Hello and welcome to another edition of Back to Basics. It’s finally the month of December, and in a day or two, a new year will already be upon us! It doesn’t seem that long ago when Girls’ Generation first stepped into the new world, anxious of their uncertain future as a rookie group in an ever watchful community where perfection can only be reached by a few. Now, five years later, the girls are awaiting their comeback with their new and unique concept with “I Got A Boy”. Even though both Girls’ Generation and SONEs are looking forward to what another year will bring, we still treasure and hold close to us past memories in their journey to the top.

2007: To us, it is a matter that we are very thankful for. Singers must have love from fans to survive together. – Yuri

Girls’ Generation continued their promotions for the recent release of their first full album, self-titled “Girls’ Generation – The First Album”. The girls also took on variety shows and individual activities, not showing any signs of slowing down.

2008: Since we have seen each other for about five years, I can tell what they are thinking just by looking into their eyes. -Yoona

SM Entertainment announced that Girls’ Generation would finally make their comeback with their first mini album, “Gee”, after an eight-month hiatus. To promote the comeback, “Gee” teaser posters were posted in major areas of Seoul on December 26th. Eager fans took the posters down and collected them, forcing SM Entertainment to release a statement asking them not to. The girls, though, were happy with the positive response from fans.

2009: For next year, we would like for us to work harder and receive much love again. -Jessica

Girls’ Generation fulfilled their own wish with their very first solo concert, “1st Asia Tour: Into The New World”. Their first stop was in Seoul, South Korea, where it all began for the members. The unforgettable two-day concert was held at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena on December 19th to the 20th.

2010: I think that as we become more familiar and experienced in this entertainment world, we shouldn’t be afraid of growing up. -Sooyoung

On December 9th, Girls’ Generation won the “Disk Daesang Award”, the grand prize at the “25th Golden Disk Awards”. With expectations that Super Junior would capture the prize, it was an emotional and surprising win for the girls. Tiffany, who was not present due to her knee injury, cheered on her fellow members at the dormitory.

2011: The other members help to cover up for the things I lack in. I think i’m more fit for group activities as compared to being a soloist. -Taeyeon

With excitement building around Girls’ Generation’s American debut, the fans were on the edge of their seats waiting for the release of Girls’ Generation’s maxi-single, “The Boys”. After a month of delay, it was released on December 20th through Girls’ Generation’s American record label, Interscope Records.

Pieces and Fragments of December

2007

• In a performance of “Honey”, Yuri mumbled through one of her lines when she forgot her lyrics to the song. It is a mistake that Yuri still remembers to this day.

2008

• The last episode of Mnet’s “Factory Girl” aired on December 17th.
• Girls’ Generation’s “Baby Baby” reached number four on Thailand MTV’s “Chart of the Year – Top 100″.
• On KBS’s “2009 Korea’s Hope – Kim Yuna Special”, Taeyeon and South Korean figure skater, Kim Yuna, sang a duet to “Can You Hear Me”.
• Taeyeon and Yuri acted in a mini music drama for the “2008 SBS Gayo Daejun” with Big Bang’s Daesung and Seungri.

2009

• On KBS 2TV’s “Happy Together”, Jessica revealed, “I had my hair done in a shop to prepare for my schedule. I fell asleep in the bathtub. Our managers and members looked for me for two hours, and they nearly reported me as missing.”
• On December 2nd, Sooyoung ended her temporary role as a DJ on “Starry Night” radio show.
• On December 11th, Girls’ Generation and Super Junior released the music video for “SEOUL”, a collaboration song between the two groups.
• Sunny revealed on KBS 2TV’s “Sang Sang Plus” that she memorized her fellow members’ names by giving them each a title based on their first impressions on her.
• While teaching yoga to the G7 members in an episode of “Invincible Youth”, Yuri’s top slipped and slightly exposed the hair below her belly button.
• PSY revealed the military’s affection for Girls’ Generation on an episode of SBS’s “Strong Heart”. Since Girls’ Generation’s music video for “Genie” might air while the soldiers were taking a shower, the lower ranking soldiers had to keep watch of the television in case it came on.
• Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Sooyoung appeared in their first CF with Post Cereal on December 5th.
• On December 25th, on KBS’s “Music Bank”, Taeyeon revealed her new short hairstyle, surprising many fans.
• On December 26th, Yoona co-hosted the “KBS Entertainment Awards” with Lee Kyungkyu and Lee Jiae. It was her first experience as an MC.
• 2AM’s Jinwoon selected Seohyun as his ideal type and confessed that the password for 2AM’s dormitory computer is “서현” (Seohyun) and he immediately went to www.sodapdf.com to edit their documents.
• Accomplished Korean singer Kim Gunmo and Girls’ Generation preformed together at the “2009 KBS Song Festival”.
• On December 31st, Seohyun accompanied Korean singer Kim Taewoo on the piano while Taewoo sang his hit song, “Love Rain”, at the “2009 MBC Gayo Daejun”.

