SES
Sea, Eugene, and Shoo are the three female members of SES. You may have noticed that the initials of each of their names is the basis of their group name. The group came into existance through auditions held by the Korean company SM Entertainment, who was looking to form a new girl group to complement their already popular male Korean pop group, H.O.T. When the three were chosen to form this new female group, Shoo said that they were really close friends during the auditions, and that they were always together. So when they heard that they were all chosen, they were very excited and happy. It sounds like it was meant to be.
After a year, they debuted with an album titled 'S.E.S1' in late 1997. The title song from the album, "(Cause) I'm Your Girl," became an instant hit. Until then, no female group in Korea was ever able to achieve such popularity. SES' success fueled the creation of many other girl groups, such as FinKL (Fine Killing Liberty), Baby V.O.X. and more. Near the end of 1998, SES had made their mark in Japan as well, with the release of their debut japanese single "Meguriau Sekai.". Having been born in Japan, Shoo is fluent in Japanese and so was the main voice of the group as they made their rounds in Japan. The other two, Eugene and Sea, began to learn Japanese in the middle of 1998. I remember watching them on Hey! Hey! Hey!, seeing Shoo doing most of the talking with Eugene and Sea doing a lot of nodding and saying the Japanese phrases they knew at the appropriate times. Also, it must've been quite a change for them performing in Japan, as unlike in Korea where everything's lip-synced, they actually had to sing for reals when they performed live. So for the first time, I actually heard them miss some notes.
Early in 1999, SES went to Taiwan to hold a concert. Although they've only visited Taiwan three times, they're purportedly quite popular over there now too. As no one in the group can speak Chinese, they opted to release their Korean and Japanese works there instead.
All in all, S.E.S has released 3 Korean albums, 7 Japanese singles and 3 Japanese albums so far. Their 4th Korean album is in the works and we're looking forward to its release!