NRG, an acronym for New Radiancy Group (Hangu: 엔알지), arrived five years after the first iteration of K-pop—the fusion of American-leaning pop music with South Korean culture—reared its head on the national stage, and years before it would become the global phenomenon it is today. The South Korean five-piece comprising members Chun Myung-hoon, Lee Sung-jin, Noh Yoo-min, Moon Sung-hoon, and Kim Hwan-sung, announced themselves as a bright new voice on South Korea's boyband landscape in 1997 with the release of debut New Radiancy Group. They soon began carving out a unique space for themselves as leading proponents of high-energy dance-pop with subsequent studio albums Race (1998) and NRG 003 (1999), the latter charting at number 13 in South Korea. However, the group went on hiatus following the tragic death of Kim Hwan-sung from a virus infection on 15 June 2000. They channelled their grief into their fourth album Sorrow (悲), released a year after his death alongside a tribute concert. Back in the music-making seat, NRG re-emerged in 2003 with their fifth album Hit Song and the 2004 follow-up, New Radiancy 6 Group. However, they went on another extended hiatus following the release of their seventh album One of Five in 2005. The group announced their reunion in 2016 and the following year marked the 20th anniversary of their debut with a comeback EP, 20th (20세기), which went to number 39 on South Korea's Gaon chart. Two new singles saw the light in 2018: "평창 올림픽 헌정곡-Go to the 평창" and "통화중."