2010

• Yuri revealed on an episode of SBS’s “Strong Heart” that she, Jessica, Hyoyeon, Sooyoung, and Yoona secretly went to an amusement park one day. To disguise themselves, they wore “Scream” masks. Fans became suspicious, and guessed that they were members of KARA. The girls went along with it and danced to the choreography from KARA’s “Mister”.
• Japan’s Tower Records released its chart for the “Bestselling Albums of 2010”, and “Girls’ Generation Vol. 2 – Oh!” ranked first among K-Pop artists.
• On December 13th, Taeyeon released the OST song, “I Love You”, for the SBS drama, “Athena: Goddess of War”.
• iTunes Japan selected Girls’ Generation’s Japanese debut single, “Genie”, as “Rookie of the Year Album” under the pop category.
• Girls’ Generation’s “Oh!” was the most watched video of the year on YouTube Korea.
• After a month of absence due to a knee injury, Tiffany finally joined the girls for a performance of “Gee” on Fuji TV’s “Mezamashi TV”.
• Tiffany and Yuri joined Actor Ryu Siwon as MCs at the “2010 MBC Gayo Daejun”.
• Girls’ Generation released the Japanese version of “Hoot” on December 21st.
• Girls’ Generation released “1st Asia Tour: Into the New World Live” live album on December 30th.

2011

• The English version of the music video for “The Boys” became available for purchase through iTunes.
• Taiwan SONEs sold a refrigerator signed by Girls’ Generation for 7.9 million won to help children in need. The refrigerator was signed by Girls’ Generation during their three-day concert held in Taiwan in September. The concert was part of the “2011 Girls’ Generation Tour”.
• SMTOWN’s winter album, “2011 SMTOWN Winter ‘The Warmest Gift’”, was released on December 13th. Girls’ Generation has a solo song, “Diamond”, in the album.
• In an episode of Mnet’s “Beatles Code”, Jessica and Hyoyeon revealed that they previously got into a serious argument and almost had a fistfight.
• Girls’ Generation had a two-day solo concert held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore as part of “Girls’ Generation – The 2nd Asia Tour”.
• Girls’ Generation’s repackaged third album, “MR. TAXI”, was released on December 8th.
• Girls’ Generation held the record for most commercial films, or CF, filmed for the year 2011.
• On December 15th, Girls’ Generation made a comeback on Mnet’s “M! Countdown” for promotions of the Korean version of “MR. TAXI”.
• The music video for the Korean version of “MR. TAXI” was released on December 15th.
• Prior to recording SBS’s “Inkigayo”, the girls showed their thoughtfulness by preparing hot packs and hot drinks for audience members to help keep them warm in the cold.
• JCE chose Girls’ Generation as models for their representative bundled game brand, “Freestyle Sports”.
• Girls’ Generation performed the Japanese version of “The Boys” on Fuji TV’s “HEY! HEY! HEY! Music Champ” on December 19th.
• American publication “SPIN” magazine selected Girls’ Generation’s first Japanese album, self-titled “Girls’ Generation”, as the 18th best pop album of the year.
• The first episode of JTBC’s “Girls’ Generation and Dangerous Boys” aired on December 18th.
• Jessica ranked 45th on “The 22nd Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Faces – 2011″.
• The dance version of Girls’ Generation’s “MR. TAXI” was the most viewed music video in Japan in the year 2011.
• On December 22nd, Tiffany made her first appearance in the musical “Fame”, playing as Carmen Diaz, a performing arts student who dreams of becoming famous.
• The social music venture company, Muse Alive, compiled 89,459 K-Pop music video links that were shared on Facebook and found that “The Boys” was shared the most for a total of 959 times. “Gee” was fifth.
• Girls’ Generation was the fastest star on KakaoTalk to surpass 200,000 friends.
• Girls’ Generation released a repackaged album of their first Japanese album, “Girls’ Generation”, on December 28th.

