NU'EST (Korean: 뉴이스트; short for New Establish Style Tempo) is a South Korean boy band formed by Pledis Entertainment. The group debuted on March 15, 2012, with the digital single "Face". The group consists of five members: JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun, and Ren.^[1]

Prior to their debut, NU'EST made appearances in their labelmates' music releases. They were backup dancers for After School Blue's "Wonder Boy", and featured in their label's Christmas release "Love Letter". They also released their own music video for "Love Letter" as Pledis Boys.^[2] JR appeared in Orange Caramel's "Bangkok City" music video, and was also featured in Uee's solo song "Sok Sok Sok". Baekho appeared in After School's "Play Ur Love" music video, and Minhyun starred in Orange Caramel's "Shanghai Romance" music video.

JR, Minhyun, Aron, and Ren were also featured with After School's Lizzy in a commercial for New Balance. JR and Baekho appeared on the KBS television program Hello Counselor and were revealed by After School's Kahi as two members of the group. This drew attention from viewers and they became a topic of interest online.^[3] Minhyun and Ren also gained attention modeling for designer Park Yoon-so's F/W 2012–13 Seoul Fashion Week show, titled 'Big Park'.^[4]

NU'EST made their debut with their first single, "Face", on 15 March 2012.^[5] Their debut stage was on M! Countdown on the same day.

The group began airing their own reality show, Making of a Star: NU'EST Landing Operation, during the promotional period.^[6]

They returned with their first EP, Action, on 11 July,^[7] and became ambassadors for Korea's Scout Association.^[8] During their promotional period and the rest of the year, NU'EST began to expand to the global market, holding events in Japan, Australia, other parts of Asia, and the United States, including performances at KCON.^[9] During December, NU'EST began endorsements with McDonald's.^[10]

Baekho and Ren made acting appearances in the drama Jeon Woo-chi alongside label mate Uee in January 2013.^[11] The group returned with their second EP, Hello, on 13 February.^[12] They held their first exclusive concert, Show Time NU’EST Time, on the same day to commemorate the release.^[13][14] During the promotional period, they were cast for SBS MTV Diary along with their then-label mate Hello Venus.^[15] In March, NU'EST celebrated their first anniversary through a concert in Japan, NU′EST Debut 1st Anniversary Live Show Time.^[14] On 8 April, Aron became a DJ for Arirang's Music Access.^[16]

On 22 August 2013, NU'EST released their third EP, Sleep Talking, with the title track of the same name.^[17]

To celebrate Music Core's 400th episode in March 2014, Ren performed Girl's Day's "Something" alongside BtoB's Minhyuk, A-Jax's Seungjin, and VIXX's Hongbin.^[18]

On 9 July 2014, NU'EST released their first full album, Re:BIRTH, with the lead single "Good Bye Bye".^[19] They also debuted in Japan on 5 November, with the single "Shalala Ring".^[20]

NU'EST released the digital single "I'm Bad" on 27 February 2015,^[21] with a limited edition physical release on 15 March to celebrate their third anniversary. Baekho did not participate in the title track as he was recovering from vocal cord polyps surgery, but he did contribute to the B-side track, "A Scene Without you." On 2 April, Minhyun collaborated with Korean indie artist Fromm on the single "The Aftermath". On 19 April, Aron ended his position as a DJ at Arirang's Music Access. The group held their first solo showcase in North America in Dallas, put together by My Music Taste, on 3 May.^[22]

NU'EST released their second Japanese single, "Na.Na.Na", on 20 May.^[23] On 14 August, Aron took up a position as a DJ on SBS PopAsia with his own show Aron's Hangout.^[24] NU'EST released their first Japanese studio album, Bridge the World, on 18 November, after pre-releasing the tracks "Bridge the World", "Cherry", "Access to You", and "Eternal Rain".^[25]

Their fourth EP, Q Is, was released on 17 February 2016 with the lead single "Overcome". They began promotions for the album the following day.^[26]

