BADKIZ (HOT PLACE)     배드키즈 (핫플레이스) baedeukijeu (haspeulleiseu)

Hot Place (Hangul: 핫플레이스; stylized as HOT PLACE), formerly Badkiz (Hangul: 배드키즈; stylized as BADKIZ) is a South Korean girl group that debuted in 2014 with the song, “Ear Attack.”

Pre-debut

Before K.Me and Duna joined Badkiz, they were members of the group ZZBEst under Faith Entertainment, using the former stage names Miri and DanA, respectively. The group was disbanded before they could debut in 2015. After Duna left ZZBEst, she joined the group HOTTIES using the stage name “Hyena”. HOTTIES disbanded in 2017.

2014: Debut with “Ear Attack” and “Babomba”

Badkiz originally debuted on March 24, 2014 as a 5-member group consisting of the members Monika, BomBom, Yeunji, EunJoo and Jina with the digital single, “Ear Attack”, with two versions of the music video and many appearances on music shows. Following the release of the debut single, Monika and Jina released a digital single, “Father”, on March 30. Sometime after the debut single, EunJoo and Yeunji later left Badkiz and was replaced by Yoomin and Hana. EunJoo would later debut in group Luluz, under the stage name Eunsom, in late 2014, until disbandment in 2015. Eunsom then become a member of Wanna.B under the same agency in 2015.

On November 13, 2014, Badkiz released their second single, “Babomba”, which raised over one million views. The video is known for including a lot of popular Korean comedians.

2015: New line-up changes, “Come Closer”, Jina-U and BomBom’s new group

In March 2015, Yoomin announced that she had left Badkiz, and for a brief period of time Badkiz continued as a four-member group. In April, following an appearance on Dream Team, Jina, BomBom and Hana also departed the group. While it is unknown why BomBom and Hana left Badkiz, Jina left to become a soloist and re-debuted on June 26, 2015 under the stage name Jina-U with her debut single, “Oppanyong”. BomBom announced that she will be a member of a newly debuted group, Pit-A-Pat, under Pitapat Entertainment under the stage name “Jain”. They disbanded after only release one single.

After the departure of the four members, Zoo Entertainment announced the new members of Badkiz consisting of LuA, Haneul and K.Me. On August 7, 2015, Badkiz released their third digital single, “Come Closer”.

2016: Lineup changes, “Hothae” and “Ear Attack 2”

Member Haneul left the group shortly after the release of “Come Closer,” and was replaced by two new members: Somin and U-Si. The new additions brought the group back up to its original count of a five-member lineup.

Badkiz released their fourth single, “Hothae”, on August 15, 2016. On November 21, 2016, Badkiz released their fifth single, a remake of their debut single, “Ear Attack”, called “Ear Attack 2”. It was later revealed that member LuA had left the group, and she would be replaced by a new member: Duna.

2017: “Give It To Me”, lineup changes

On July 3, 2017, Badkiz released their sixth single, “Give It To Me”. On Cafe Daum, Badkiz confirmed that U-Si and Duna left the group due to health and personal problems.

Near the end of 2017, Lohee was announced as a new member.

2018: Monika’s departure, “Just One Day” and further lineup changes

At the start of 2018, Sol.B began performing with Badkiz. In early 2018, Monika, the last original member of the group, announced her departure to focus on her solo career.

On April 6, 2018, Badkiz released their seventh single, “Just One Day”. A few months after promotions, Sol.B left the group and a new member, Hanbit, was added. Soon after, K.Me later announced her departure due to her contract expiring with a new member, Hayoung, joining a few days later. Lohee announced her departure in a letter to the fans and another new member, Sihyeon, was added to the group. In an effort to start over fresh, old Badkiz content was deleted from social media accounts and Somin announced her stage name would change to Kira.

2019: Hayoung’s departure and changing their name to Hot Place

In 2019 the band had their name changed to Hot Place. A new member was announced, and Hayoung’s departure silently confirmed They released the single album Hot Place in March 2019.

In fall 2019 HOT PLACE stopped posting any content on their SNS accounts, the last picture of all 4 HOT PLACE members was published in Octobre 2019. The instagram accounts of Sihyeon and Taeri went private of offline and the websites of ZOO Entertainment and LOUDers Entertainment have been offline since then, too.

2020: Possible comeback as Badkiz

Jang Somin has legally changed her name to Jang Eunyu and remains the last member together with Kim Sohyeon (Hanbit), who is wearing her hair long again. The never defunct instagram account of Badkiz has published images and videos of them training together in early 2020. There is a possibility that HOT PLACE is dead and the two are preparing for a comeback as a duo under the name Badkiz again.

In April 2020 a new third member (Semi) was revealed (inofficially) via her instagram account. It seems a possible BADKIZ comeback will be as a group again, not as a duo. Hanbit also changed her stage name and instagram account, skipping th hp_ for Hotplace.