Sorry Sorry - Third Album

Sorry, Sorry is the third studio album by South Korean boy band Super Junior, released on March 12, 2009 in South Korea. Sorry, Sorry was a critically and commercially successful hit in Asia, becoming 2009's best-selling Korean-language album in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and the Philippines. In less than a week after pre-orders were announced, over 150,000 copies were pre-ordered. According to South Korea's Hanteo Charts, it debuted at #1 on the charts with almost 30,000 copies sold on the first day. Sorry, Sorry won a Disk Daesang (Album of the Year) at the 2009 Golden Disk Awards.

Following their commercially successful 2007 album Don't Don.
In July 2008, Super Junior announced the initial preparations for Sorry, Sorry. In November 2008, Kyuhyun wrote in his fancafe stating that he was preparing for the third album "bit by bit". During a press conference in January 2009 for a Super Show encore concert in Seoul, Kang-in stated that the album will be in a style that will make the audience see a different side of Super Junior. He further commented that while their second album Don't Don did well in 2007, activities promoting the album were lacking due to the activities of different subgroups. Therefore, there will be a concentrated effort to increase promotional activities in order to make Sorry, Sorry more successful. On March 2, SM announced the official release date to be on March 12, 2009.
An image teaser of the album was released on March 4, 2009 and a video teaser of the album was released on March 6. "Sorry, Sorry" was released as a digital single through various Korean MP3 sites on March 9.
The album's second promotional single "It's You" was revealed on May 11, 2009. After only five hours of release, the single became the #1 song on Cyworld's Music Charts.  A repackaged version of Sorry, Sorry, with four new bonus tracks which included "It's You", was released on May 14, 2009.
Sorry, Sorry contains primarily pop music, with the album having a more mature approach in style in comparison to previous Super Junior albums. It contains more R&B-styled pop songs with lyrics that represent the evolution of "boys to men." Songs are less cheerful; melodic instruments play a huge part in most of the songs, showing maturity. Rap is also less presented in this album, having a majority of the songs dominated by R&B and harmonious vocals. Super Junior explained that this album is more strongly affiliated with Super Junior's own musical style unlike their previous albums, in which their music had been test-productions for various markets. The album shows its strong influence from contemporary dance and R&B. It draws from bubblegum pop to a lesser degree, unlike their previous albums.
The title song "Sorry, Sorry" was written by Youngjin Yoo, who was also responsible for the title single of Super Junior's 2007 album. This track is inspired by American funk – with vocals and a strong electronic beat, a new style that the group has never tried before. Nick Bass, who has worked with international stars like Usher and Justin Timberlake, choreographed the dance for "Sorry, Sorry" with assistant staff Trent Dickens, showing the single's strong musical prominence. The second promotional single "It's You" was written by E-Tribe, famous for creating hits such as "Gee and Lee Hyori's "U-Go-Girl"."It's You" similarly draws influences from electronic beats; however, it keeps a heavier emphasis on contemporary R&B.
TVXQ members U-Know and Micky wrote the rap and performed it in "Heartquake" and actress Lee Yeon-hee's vocals are also featured in "Club No.1."
In just days, 150,000 copies of Sorry, Sorry were pre-ordered. The album debuted at #1 on the Hanteo Daily Charts, with approximately 30,000 copies sold, making it the biggest opening day for the group. By the end of the week, 36,000 copies have been sold through Hanteo, debuting at #2 on the Hanteo Weekly charts, selling only 4,000 copies less than Seo Taiji's single, which was released on March 10. Sorry, Sorry debuted at #2 on Hottracks Gayo Best 5 on the second week of March and jumped to #1 on the third week. As of May 15, 2009, over 215,000 units have been sold, being the first Korean-language album to do so in 2009.^[
Sorry, Sorry and both of its singles topped all of Taiwan's yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily Korean charts, thus becoming the best-selling Korean-language and international album in the country. Its long stay as #1 in Thailand's music charts broke records, and was also certified as a best-selling album. Super Junior was awarded with 'Best Selling Album' at the South Korea's Gaon’s 2009 Top 100 albums chart. SM Entertainment announced on December 12, 2009 that the album sold 250,683 copies.
Surprisingly, the album made an appearance on the 99th rank of South Korea's Gaon's 2010 Top 100 albums chart, selling 14,581 copies.
The album currently sold a total of 270,152 copies by 2012.

