miss A (Korean: 미쓰에이) is a South Korean Girl Group. They debuted under JYP Entertainment in 2010 with their debut single, “Bad Girl Good Girl”. The song led to the group becoming the fastest girl group to take the #1 spot on a music show.
Before debuting, they drew attention in China as the “Chinese Wonder Girls”. The group was originally a five-member group called the “JYP Sisters”, which included miss A members Fei and Jia and Wonder Girls member Lim. Two of the members withdrew from JYP Entertainment, and Lim debuted as the final member of Wonder Girls. Lee Minyoung, who was a solo artist and had once formed a dance duo called “Little Winners” with SNSD’s Hyoyeon, and Suzy, a trainee, were added to the group to form miss A.
The group maintained its popularity until the promotions for their mini album “Colors”, after which the members focused on their solo activities. Fei was the first member to achieve a solo debut, with the mini album “Fantasy” in 2016.
After a successful acting debut in Dream High, youngest member Suzy rose to fame, leading to more acting projects and eventually debuting as a solo artist with the mini album “Yes? No?” in 2017. Her fame popularity rose higher upon the revelation that she was dating actor Lee Min-ho, one of the most popular Hallyu stars.
Member Jia left the group in 2016, leaving miss A as a trio. However, they never got to promote any group projects from the end of “Colors” up to Min’s withdrawal from JYP, which is speculated to be the reason for their disbandment in 2017.
- Fei (Wang Feifei, born April 27, 1987) - Main Vocalist
- Jianote (Meng Jia, born February 3, 1990) - Main Rapper, Lead Dancer, Vocalist
- Min (Lee Minyoung, born June 21, 1991) – Main Dancer, Lead Vocalist, Rapper
- Suzy (Bae Suji, born October 10, 1994) – Vocalist, Rapper, Maknae, Face of the Group
- A Class (2011)
- Hush (2013)
Mini Albums:
- Bad But Good (2010)
- Touch (2012)
- Independent Women Part III (2012)
- Colors (2015)
- A Class (2011)
Mini Albums:
- Touch (2012)
- Always Be Here (2014 Korean single)
- Fantasy (2016 Korean mini album)
- One More Kiss (2016 Chinese single)
Jia:
- JIA (2016 Chinese mini album)
Min:
- Dance Like This (2007 US single)
- Go Ahead (2008 US single)
- Boyfriend (2008 US single)
Suzy:
- Yes? No? (2017 Korean mini album)
Tropes related to Miss A and their music:
- Boastful Rap: "I Don’t Need a Man" has Jia and Min rapping about how they can live well without a man to provide themselves money.
- Family Theme Naming: Wonder Girls, miss A, and TWICE have the same "s" sound, but only Wonder Girls and TWICE share the syllable "스" (miss A is written as 미쓰에이 in Korean).
- Fanservice: A lot, especially in “Bad Girl Good Girl”.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: The members are mixtures of the different types, with Fei being the sexy Team Mom, Jia is sexy yet tomboyish, Min is the tomboyish type, and Suzy being the sweet-naiumlive girl.
- Genki Girl: All of them, even Fei who is usually shown as collected and reserved, have their moments.
- Gratuitous English: Like most Korean songs, their songs have some inserted English in them.
- Hotter and Sexier: In comparison to their predecessor, Wonder Girls. JYP stated that he wanted miss A to have a sexy image as compared to the Wonder Girls, who at that time were seen as a retro but bubbly group.
- “I Don’t Need A Man” was followed by “Hush”.
- JYP wants Suzy to portray this image, as he was amazed by her sexy performance during the JYP Nation tour in 2014.
- Looped Lyrics:
- Miss A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A, Miss A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A…
- I don’t need a man, I don’t need a man…
- Meaningful Name: The name miss A is short for “Miss Asia”, which alludes to the members’ different backgrounds (Fei and Jia are Chinese, while Min and Suzy are Korean). The “A” also refers to having the highest rank, A.
- Ms. Fanservice: All of them, but mostly Fei, who is praised for her perfect body proportions, beauty, and skin tone.
- Odd Name Out: miss A is the only group in JYP that doesn’t include some kind of number or has the distinct “s” sound (unless you consider the ‘쓰’ to be the same as the ‘스’ found in Wonder Girls and TWICE).
- Official Couple:
- Suzy and Lee Min-ho dated for more than two years before breaking up in 2017.
- Min and G. Soul dated for six months before breaking up in early 2017.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Mostly associated with Jia and Suzy.
- Singer Name Drop: The whole chorus of “Step Up” consists of “Miss A”.
- Singer-Songwriter:
- Min wrote the lyrics for “Stuck”, and co-wrote the lyrics for G. Soul’s title track “Far, Far Away”.
- Suzy wrote the lyrics for “I Caught Ya”.
- Spell My Name With An S:
- Since there isn’t an “f” letter in Korean, Fei’s name is sometimes translated as “Pei”.
- Minyoung can be spelled as Minyeong, but the former is used.
- Suzy is just another romanization of Suji, which can also be spelled as Suzi.
- Stage Names: Fei (Fei Fei), Min (Minyoung), and Suzy (Suji).
- Translated Cover Version: Some of their songs are both in Korean and Chinese.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Though Jia is one of the members associated with a cool image, she likes dolls and girly things.
- Unperson: Averted with Jia, who remains close to the girls, the other artists in JYP, and with JYP himself. Even after her departure, when talking about miss A, she is still regarded as a member.
- She was also meant to be included in the card lineup for Superstar JYP Nation, but she left JYP Entertainment before the game finished its development. She still appears in the game as a member of miss A, but only in the background.
