All eight members of girl group fromis_9 will leave their agency Pledis Entertainment, ending the singers' three-year journey with the HYBE subsidiary at the end of the year.

"Our contract with fromis_9 members Lee Sae-rom, Song Ha-young, Park Ji-won, Roh Ji-sun, Lee Seo-yeon, Lee Chae-young, Lee Na-gyung and Park Ji-heon will end as of Dec. 31," Pledis Entertainment wrote on the band's fan community service Weverse.


"We held very long talks about each of the fromis_9 members on their future and plans for their activities, and we came to the conclusion to end the contract."

The group will release its last song under Pledis Entertainment on Dec. 23 dedicated to the fans, according to the agency.

fromis_9 was formed in 2017 through Mnet's audition program "Idol School" and debuted the following year with "Glass Shoes" (2018). The girl group is best known for the hit tracks "Love Bomb" (2018), "Fun!" (2019) and "We Go" (2021). It debuted on Jan. 24, 2018.

The girl group was signed to CJ ENM, which owns cable channel Mnet, until 2021 when the company signed over the contract to Pledis Entertainment, home to boy band Seventeen, which was itself sold off to HYBE in May 2020.

Fans of fromis_9 had often expressed dismay at Pledis Entertainment for the lack of support given to the girl group compared to the other groups of Pledis, such as Seventeen and TWS. The girl group released two EPs in 2022, one full-length album in 2023 and one single this year.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]