in the group's third studio album Sorry, Sorry due to acting pursuits, discussed the possibility of participating in the production of Bonamana during an interview.[5] After a thorough discussion with producers, Kibum decided to continue his acting career instead. With Kang-in fulfilling his two-year mandatory military service and Han Geng's lawsuit against SM Entertainment, only ten members were able to work on the album.[6]
Shindong tweeted about preparing for the fourth album in early April.[7] On April 19, SM Entertainment formally announced through online media outlets about the release and production of the album. After Super Junior finished their Super Show 2 Asia concert tour in the Philippines, the members postponed solo activities to fit more time on working in the album in time for a mid-May release.[8]
Composition
Super Junior consistently described the main concept style of Bonamana to be "mature" and "sophisticated". Following the music genre that they settled for in Sorry, Sorry, the music in Bonamana is largely mainstream and is composed of a variety of genres including R&B ballads, pop dances, and hip hop.[9] However, unlike Sorry, Sorry, a majority of Bonamana maintains a handful of cheerful, medium-tempo pop songs that Super Junior had been known for performing since debut.
The album contains 11 tracks with title track "Bonamana", an upbeat electropop song. SM described that "Bonamana" is the "completion of the SJ Funky genre", a genre that Super Junior will pursue continuously since its development in Sorry, Sorry. Eunhyuk created the dance choreography for "Boom Boom," hip hop dance track characterized for its "dark and powerful groove."[10] Super Junior invites Park Chang-hyun a fourth time to write the soft vocal ballad "Coagulation", performed by Super Junior-K.R.Y. Similar to "Coagulation" is "One Fine Spring Day", a solo song by Ryeowook. The fourth track, "Your Eyes" is described as a "regular Super Junior R&B ballad", with emphasized characterization on the differences between Yesung's and Kyuhyun's voices. Surprisingly, on the seventh track "Shake It Up," Han Geng who was currently in a lawsuit with SM Entertainment, did not have his vocals scratched out on the track. It was revealed later by the representative of SM Entertainment that this song was recorded before Han Geng filed the lawsuit. The album ends with the cheerful electropop song "Here We Go" that will "[refresh] the listeners' hearings."
For the repackaged album, Bonamana Version C, there are four new songs. The first one, "No Other," received great feedback, so it was followed up with a music video released on July 7, 2010. The next song, "All My Heart" is written by Leeteuk and Henry Lau, is an acoustic guitar ballad. The other Super Junior member, Eunhyuk and Donghae also wrote and compose the song "A Short Journey"[11] as a tribute for fellow member Kangin who was serving in the military. This song is performed mainly by Kangin, accompanied by Donghae, Yesung, Kyuhyun, and Ryeowook.
Singles
Like most of Super Junior's past lead singles, the first track was announced on May 6, 2010, as title track "Bonamana". A music video teaser, was released on May 7, with a brief and blurred preview of the song's chorus,[12][13] and available for digital download from May 10.[14] The full MV was released on May 12.[15] Naming the genre as "SJ Funky" (Super Junior Funky), "Bonamana" consists of "African rhythms, with catchy grooves and club house beats." The song is widely defined to be in an electropopfunk style, and a majority of the song is concentrated on vocals.[9] It won multiple music program awards.
