EXO

EXO is a South Korean-Chinese K-Pop group signed under SM Entertainment. They were formed in 2011 and debuted on April 8, 2012. All of EXO's members were introduced through a series of 23 teasers which were released from December 2011 to February 2012. EXO consists of 12 members who are separated into two subgroups. 6 of the members are in the subgroup EXO-K and they sing their songs in Korean. The other 6 are in the subgroup EXO-M and they sing the same songs in Mandarin Chinese. While every member of EXO-K is Korean, there are four Chinese members of EXO-M and two Korean. The group's name was taken from "exoplanet" which is a term referring to planets outside of the Solar System.

Since their comeback in June of 2013, EXO has been promoting as all twelve members as opposed to separating into their subgroups to attend events and performances.

Members

EXO-K

Suho, whose real name is Kim Joonmyun, was born on May 22, 1991 and is the leader of EXO-K as well as the lead vocalist. He was cast into SM Entertainment when he was sixteen through their street casting system in 2006 and he trained for seven years. Joonmyun made a brief appearance in TVXQ'sMVfor "HaHaHa Song," along with fellow EXO members Chanyeol and Kai. He was also an extra in the 2007 film, Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, which starred the members of Super Junior. He was introduced as the tenth member on February 15, 2012. Joonmyun currently attends Korea National University of Arts and is ranked in the top 50 of 400 students at the school.

Byun Baekhyun was born on May 6, 1992 and is a main vocalist of EXO-K. Baekhyun joined SM Entertainment in 2011 through their casting system and only underwent six months of training before he debuted. When he joined the company, he had been studying for his college musical entrance exams. He, as well as Chanyeol, Kai and Sehun, appeared in Girls' Generation-TTS's music video for "Twinkle". Baekhyun was revealed as a member on January 30, 2012 and was the last member to join EXO.

Park Chanyeol was born on November 27, 1992 and is EXO-K's main rapper. Chanyeol auditioned for SM and got into the company in 2008. He trained for four years. Chanyeol has appeared in several music videos including Girls' Generations' music video for the Japanese version of their song "Genie". In 2013, Chanyeol and fellow EXO member Sehun guest starred in the Korean sitcom, Royal Villa. Chanyeol can play the guitar, bass, drums and the djembe. He was the last member of EXO to be revealed on February 23, 2012.

D.O, whose real name is Do Kyungsoo, was born on January 12, 1993 and is a main vocalist of EXO-K. Kyungsoo has been singing since he was a child and participated in local singing competitions all throughout his high school career. After winning a local singing competition in 2010, he was recommended to audition for SM and trained for two years. Kyungsoo was the eighth member of EXO to be revealed on January 30, 2012.

Kai, whose real name is Kim Jongin, was born on January 14, 1994 and is the main dancer, lead rapper and visual of EXO-K. In 2007, he won tenth place in the S.M. Youth Best Contest and became the second EXO member to sign with SM. Jongin studied jazz and ballet dancing since he was eight and didn't become an expert at dancing hip hop until after he became a trainee. He made his first televised performance with Luhan, Chen and Tao on SBS's Gayo Daejun event on December 29, 2011. He is also a member of the SM promotional group, Younique Unit, and SM's dance group, SM The Performance. Jongin was the first member of EXO to be revealed on December 23, 2011. He then appeared in twelve more EXO teasers.

Oh Sehun was born on April 12, 1994 and is EXO-K's lead dancer, rapper and maknae. Sehun was scouted by an SM casting agent on the streets when he was twelve and after going through four auditions in two years, he became a trainee in 2008. He was the fifth member of EXO to be introduced on January 10, 2012.

EXO-M

Kris, whose real name is Wu Yifan, was born as Li Jiaheng on November 6, 1990 and is the leader and main rapper of EXO-M. Yifan was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, but moved to Canada when he was ten years old, therefore he has Canadian citizenship. He was cast into SM in 2007 after he auditioned at the SM Global Audition held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Before his debut, he made an appearance in an intermission video for the Girls' Generation Tour in 2011. He was the eleventh member that was introduced on February 17, 2012. Yifan can speak fluent Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Korean and English.

Xiumin, whose real name is Kim Minseok, was born on March 26, 1990. He is the lead vocalist and lead dancer of EXO-M. Minseok was cast into SM after he won second place in the S.M. Everysing Contest. He was introduced as the seventh member on January 26, 2012. He is one of the two Korean members of EXO-M.

Luhan, whose real name is Lu Han, was born on April 20, 1990. He is the lead vocalist, lead dancer and visual of EXO-M. In 2008, Luhan auditioned for JYP Entertainment, but failed. In 2010, while he was studying in Korea as an exchange student, Luhan was scouted by an SM Entertainment casting agent who recommended him to audition. His audition was successful and he became an official member of EXO in 2011. He is also a member of the SM promotional group, Younique Unit. He was the second member to be introduced on December 27, 2011.

Lay was born Zhang Yixing on October 7, 1991 and is the main dancer of EXO-M. Before he debuted, Yixing was a local child star in China and was on various Chinese variety shows. He was cast into SM in 2008 through the company's global audition held in his hometown of Changsha, Hunan, China. In 2011, he worked for SHINee in their concert tour as member Kim Jonghyun's dance replacement. Yixing was introduced as an EXO member on January 17, 2012. He is also a member of the SM dance group, SM The Performance.

Chen, whose real name is Kim Jongdae, was born on September 21, 1992. He is the main vocalist of EXO-M. Jongdae was the last member of EXO to be scouted by SM in 2011 after auditioning. He was the fourth member to be introduced on December 29, 2011. He is the second Korean member of EXO-M.

Tao, whose real name is Huang Zitao, was born on May 2, 1993. He is the lead rapper and maknae of EXO-M. He was cast into SM Entertainment through their global casting system in 2010. Zitao has been studying the martial art of wushu since he was six. He was the third member to be introduced on December 27, 2011.

Music

EXO has one EP and one album to date. Their debut EP, MAMA, was released on April 9, 2012, and contained six songs including their debut song, "MAMA". Their first full-length album, XOXO, was released on June 3, 2013, and the repackage on August 5, 2013. Both were released in two editions; the "Kiss" edition (Korean) and the "Hug" edition (Chinese). The original version featured twelve songs and the repackaged version featured fourteen.

Awards

EXO won their first ever number one song in Korea with their song "Wolf," which was the lead single from XOXO. The song was also their first song to win trophies on music shows from all three of Korea's major broadcast stations, earning it the name, "triple win." They have also received numerous newcomer and new artists awards, winning a total of fourteen awards since 2012 and a total of twelve wins on music shows.