General information about CLC – CLC Profile
- Korean Name: CLC
- Debut date: March 19, 2015
- Agency: CUBE Entertainment
- Number of members: 7
- Fandom Name: Cheshire
- Official colors of the CLC fans: Pantone 116 C, Pantone 235 C and Pantone 323 C
- CLC official accounts:
- Official website: cubeent.co.kr
- CLC Instagram: @cube_clc_official
- Twitter: @cubeclc
- CLC Facebook: CLC CLC
- YouTube: CLC channel
- Weibo: CUBE_CLC
- Fan Café: CUBOLC
- V live: CLC
- TikTok: @cube_clc_official
CUBE Entertainment was part of Big3 (the 3 largest entertainment companies) with many famous groups such as 4Minute, BEAST, BTOB and most recently (G)-IDLE. However, CLC, despite her talent, was neglected by her own company for 7 years.
He debuted with the burden of being “4Minute junior” and involved in various bad behavior scandals
CLC debuted in 2015 as a group of 5 members: Seung Hee, Yujin, Seung Yeon, Sorn and Ye Eun. Unlike their predecessors, CLC pursued an energetic and bright concept in their debut days. Known as 4Minute’s junior, CLC did not have success with their debut song “Pepe”, but still received great attention.
Despite receiving numerous privileges as “4Minute juniors,” netizens continue to compare CLC to their seniors. The 5 girls had to cover their unique personalities with the cute concept in their next songs, “Eighteen” and “Question”. CLC was supposed to be a group distinct from their seniors, but it seemed like CUBE had made a big mistake.
CLCs continued to get into trouble with controversies related to their behavior towards the elderly. In a reality show with CLC and BTOB, a senior group of the same company, Chang Sub said that he wanted to see Ye Eun do cute actions. However, Ye Eun gave an expression of dislike and refused to perform the action by pushing the bottle towards him. Immediately, Ye Eun’s behavior was criticized by netizens. They said a junior shouldn’t show this attitude towards her senior. CLC was said to be rude and disrespectful towards its elders, and as a result, the group was harshly criticized by the public.
Additionally, CLC once again received criticism for being rude to a senior from another company. In their reality show, “CLC Beautiful Mission”, Sorn, Seung Yeon and Yujin mentioned CO-ED, a 5-member mixed-gender group that debuted in 2010, with disrespectful attitudes. Once again, CLC faced much criticism for its inappropriate behavior.
Adding new members, changing the concept and achieving early successes, but CLC was still inferior to (G)I-DLE
In 2016, CLC added 2 new members, Elkie and Eunbin, to the group. Along with the new lineup, the group also changed their musical style. Different from the innocent concept of their debut, CLC chose the girlcrush concept with powerful songs like ‘Hobgoblin’, ‘Black Dress’… 2 years after CLC’s debut, 7 girls’ career started over again thanks to these songs .
CLC officially achieved their first win in the weekly music shows with the song “NO”. The CLC members burst into tears on stage when they received their first victory after 4 years of singing. The group set a new record that no other group wants: the group that took the longest to win its first musical show.
The follow-ups to ‘NO’, such as ‘Evil’ or ‘Helicopter’, were both impressive CLC successes. Despite the success of these songs, CLC were still not well known because their success came too late and the group was “getting old”.
In 2018, (G)I-DLE – CUBE’s next girl group after CLC – quickly achieved their first success since their debut, completely overshadowing the senior group. Known as the “rookie monster” of 2018, (G)I-DLE have excellently maintained their popularity in upcoming releases with their unique musical styles and concepts.
CLC was still a “flop” after 7 years, one member had to go to a survival show to find new opportunities
In early 2021, Elkie filed a lawsuit against CUBE, seeking termination of the contract and criticizing the company for neglecting CLC. Yujin also had to participate in the survival show “Girls Planet 999” to look for a new opportunity to debut.
Despite being an idol for 7 years, Yujin still had to compete with a number of new trainees. Netizens were furious when she was “evilly edited” by Mnet in the very first episode of the show.
CLC seemed to have little chance of breaking into the very competitive Kpop market. The late success failed to save the group and CUBE was no longer interested in investing in it.