NU'EST released their fifth EP Canvas and the accompanying single "Love Paint (Every Afternoon)" on 29 August 2016.^[27] After four years of promotions, the group received their first music show nomination on The Show. On 6 October 2016, the music video for the duet track "Daybreak" from Canvas was released. "Daybreak" was a special unit track, sung by Minhyun and JR.^[28]

Four members (JR, Baekho, Minhyun, and Ren) participated in the reality television series Produce 101 Season 2 during the first half of 2017.^[29] During their appearance on the show, previously released albums, including Q Is and Canvas, rose on South Korean album charts, reflecting a sudden surge in popularity of the group.^[30][31]

Produce 101 Season 2 concluded with Minhyun, Baekho, JR, and Ren ranking 9th, 13th, 14th, and 20th respectively. Minhyun's ranking in the final episode gave him a place as a member of the temporary boy group Wanna One. Due to the nature of the contract between the Wanna One members and CJ E&M, Minhyun was unable to participate in NU'EST promotions for a period of 1.5 years in order to promote exclusively as a member of Wanna One.^[32][33]

After the final episode of Produce 101 Season 2 aired, NU'EST's previous releases shot back up on music charts and topped the Gaon Chart.^[34] Shortly after, the remaining members of NU'EST announced that they would be promoting as a four-member special unit, NU'EST W, until Minhyun's return following Wanna One's disbandment.^[35] Due to the group's sudden surge in popularity, they (as NU'EST W) returned to music shows to promote their single "Hello" (first released in 2013), and ranked number 11 on Inkigayo.^[36]

Following the conclusion of Produce 101 Season 2, JR and Ren also became models for the cosmetics company Labiotte.^[37] Subsequently, Baekho and Aron also joined their groupmates in promoting the brand. Ren joined the JTBC variety show Learning the Hard Way, of which he is a fixed member.^[38] Aron featured on Raina's single "Loop".^[39]

While Minhyun's Wanna One contract officially ended on December 31, 2018, he did not officially return to NU'EST until a month later. This was due to Pledis and Swing Entertainment coming to an agreement that allowed Minhyun to attend scheduled year-end shows and award ceremonies throughout January 2019 as a member of Wanna One. Minhyun's final Wanna One activity before returning to NU'EST was a final concert (titled Therefore) that was held across four days, ending on January 27, 2019.^[40]

After reuniting, NU'EST announced their contract renewal with Pledis Entertainment.^[41] On March 15, they released special digital single "A Song For You" to celebrate their 7th debut anniversary.^[42]

On April 3, Minhyun released digital solo single "Universe" as pre-release single from upcoming NU'EST album.^[43] The single is accompanied by the music video shot in Budapest and Milan.^[44] The group held their first solo concert in six-years titled "Segno" on April 12–14 to an audience of 36,000.^[45][46] Their sixth EP Happily Ever After was released on April 29 with the lead single "Bet Bet".^[47] It marks their first release after three years and their last in three-part series of "Knights searching for the Queen" narrative which began with their fourth EP in 2016.^[48]

On 8 October 2013, Pledis Entertainment announced to launch a sub-group formed to target the Chinese market, NU'EST M, consisting of six members: JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun, Ren, and one Chinese member from Yuehua Entertainment, Jason. NU'EST M is specially targeted to the Chinese market, and thus will only carry out promotions in China. The group recorded Chinese versions of the lead singles "Face" and "Sleep Talking". In 2014, Pledis Entertainment's contract with Yuehua Entertainment dissolved, so Jason left the group and they changed their promotional name to NU’EST China.

On July 17, 2017, NU'EST W was formed by Pledis Entertainment. The group consisted of 4 NU'EST members, promoting in the absence of Minhyun (who at the time, was exclusively promoting with Wanna One.)^[49] NU'EST W released a total of 3 EPS (W, Here, Who You, and Wake;N,) before disbanding on December 31, 2018, with the return of Minhyun.