Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
The contract status of EXID with Banana Culture Entertainment has been up in the air for a while now, and the company has recently announced that Hani and Jeonghwa will be leaving the company with LE, Solji, and Hyelin remaining. Despite two members leaving the company, Banana Culture deny that EXID are disbanding.
Hello, this is Banana Culture Entertainment. This is our official statement about EXID’s contracts. Solji, LE, and Hyelin expressed their wishes to remain with the agency and re-signed with us. Hani and Jeonghwa have, after a long discussion with the agency, reached an agreement with us and decided to go their separate ways after their contracts expire at the end of May 2019. The three EXID members who have renewed their contracts with us will be focusing on their individual promotions for the time being. Solji and LE are preparing to promote as solo artists, highlighting their singing, rapping, and producing talents, and Hyelin is planning on tackling a variety of broadcast and music activities with her various talents and appealing image. EXID is an important group to Banana Culture as well as the fans, and as such, we are not thinking of this as the group disbanding. The members are also thinking of it more as a turning point from which they can take on new challenges. We are deliberating on ways in which EXID can promote together in the future. [Banana Culture] will do our best so that Solji, LE, and Hyelin can carry out stable and active solo promotions. We also express our deep gratitude to Hani and Jeonghwa. Though their contracts are officially expiring, we sincerely wish them the best in their future endeavors. We ask for your encouragement and support for the five members of EXID, who have new roads ahead. Thank you.
As a fan of EXID, this is obviously not the best news. While the bond between the girls has always seemed tight and while they say they’d like to continue on as EXID, the track record of groups staying together after going to separate companies basically consists of Brown Eyed Girls.
On the plus side, we will get at least one more comeback.
On May 3, the group’s agency Banana Culture Entertainment commented, “EXID is releasing a new mini album on [May] 15,” and added, “EXID will take a hiatus from team activities after completing broadcast promotions and performances in Korea and overseas following their album release. The agreement has been made for Hani and Jeonghwa to carry out all scheduled activities before searching for new agencies.”
Better than nothing.
