So, apparently the big selling point for these girls is that 3 of the 5 are bi-racial--with American dads and Korean moms. A Paramount Music representative explained
“Just like how chocolate has different flavors, Chocolat will be a group that has a variety of different charms to show on stages all over the world. You can definitely look forward to the birth of a great new rookie star. Their debut track is a club style dance track.”, and described their music as
"[music that] can be considered a mix of club and electronic dance songs. They’re perfect clubbing songs to listen to in the summer. You can consider it a mix of T-ara’s ‘Roly Poly‘ disco music and 2NE1’s ‘I Am the Best‘ dance music". Chocolat is set to release their debut track,
Syndrome, on August 17th with their debut performance set for August 18th's Mnet's "M! Countdown".
Member Profiles
Min Soa (
twitter)
-------------------------
Birth Name: Choi Min Ji
Birth Date: June 10, 1989
Position: Leader, Lead Vocalist
Nationality: Korean
Birth Place: South Korea
Tia (
twitter)
------------------------
Birth Name: Tia Hwang Cuevas
Birth Date: March 15, 1997
Position: Main Dancer, Vocalist, "Face" of the Group
Nationality: Korean-American (Korean mother, Puerto-Rican/German father)
Birth Place: California, USA
Melanie (
twitter,
old twitter)
------------------------
Birth Name: Melanie Aurora Lee
Birth Date: May 5, 1997
Position: Lead Vocalist, Lead Dancer
Nationality: Korean-American (Korean mother, Italian/German father)
Birth Place: Seoul, South Korea
Juliane (
twitter)
------------------------
Birth Name: Juliane Alfieri
Birth Date: December 12, 1993
Position: Vocalist
Nationality: Korean-American (Korean mother, Italian/German father)
Birth Place: Seoul, South Korea
Former MemberJaeyoon (
twitter)
------------------------
Birth Name: Lee Eun Jung
Birth Date: May 15, 1991
Position: Main Vocalist
Nationality: Korean
Their introduction video and some old dance practice videos:
And lastly, the MV teaser for
Syndrome:
I like them so far. Looking at that little introduction video though, Melanie seems very..."Tiffany"...who just so happens to be my SNSD bias (depending on what day of the week you ask, but it's mostly consistent), so that's fine by me. She's, 14, though, along with Tia...which...is sad. Way to make even a young guy like me feel old, kpop.