In February 2006, Super Junior 05 began performances for "Miracle", the second promotional single from their debut album. "Miracle" topped the music charts of Thailand, drawing interest from international markets. As promotions for "Miracle" ended, SM Entertainment began selecting new members for Super Junior's second generation, Super Junior 06. The company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate from the group. However, the company abandoned the rotational concept after adding a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, in 2006. The group then became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05".
After the addition of Kyuhyun, Super Junior released their single "U" for free download on May 25, 2006 on their official website. "U" exceeded 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and ultimately surpassed 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server. The physical single of "U" with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, eventually selling over 81,000 units in South Korea. The single became one of Korea's most popular songs of the year, taking up number one spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top music programs. By the end of the year, Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies, and was one of the three Best Newcomer winners at the 21st Golden Disk Awards.
In late 2006, Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung formed the subgroup Super Junior-K.R.Y., Super Junior's first sub-unit. They performed their first single "The One I Love", theme song to the Korean television drama Hyena, on the KBS music program Music Bank on November 5, 2006. In February 2007, Leeteuk, Heechul, Kangin, Sungmin, and Eunhyuk formed Super Junior-T, a trot-singing group. They released their first single "Rokuko" on February 23, 2007, and made a debut performance on Popular Songs two days later.
Super Junior's second official album was intended for a late 2006 release, but due to several accidental setbacks, Don't Don was not released until September 20, 2007. Don't Don sold over 60,000 units the first day of release and debuted at number one on the monthly chart of September 2007. Although Don't Don received mixed reviews from critics, the album went to sell more than 160,000 copies by the end of the year, becoming the second best-selling record of 2007. Super Junior received seven nominations at the 2007 Mnet/KM Music Festival, winning three of them which included Artist of the Year, termed by many as the highest recognition of the ceremony. Super Junior collected two more recognitions at the 22nd Golden Disk Awards, including a Disk Bonsang award (Record of the Year).

2000–2005: Formation and debut

In 2000, SM Entertainment held their first overseas casting auditions in Beijing, China and recruited Han Geng, who auditioned against three thousand applicants^. That same year, Leeteuk, Yesung, and Eunhyuk were recruited after auditioning for the company's annual casting system in Seoul. Sungmin and Donghae became trainees after jointly winning first place in an SM-sponsored contest in 2001. In 2002, Heechul and Kangin were recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in Los Angeles, California by a casting agent. Siwon became a trainee after being scouted in 2003 and Ryeowook in 2004, who was recruited into the company after winning the 2004 Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition^. Shindong and Kyuhyun, the latter winning third place at the 2005 Chin Chin Youth Festival, were cast in 2005.
In early 2005, Lee Soo-man announced that he had been preparing for an all-boy project group of twelve members to debut at the end of the year. He called this singing group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia, as most of the members in this group were chosen for their experiences as actors, MCs, models, and radio hosts prior debut. Heechul and Kibum were already established actors at the time, and most of the other members had already made various kinds of appearances in television and media.^. Inspired by the rotational concept of Japan's girl group Morning Musume, Lee said that his new group would also experience line-up changes, with new members replacing selected members every year to keep the group constantly young and all-rounded. This concept was then newly introduced to the K-pop market.
For a while the group was rumored to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm. However, before the group settled with their current name, the company simply referred to them as super junior05, a representation of the members' young ages when they first became SM trainees. After the members' showcased their different talents to the company at a picnic, the company finalized their group name to Super Junior, and officially became Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior. Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut performance on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005.At the showcase, they performed various styles of hip-hop dancing, where they danced to B2K's "Take It to the Floor". Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance together, dancing to Usher's "Caught Up." However, the performance did not air on television until May 16, 2006 as a segment in the Super Junior Show, the group's first television documentary.
The group officially debuted on SBS's music program Popular Song on November 6, 2005, performing their first single "Twins (Knock Out)". A digital single with "Twins (Knock Out)", "You Are the One", and three additional tracks were released online on November 8, followed by the release of their debut album SuperJunior05 (Twins) on December 6, 2005. The album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at number three in the monthly chart of December 2005.