T-ara to become 7-member group

The forewarned "big changes" for Korean girl band T-ara have been revealed: they will be adding a new member to their current six-person line-up and member Boram will become the group's new leader.

According to their agency Core Contents Media on Friday, the leader position in the group will be transferred from Ham Eunjung to Jun Boram and a seventh member will be brought in.

Last Friday, agency head Kim Kwang-soo had announced that T-ara would soon be going through "big changes" and that he would be providing further details on July 23.

However, Kim's official statement regarding the future activities of the band came early this morning, a week sooner than originally planned, and included information and photographs of T-ara's newest recruit.

Newcomer Ryu Hwa-young, a junior in high school, got the opportunity to join the group through her twin sister Ryu Hyo-young, the winner of Korea's famous beauty pageant Miss Choonhyang.

Hyo-young had caught the eye of Kim and T-ara during her May 29 guest appearance on SBS TV show "Star King," where she played the traditional Korean instrument gayageum. Kim and T-ara set up a business meeting with Hyo-young soon after, but Hyo-young had recommended her twin sister in her place.

After much discussion among T-ara members and their agency's staff, they decided to add Hwa-young to the band.

Recently, there had been talk that the six members were not getting along, which was sparked up by several comments Jiyeon and Hyomin had each posted on their Twitter pages. The agency, however, called the rumors "groundless" and denied there was any feud among the girls.

T-ara, who debuted in July 2009 with the single "Lie" and "Wanna Play," is composed of Eunjung, Hyomin, Jiyeon, Boram, Soyeon and Qri.

They released their first studio album "Absolute First Album" in December 2009, which produced two hit singles "Bo Peep Bo Peep" and "I Go Crazy Because Of You."

Several members have also branched out to acting; Eunjung is currently starring in SBS TV series "Coffee House" while Hyomin and Jiyeon will soon be appearing in upcoming drama "My Girlfriend is a Fox with Nine Tails" (SBS) and summer horror pic "Death Bell 2: Bloody Camp," respectively.

Source : asiae