Amber Liu, Victoria Song and Luna, members of K-pop quartet f(x), have left their longtime label SM Entertainment. The move coincides with the group’s 10th anniversary.
Liu was the first to announce her departure. On September 1, she shared a handwritten note on Instagram in which she revealed that her contract with the South Korean company had come to an end. “I would like to announce my contract with SM Entertainment has ended today, and I have decided to part ways with the company. From the bottom of my heart, I’d like to thank everyone who believed in me and have been patient with me all these years,” she wrote. Read the post in its entirety here:
The Taiwanese-American singer has since signed with the Los Angeles-based Steel Wool Entertainment, home to acts such as Anderson .Paak and Hayley Kiyoko. Liu is currently working on a full-length album, she told Billboard’s Jeff Benjamin.
Four days after Liu’s announcement, Song posted a similar message on her Weibo and Instagram pages. The Chinese singer, who has been pursuing an acting career in China, revealed she had also left SM Entertainment. Song thanked her family and friends for “all the trust and support given”.
“I’m thankful for everything in these 10 years with SM [Entertainment],” Song wrote in Mandarin, as translated by Soompi. “This is a new beginning, a restart to my journey, but I will still be me, I will continue to be myself, not forget the past and move forward.”
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On the same day, SM Entertainment announced that Luna’s contract with the company had expired. The singer has yet to comment on the matter. The company also said in the same statement that fourth member Krystal Jung, the sister of former Girls’ Generation member Jessica Jung, still has “time remaining” on her contract.
f(x) had debuted in 2009 as a five-piece outfit comprising Liu, Song, Luna, Jung and South Korean singer-actress Sulli. The group became a quartet in 2015 when Sulli took a hiatus from the entertainment industry – she is, however, still represented by SM Entertainment. The status of the group remains unknown as the entertainment agency has yet to announce their disbandment, nor have any of the remaining members officially withdrawn from the quartet.