Genre House | Label SM Entertainment | |
Released May 10, 2010 (2010-05-10) Format Digital download, promotional single Recorded SM Studios in Seoul, South Korea Length 3:59 (album/radio version)
4:15 (dance version) | ||
"Bonamana" (Korean title: 미인아 Miina; literal meaning Beauty) is a song performed by South Korean boy band Super Junior. It is the lead single from the group's fourth studio album, Bonamana. The song was released as a digital single on May 10, 2010, three days before the South Korean release of Bonamana. The song was written by Yoo Young-jin, who also penned the lyrics.
Contents
Background
Followed by the establishment of "SJ Funky," a style that Super Junior had been exploring since the release of their third studio album, Sorry, Sorry, "Bonamana" draws influences from American electronica funk and hip hop, incorporating African rhythms and club house beats into the melody, similar to the song's writer Yoo Young-jin which later showed the same style on Yoo's later works Super Junior-M's "Super Girl" and Shinee's "Ring Ding Dong". The song incorporates the Afro tom, an African percussive instrument, and the powerful riff of a Jupiter synth, a sound synthesizer. Vocals are portrayed through usage of autotune. The song is about the sincerity of a man who is trying to win a girl's love, and the lyrics are described as witty and humorous.
Promotion and reception
On May 6, 2010, "Bonamana" was announced to be the lead single from the group's fourth album. The full single was released via digital download on South Korean MP3 download sites on May 10. The song was first performed on KBS2TV's music show Music Bank on May 14, and their performance peaked at number 3 on Nate's top trending search. The group performed "Bonamana" on MBC's Show! Music Core on May 15 and on SBS's The Music Trend on May 16.
After only one week in the charts, "Bonamana" surged to number 1 on Music Bank's K-Chart, making it Super Junior's fastest rise to the top of the chart for a lead single.
Music video
Directed by Jang Jae-hyuk, the music video was filmed in a filming set in Namyangju, Gyeonggi in late April 2010. The video is fairly low budget and was entirely shot in a disoriented sepia color, with shadows and alternating brighter lights shining on the members, consistently changing the lighting of the video. The video first begins with different angle shots of each member standing and slowly spinning around in a dark background with alternating backlighting, and then proceeds to a lighter tone when the song begins. A majority of the music video focuses on showing the group's various hip-hop dance formations and techniques. The choreography of the dance is inspired by speed skating, and the dance steps during the first hook of the song is inspired by Kim Yuna's "Danse Macabre" performance. Also, in the music video, there is a dance break performed by all members.
A minute teaser of the music video was revealed on May 7 through YouTube, and the full music video premiered on May 12 on Korea's GOMTV video site and through SM Entertainment's official YouTube account, attracting over 600,000 views on the first day of release. It currently has over 55 million views.
Japanese release
On April 25, 2011, it was announced that the single is going to be re-released into a Japanese version and that it will be a tie-up for Japanese convenient store chain Circle K Sunkus. The song will be released as a digital download on May 18, 2011 to be followed by a physical release on June 8, 2011, therefore officially their first Japanese single. There will be an upcoming CM (commercial movie) for the tie-up that was filmed way back February 2011 and that the Japanese lyrics were recorded a month after, in March 2011. The single takes 2nd on Oricon chart on the first day of release. According to the Oricon Chart, Bonamana (美人) sold 27,168 units on its release day. In addition, Bonamana (美人) music video which is made of videos from ‘Super Junior 3rd Asia Tour Super Show 3 in Japan’ held at Yokohama Arena in February, received over 300,000 views on the Japanese UCC website ‘Nikoniko’ in a day.