Fin.K.L

Fin.K.L was a South Korean girl group. Their name stands for Fine Killing Liberty, which is intended to mean "ending the oppression of all freedom" (fin means "ending" in French). This name was selected before its inception, from a polling of potential fans of the upcoming group. This is the reason for the lack of clear meaning in Fin.K.L's English name was selected first. Fin.K.L was one of the most popular girl groups in Korean music of all time, along with rival S.E.S. To this day, they are known as legends in the Korean music industry and paved the way for female pop groups. The first member to be discovered for Fin.K.L was its lead singer, Ock Ju-Hyun. She was discovered through a radio singing contest, which she won by singing Mariah Carey's Hero. Ock told her friend Lee Jin about this group and encouraged her to join; she was selected after singing Eco's for her audition. The next member to be selected was Sung Yuri, who was discovered while on a school field trip. As for the fourth member, Annie Lee (now of Tashannie) was accepted, but decided to depart after a few months. Hyori was brought in instead, who was found while in a mall taking sticker pictures with friends. Fin.K.L debuted in 1998 with its first album Blue Rain. Although the trend of late 90's K-pop was to have groups sing cute, catchy music, Fin.K.L's initial strength was in strong R&B ballads lead by Ock Ju-Hyun's powerful vocals; this was shown by their first single, the title song from the album.