K-Pop girl group GFRIEND, who debuted under SOURCE MUSIC in 2015, ultimately left the company in 2021 as they could not agree on contract renewal. With the most recent news of ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin’s relationship with SOURCE MUSIC, past interviews and clips from GFRIEND resurfaced on online community boards.
Leader Sowon’s interview with Big Issue magazine confirmed that the group didn’t know they were disbanding and had a hard time processing what was happening.
Excerpt from Sowon’s interview | Big Issue Excerpt from Sowon’s interview | Big Issue
Big Issue: You spent eight years of your life, since you were 21 years old, as GFRIEND. It must not be easy bidding farewell to that era.
Sowon: Well, my groupmates and I don’t see this as complete disbandment. It’s true that I had trouble processing what happened. The news came out of the blue. I’ve always thought I’d like to pursue a career in acting, but I never thought I’d be able to do it right away. After the disbandment, I felt heartbroken for a while. But I have to move on, I have to keep going down my own path. So I couldn’t stay heartbroken for too long. It did take me some time to logically understand what happened, though. Now that it has been over a year, my groupmates and I have all accepted it and gotten used to [not being together]. To be honest, I think I had the most difficulty adjusting to the whole thing.
In a previous SCAN VIVIZ episode, SinB shared that they knew about the termination a month before it was officially announced.
How were we supposed to tell the fans? That we aren’t doing it anymore. That GFRIEND will not be renewing the contract. We couldn’t be the first to tell them.
— SinB
Netizens were appalled at how unprofessional they were in handling things as a company.
Netizen comment | theqoo
The way they responded after was the worst. They did so many thing that didn’t make sense as an entertainment company. As an example, in regards to the membership refund, they said they would refund it to us in HYBE points. They didn’t listen to the fans’ requests for full refund of money. They only gave back the money after fans started to prepare to take legal action. And in the process of openinga refund Google form, tons of fans’ personal information was leaked, yet they weren’t compensated for it. International fans only received their refunds months later, after all additional fees were taken out.
And with the most recent alleged timeline of Min Hee Jin revealed, many believe that she was the reason behind GFRIEND disbanding. Although this is all speculation and no direct link between ADOR and GFRIEND’s disbandment, it is gaining much attention considering all the news about the future plans of ADOR.
Netizen comments | theqoo “Guess they thought it was the right time…it’s unfortunate for SOURCE….do they really think they could have joined HYBE LABELS if they didn’t have GFRIEND?” “We have to keep spreading the news that they were mistreated. What’s the point of hiding the pain? We’re still hurting!” “So NewJeans was the group that was trying to debut after GFRIEND disbanded.” “I loved all of GFRIEND’s songs.” “I was standing a different group and when I heard this news I was shocked….how could they end it like this. I don’t stan idols after this incident.” “Wow so they were literally just thrown away…” “GFRIEND had so much potential…” “So the group that was preparing to debut was NewJeans.”
What are your thoughts about this?
An Alleged Timeline Of ADOR Min Hee Jin’s Relationship With SOURCE MUSIC Angers Fans
