Closing their 7-year story, Dia says 'Rooting For You'

Ahead of officially marking an end to its seven-year journey together, Dia says "Rooting For You" to its fans and members with its last single.

Pocketbol Studio on Tuesday announced Dia will drop its final single as a group on Sept. 15. The six-piece girl group is set to disband when its contract terminates on Sept. 14.

The agency unveiled the cover image of the upcoming single, which showed a calendar page of when Dia debuted -- September 2015 -- marked with the act's memorable first steps along with handwritten memos from the members themselves.

The upcoming single will be a two-track package including member Ki Hui-hyeon's self-written song of the same title, "Rooting For You."

Following the single's release, Dia members will perform the song together once on a TV music show, the agency added.

In May, Pocketbol Studio announced Dia's tentative disbandment. It announced Dia would return with a new album in August and that it would be Dia's last album before the members' exclusive contract with Pocketbol Studio comes to an end.

"With the August album as the end, the members have decided to part their ways," the agency told local media outlets following the announcement then.

The album has since been downsized to a two-song single, and a month late, but still, Dia members have kept their last promise with fans.

Dia, whose name stands for "do it amazing," made their debut on Sept. 14, 2015, with its namesake LP. The group kicked off with seven singers and went through several changes in its member lineup before becoming the current six in 2020. The group consists of members Eunice, Hui-hyeon, Yebin, Jung Chae-yeon, Eun-chae and Ju-eun.

Dia had a rough start, as Hui-hyeon and Chae-yeon took a tentative break from Dia to compete in Mnet's survival show "Produce 101" in 2015, followed by leader Seung-hee's departure from the group the next spring due to a contract expiration with MBK Entertainment, as Pocketbol Studio was formerly known.

It was Chae-yeon's explosive popularity on the audition show that brought the group into the limelight, although many fans complained that it meant Chae-yeon could not focus on Dia. She later became one of the final winners to debut as Mnet's project girl group I.O.I. Dia's next album, its first EP, "Happy Ending," marked the group's highest scores on the music charts, likely thanks to the recognition brought by Chae-yeon.

Member Eun-chae joined the group in 2016 ahead of "Happy Ending," while Ju-eun and Somyi -- the latter of whom left the group in 2020 -- joined the next year. Chae-yeon was also done with I.O.I by then, and the septet seemed liked it was getting back on track. As a nonet, the group released its second full-length album "Yolo" in April 2017.

But hiccups continued for the group. In March 2018, Eun-jin announced an abrupt departure due to health issues, and former member Somyi took a break from Dia as she was one of the winners on KBS' idol reboot show "The Unit" and redebuted as a UNI.T member.

With Somyi away, Dia dropped its fourth EP, "Summer Ade," in April 2018, and to everyone's surprise, brought the group its first music show win at SBS' "The Show." The act's next EP "Newtro" also managed to become a finalist for "The Show" the next year, but fell short of winning No. 1. "Newtro" was the last album dropped before the departure of Somyi and Jenny.

Dia dropped its sixth EP, "Flower 4 Seasons," in May 2020 without Chae-yeon and Somyi. While Somyi had been sitting out of all the group schedules since December 2019, the label made it official in January 2022 that she had left the band "a long while ago."

Dia has been on an indefinite hiatus since, with none of the members pursuing unit or solo careers. So when the label announced in May that Dia will come to an end with the contract termination in September, not many fans were surprised.

According to South Korean law, seven years is the maximum period in which artists and agencies can sign a contract, and many groups disband or lose members at this point.

Even after all the ups and downs, Dia members are willing to end their seven-year story with a proper farewell to their fans, who have stood by them over the years. "Rooting For You" is perhaps the message for such fans, and also a message the bandmates hope to hear themselves.

On the album cover of "Rooting For You," Dia members thanked their fans, Ade -- the name of the official fandom -- in handwritten messages. "Ade, who have made us shine bright," "Thank you for walking to our pace, by our side, wherever and whenever," read the messages.

Dia's last single "Rooting For You" will be out at 6 p.m. on Sept. 15.

By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)