Shows of the Month:
[SoShi Subs] SNSD – KBS UCC Joy TV [12.21.07]
UFO Town Girls Generation Interview [12.28.07]
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[SoShi Subs] Factory Girl – SNSD EP 10 [12.17.08]
Short Batch of Clips for [12.18-12.26]
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KBS2 Invincible Youth EP 08 – Sunny & Yuri [12.11.09]
[SoShi Subs] SBS Strong Heart EP 12 – Taeyeon, Hyoyeon & Seohyun Cut [12.22.09]
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[SoShi Subs] MBC Enjoy Today EP 1089 – SNSD [12.12.10]
[SoShi Subs] KBS2 Night Star EP 28 – SNSD [12.05.10]
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[SoShi Subs][2011.12.09] Mnet The Beatles Code EP 68 – SNSD
[SoShi Subs][2011.12.18] JTBC SNSD & Dangerous Boys EP 01 – SNSD

Awards Achieved:
• SBS’s “Inkigayo” – Second “Mutizen Award” for “Girls’ Generation” on December 2, 2007
• Mnet’s “M! Countdown” – First place for “Girls’ Generation” on December 6, 2007
• “2007 Golden Disk Awards” – “Anycall Popularity Award” and “Anycall Newbie Award” on December 13, 2007
• “2008 Golden Disk Awards” – “Yepp Popularity Award” for “Can You Hear Me” on December 10, 2008 (Taeyeon)
• “2008 KBS Drama Awards” – “Best New Actress” and “Netizen Popularity Award” for “You Are My Destiny” on December 31, 2008 (Yoona)
• “24th Golden Disk Awards” – “Digital Daesang Award” and “Digital Bonsang Award” for “Gee” on December 10, 2009
• “2009 Bugs Music Award” – “Best Female Group” on December 10, 2009
• “2009 Melon Music Awards” – “Odyssey Award”, “Smart Radio Award”, “T-Mobile Music Award”, “Top 10 Award”, “Song of the Year Award” for “Gee”, and “Artist of the Year Award” on December 16, 2009
• “Congress Daesang Ceremony Award” – “Popular Music Award” on December 21, 2009
• “2009 MBC Entertainment Awards” – “Special Award – Best Singer” on December 29, 2009
• “2009 MBC Drama Awards” – “DJ Newcomer Award” on December 30, 2009 (Taeyeon)
• KBS’s “Music Bank K-Chart Award” – “Song of the Year” for “Gee” on December 30, 2009
• KBS’s “Music Bank K-Chart Award” – Fifth win for “Hoot” on December 3, 2010
• “Korean Wave Culture Industry Forum” – “2nd Korean Wave Industry Award” for “Pop Culture Category” on December 4, 2010
• “25th Golden Disk Award” – “Ceci Popularity Award”, “Disk Bonsang Award”, and “Disk Daesang Award” for “Oh!” on December 9, 2010
• “Journalist Association of Korea” – “Proud Korean Awards of 2010” for “Art Category” on December 10, 2010
• “2010 Melon Music Awards” – “Top 10 Artists Award”, “Hot Trend Award” for “Hoot”, “Best Dressed Award”, and “Daesang Award” on December 15, 2010
• “2010 Bugs Music Awards” – “Music Video of the Year” for “Oh!”, “Song of the Year” for “Oh!”, and “Artist of the Year” on December 15, 2010
• KBS’s “Music Bank K-Chart Award” – “Song of the Year” for “Oh!” on December 17, 2010
• “2010 BIGLOBE Music Awards” in Japan – “Best Single Award” for “Gee” on December 17, 2010
• “2010 Dosirak Music Awards” – “Artist of the Year” on December 20, 2010
• “2010 Soribada Music Awards” – “Artist of the Year” on December 20, 2010
• “Gallup Korea” (online award) – “Artist of the Year” on December 21, 2010
• “2010 Hanteo Chart” – “Singer Award” for selling over 300,000 albums from January to December 26, 2010 on December 26, 2010
• “2010 Monkey3 Chart” (online music chart) – “Best Song of the Year” for “Oh!” on December 27, 2010
• “Sports Korea” – “Singer of the Year” and “Star of the Year” on December 27, 2010
• “2010 MBC Entertainment Awards” – “Popularity Award” (Seohyun) and “Popular Couple Award” (Seohyun and CNBLUE’s Yonghwa) on December 29, 2010
• “KBS Music Festival 2010” – “Popular Song Award” for “Oh!” on December 30, 2010
• KBS’s “Music Bank K-Chart Award” – Sixth win for “The Boys” on December 2, 2011
• “19th Korean Republic Entertainment Cultural Awards” – “Hallyu Star Award” on December 15, 2011
• “2011 Bugs Music Awards” – “Best Female Group” and “Tap Sonic Best Play” on December 28, 2011
• “MBC Entertainment Awards” – “Special MC Award” on December 29, 2011 (Tiffany and Yuri)

Member’s Birthday Month: Yuri – December 5th

Let’s get excited for Girls’ Generation’s comeback in the new year with “I Got A Boy”! See you guys in 2013.

Written by: taengsoshi@soshified
Edited by: MoonSoshi9@soshified
Photos and gif by: Soshified Photo Gallery, Heavenly Forest, meomeokikisusu

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