SHINee's Key and Minho Re-Sign with SM, BoA Announces Retirement

SHINee members Key and Minho, who are currently SM's flagship artists, have re-signed with SM. They have been with SM for about 16 years since their debut in 2008. However, Tae Min left SM on the 1st of this month to join Rain Planet Made Entertainment, and Onyou left on the 3rd of this month to join Griffin Entertainment, a new agency.

 

Key and Minho, who re-signed with SM based on their deep trust in the agency, said through their agency, "SM has been with SHINee every step of the way from the beginning to the present. We think we are where we are today because of the company staff who have been working together for a long time. We would like to continue to have good synergy with SM and create new and diverse starting points as artists. We would also like to thank our fans who have always believed in us and supported us, and we will always show our best side."

 

SHINee Key.

 

SM also commented, "We are happy to continue our precious relationship with Key and Minho. We will continue to support Key and Minho in various ways so that they can shine even brighter as solo artists as well as members of SHINee," and expressed their infinite love for the two members.

 

In particular, Minho posted on his social media on the 9th, "Re-signing completed. Thank you to all SM staff for always caring and working hard. We go together because we have faith and stay together because we have trust. Thank you," and posted a photo of his thumb with ink on it, confirming his re-signing with SM.

 

SHINee Minho.

 

BoA, who can be considered a "symbol of SM" beyond being a representative artist, also recently mentioned the length of her contract with SM. However, BoA's situation is much different than SHINee's. Instead of just saying she's leaving SM, she announced her retirement.

 

The news broke on the sixth of this month. On her social media, BoA wrote, "Now that my contract is over, I can retire, right?" The word "retirement" led some fans to speculate whether she meant "retirement from sports" or a typo.

 

SM BoA.

 

Boa was aware of the issue, as he quickly tweeted, "I made a typo. Retirement," he corrected, implying that he was indeed retiring.

 

After BoA deleted all of his social media posts following the retirement hint, SM came to his defense. "As false facts, malicious personal attacks, insults, and slander against our artists continue to occur on various social media, video sharing platforms, and online communities, we are currently working with Sejong Law Firm (Co., Ltd.), which is in charge of legal responses related to infringement of our artists' rights, as well as additional external legal advisors, to file large-scale lawsuits both domestically and internationally," SM said on the 11th.