EXO) is a South Korean–Chinese boy band based in Seoul, with nine members: Suho, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai, Sehun, Xiumin, Lay and Chen.[1] The band was formed by SM Entertainment in 2011 and debuted in 2012. Their music incorporates genres like pop, hip-hop, and R&B, alongside electronic dance music genres like house, trap, and synth-pop. Exo releases and performs music in Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese. The band ranked as one of the top five most influential celebrities on the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list each year from 2014 to 2018, and have been named "the biggest boy band in the world" and the "kings of K-pop" by the media.
Exo-K's leader, Suho, was the first member to join SM Entertainment, after a successful audition through the company's casting system in 2006. The following year, Kai, with encouragement from his father, auditioned at the SM Youth Best Contest; he won and received a contract. Chanyeol, who took second place in a Smart Model Contest, and Sehun, who went through four auditions in two years, were the next members to become trainees in 2008. In 2010, Exo-K's D.O. sang for his audition and was eventually offered a contract. The last member of Exo-K to become a trainee was Baekhyun, who joined in 2011 through SM Entertainment's casting system and trained for approximately one year before debut. In Exo-M, Kris auditioned in 2008 at a global SM Entertainment audition in Canada, before moving to South Korea for training. That same year, Lay auditioned in Changsha, China, and subsequently moved to South Korea, while Xiumin attended an audition with his friend and won second place. In 2010, Luhan was scouted by an SM Entertainment representative in Seoul and passed his audition, while Tao was scouted at a talent show. The last member to join Exo-M was Chen, who took part in the casting system in 2011.
Speaking at a Stanford University business seminar in May 2011, SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man shared a strategy of debuting a new boy band that would be divided into two sub-groups, promoting the same music simultaneously in South Korea and China by performing songs in both Korean and Mandarin. After several member changes, in December 2011, the group finalized its name as Exo, taken from the word "exoplanet". They were divided into two sub-groups: Exo-K for South Korea and Exo-M for China. The band's first televised performance was at the annual SBS Gayo Daejeon event on December 29, 2011.
Exo-K and Exo-M debuted with the single "Mama" on April 8, 2012, followed by the EP Mama on April 9. The two sub-groups promoted the album separately; Exo-K performed on South Korean music program The Music Trend while Exo-M performed on the Top Chinese Music Awards in Shenzhen on the same day.
The group's first studio album, XOXO, was released on June 3, 2013, in two versions: one in Korean and one in Mandarin.[31] Unlike the EP Mama, for which Exo-K and Exo-M had separate promotions, XOXO was jointly promoted, mainly in South Korea.[32] Exo recorded the album's lead single "Wolf" together, but the rest of the album tracks were recorded separately.[33] A repackaged version of the album, titled Growl, was released on August 5, 2013, with three additional tracks. New single "Growl" peaked at number three on the Billboard K-Pop Hot 100[34] and at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart. All versions of XOXO collectively sold over one million copies, making Exo the first South Korean artists to reach that milestone in 12 years.[35] That December, Exo released a second EP, Miracles in December, as a special winter album containing the single of the same name.[36] Prior to the release, the group promoted the album through their first reality show, Exo's Showtime, which premiered on November 28, 2013 on the cable channel MBC Every 1.
Exo's third EP, Overdose, was released on May 7, 2014. Originally scheduled to be released on April 21, the album was delayed due to the Sewol Ferry accident on April 16. Overdose was promoted similarly to Mama, with Exo-K in South Korea and Exo-M promoting primarily in China. The album had over 660,000 pre-orders, making it the most pre-ordered Korean EP in history. The Korean edition also peaked at number two on Billboard's World Albums Chart, and at number 129 on the Billboard 200, making Exo the highest-ever charting male Korean group at that time. Overdose became the best selling release of 2014 in South Korea, and was the first EP to top the yearly charts and win the Album of the Year Award at the Mnet Asian Music Awards. On December 22, Exo released their first live album, Exology Chapter 1: The Lost Planet The album's single, "December, 2014 (The Winter's Tale)", peaked at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart, making it Exo's first number one single. By the end of 2014, Exo was Japan's best-selling K-pop artist of the year.
On May 15, 2014, SM Entertainment confirmed that Kris had filed a lawsuit to terminate his contract. On May 24, the group began its first headlining tour, "Exo from Exoplanet 1 – The Lost Planet", at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena. Tickets for the concert sold out in 1.47 seconds, breaking the record for the quickest concert sell-out by a Korean artist. On October 10, Luhan also filed a lawsuit against SM Entertainment to terminate his contract.
On March 7, 2015, Exo began their second headlining world tour, "Exoplanet 2 – The Exo'luxion", with 70,000 attendees across five nights at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul. The group released its second studio album Exodus on March 30, 2015, in both Korean and Mandarin versions. Domestic pre-orders for the album surpassed 500,000 copies within 24 hours, setting a new record for pre-orders. Lead single "Call Me Baby" was released ahead of schedule, on March 27, because versions of the song had been leaked online. The music videos were released four days later; the Korean version later became the most-watched K-pop music video of the first half of 2015. The album spent a record four consecutive weeks at number one on the Gaon Album Chart and sold over a million copies, making it Exo's second album to do so, after XOXO. Exodus won Album of the Year at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards, giving Exo their third consecutive win. In April 2015, Exodus peaked at number 95 on the US Billboard 200, making the group the highest charting Korean artist. Exo also entered Billboard's Canadian Hot 100 chart at number 98, making them the first K-pop group and second Korean artist to chart there.
Tao was absent during promotions for Exodus due to injuries and, on August 24, became the third member to file a lawsuit against SM Entertainment to terminate his contract. Exo released a repackaged version of Exodus, titled Love Me Right, on June 3, 2015. This edition added four new songs, including the single "Love Me Right". Due to Tao's absence, the group promoted the song as nine members. That October, Exo became the first artists to hold a dome concert in South Korea; it was called "Exo – Love Concert in Dome", and took place at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.
On November 4, 2015, Exo released their Japanese debut single Love Me Right ~romantic universe~, which contains the Japanese version of "Love Me Right" and an original Japanese song titled "Drop That". On the day of its release, the album sold 147,000 copies and reached the top of the Oricon chart, becoming the all-time best-selling debut single in Japan by a Korean artist. Five days later, Exo released a special single titled "Lightsaber" to promote the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens ahead of its release in South Korea, as part of a collaboration between SM Entertainment and Walt Disney. On December 10, Exo released its second winter special release and fourth EP, Sing for You, containing the singles "Sing for You" and "Unfair". The album sold 267,900 copies in its first week, breaking the record for the highest first-week sales by a Korean artist. "Unfair" also became the first K-pop song to be featured in the "Best of the Week" playlist by Apple Music, and Exo became the first Korean artists to appear on the platform's homepage. Part of the profits from the album were donated to UNICEF's Smile For U campaign, to support the music education for children in Asia. In December 2015, South Korean entertainment industry leaders ranked Exo at number seven in the top ten pop culture leaders of 2015, the highest rank held by a K-pop artist