The follow-up single "No Other", digitally released on June 25, is a dance-pop track. It was produced by New York-based producers Reefa, Denzil (DR) Remedios, Kibwe (12Keyz) Luke and Ryan Jhun, who have worked with other hip-hop artists such as Fabolous, Ludacris and The Game.[3]
Reception
Critical reception
Music critic So Seung-geun from IZM gave the album 2 stars out of 5, criticizing the group's vocals and overuse of autotune, as well as the "unnatural" incorporation of English lyrics in the title track "Bonamana". So additionally referred to "Bonamana" as a "recycled" version of "Sorry, Sorry".[16]
Commercial performance
Over 200,000 copies were pre-ordered a week after the release date was announced, setting a new high record for the group.[17] According to South Korea's Hanteo chart, version A of Bonamana, debuted at #1 on the charts, selling over 36,000 copies on the first day of release, making it the biggest opening day of the group's career.[18] After four more days of release, over 70,000 copies were sold.[19]Bonamana charted at #1 again on real time and daily charts after the release of version B, selling over 13,000 copies, totaling the offline sales to over 100,000.[20]
The album peaked at number one on the Gaon Weekly Album Chart for the week of May 9 to 15, 2010[21] and also number one for May and June on the Gaon Monthly Album Chart. In February 2011, according to Gaon Chart's 2010 year-end summation chart, the album's A and B versions sold a cumulative total of 200,193 copies, awarding the album as the "best selling album of 2010". Meanwhile, the repackaged album sold 99,355 copies, ranking at the ninth spot in the same chart,[22] bringing to a total of almost 300,000 units sold in South Korea. While in Taiwan, the album sold a cumulative total of 57,000 copies. In the Philippines, the album reached gold status after a week released on May 4 selling 7,500 copies.
Promotion and live performances
Super Junior's first comeback performance was on May 14 with the performance of "Boom Boom" and "Bonamana" on KBS2TV's Music Bank,.[23] The group performed again with the roster the following weekend on MBC's Show! Music Core on May 15[24] and on SBS's The Music Trend on May 16.
Super Show 3
Super Show 3 is Super Junior's third Asia-wide concert tour; it commenced with two shows in Seoul in August 2010 and continued onto China, Taiwan, Japan and other Asian countries, with a total of 20 concerts in 13 cities.[25] On February 24, 2011, a 3D film of the Seoul concert was released in 16 CJ CGV cinemas.[26] In October 2011, a live album of the concert held in Seoul was released.
^ abc"2010년 가온차트 부문별 Top 100위" [Gaon Album Chart 2010 – Top 100]. Gaon Chart (in Korean). Korea Music Content Industry Association. February 8, 2011. Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
^"2010년 가온차트 부문별 Top 100위" [Gaon Chart 2010 Top 100 Charts]. Gaon Chart (in Korean). Korea Music Content Industry Association. February 8, 2011. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
^Baek Ji-eun (August 15, 2010). 슈퍼주니어 '슈퍼쇼3', 1만여 팬 대거 운집... 中 슈주 패키지 여행상품등장 [Super Junior's 'Super Show 3', a crowd of 10,000 fans... Chinese SuJu package travel product appeared]. Sports Chosun (in Korean). Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2022 – via Naver.
^Lee Eun-jung (January 31, 2011). SM "슈주, 싱가포르서 한국가수 최다 관객" [SM "SuJu, the largest audience for a Korean singer in Singapore"]. Naver (in Korean). Yonhap News Agency. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
^Lee Tae-moon (February 20, 2011). 슈퍼주니어, 日 오리콘 3위 차지 [Super Junior ranks 3rd in Japan's Oricon]. Naver (in Korean). Yonhap News Agency. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
^SJ 連莊寶島最唱銷東洋歌王 [Super Junior Still The Bestselling K-Pop Artist in Taiwan!]. Apple Daily (in Chinese). Next Media. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
^ abBaek Ji-eun (December 9, 2010). 소녀시대-2AM, 골든디스크 대상 수상에 폭풍눈물 [Girls' Generation-2AM heavy tears at the Golden Disc Awards ceremony]. Sports Chosun (in Korean). Archived from the original on December 26, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
^㈜한터정보시스템 [Hanteo Information System]. Hanteo.com. December 31, 2010. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
^Lee Mi-young (February 9, 2011). 슈주-미쓰에이, 2010 가온차트 온·오프라인 판매 1위 [Suju-Miss A, 2010 No.1 online and offline sales on Gaon Chart]. inews24 (in Korean). Retrieved January 13, 2020.
^首届全球流行音乐金榜揭晓 周杰伦蔡依林最风光 [Jay Chou is the first favorite pop star to be unveiled on the global pop charts]. NetEase (in Chinese). April 10, 2011. Archived from the original on January 16, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
