Brave Girls to continue activities under new agency as BB Girls

Girl group Brave Girls changed its name to BB Girls [NEWS1]

Girl group Brave Girls changed its name to BB Girls and is ready to resume its group activities under a new agency.

BB Girls is pronounced "beu-beu girls."

“Brave Girls has changed its group name to BB Girls and will start their group activities,” Warner Music Korea, the quartet’s new agency, announced Thursday.

The group is currently in preparation for a new summer release, according to member Minyoung last week.

All four members of Brave Girls — Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji and Yuna — left Brave Entertainment upon the expiration of their exclusive contracts in February this year and signed exclusive contracts with Warner Music Korea on April 27.

Warner Music Korea announced on the same day that it was undecided whether the girl group will keep its group name, Brave Girls, or take on a new group name.

A number of K-pop groups have had to change their names after moving to a new agencies — like boy band B2ST (Beast), which changed to Highlight upon leaving CUBE Entertainment — since group names are often copyrighted by the original agency.

Brave Girls originally debuted in 2011, but all the original members left the group after lukewarm success. The group's producer, Brave Brothers, called the current four members the second generation of Brave Girls.

The second generation initially did not achieve commercial success either and was about to disband until a YouTube video about "Rollin'" went viral in early 2021. The video, which shows a compilation of YouTube comments under Brave Girls' performances, revealed that the song was popular among Korean servicemen as the girl group had frequently performed at military bases to entertain troops. The viral popularity earned Brave Girls the moniker "president of the military."

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]