Mamamoo (Hangul: 마마무), sometimes stylized as MAMAMOO, is a South Korean girl group formed by Rainbow Bridge World (formerly WA Entertainment) in 2014. The group officially debuted on June 19, 2014 with the song "Mr. Ambiguous".[ Their debut was considered by some critics as one of the best K-pop debuts of 2014. They are recognized for their retro, jazz, and R&B concepts and strong vocal performances.

Career

Pre-debut

Prior to their official debut, Mamamoo collaborated with several artists. Their first collaboration titled "Don't Be Happy" with Bumkey was released on January 8, 2014. A second collaboration with K.Will titled "Peppermint Chocolate" featuring Wheesung was released on February 11, 2014. "Peppermint Chocolate" ranked 11th on the Gaon Digital Chart in its first week. On May 30, Mamamoo released a third collaboration with rap duo Geeks called "Hi Hi Ha He Ho".

2014: Debut with Hello and Piano Man

The group made their official debut on June 19 with lead single "Mr. Ambiguous" from their first mini album Hello. The music video for "Mr. Ambiguous" contained cameo appearances from many well-known K-pop industry figures such as CNBLUE's Jonghyun, Baek Ji-young, Wheesung, Jung Joon-young, Bumkey, K.Will, and Rhymer of Brand New Music. The album contained three previously released collaborations and four new songs. The group made their first live appearance on the June 19 episode of M! Countdown. On June 27, Mamamoo performed "Peppermint Chocolate" with K.Will and VIXX's Ravi on the Music Bank "Half-Year" Special. On July 5, the group held a guerilla concert at Hongik University in Hongdae, Seoul. In July, Mamamoo released their first original soundtrack contribution titled "Love Lane" for the Korean drama Marriage, Not Dating. On November 21, Mamamoo released their second mini-album Piano Man with the title track of the same name.] The title song peaked at 41 on Gaon's Digital chart. By the end of 2014, Mamamoo ranked tenth highest among idol girl groups for digital sales, 19th in album sales, and 11th in overall sales according to Gaon's year-end rankings. On the January 10 episode of competitive singing show Immortal Songs 2, Mamamoo performed a rendition of Joo Hyun-mi's "Wait a Minute", reaching the final round before losing to Kim Kyung-ho.

2015: Pink Funky and rising popularity

On April 2, 2015, Mamamoo released "Ahh Oop!", the first single of their third mini-album titled Pink Funky. "Ahh Oop!" marks the group's second collaboration with label mate Esna, after she was featured in "Gentleman" on their second mini-album Piano Man. On June 13, the group traveled to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to perform at an event sponsored by the South Korean Embassy with Crayon Pop and K-Much. The event was a commemorative concert held in honor of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Korea and Mongolia. On June 19, Mamamoo released their third mini-album Pink Funky and lead single "Um Oh Ah Yeh". The song was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the Gaon Chart, becoming their first top three single. On August 23, after promotions concluded, Mamamoo held their first fan meeting, entitled "1st Moo Party", for a total of 1,200 fans at the Olympic Park in Seoul. Tickets for the fan meeting sold out within one minute, so the group added an additional meeting for 1,200 more fans the same night. They also held another "Moo Party" in Los Angeles, which took place on October 4. This was their first trip to the United States. Mamamoo also collaborated and performed with label mate Basick on the Korean rap survival show Show Me the Money. On August 29, Mamamoo returned to Immortal Song 2 with a rendition of Jo Young-nam's "Delilah". On October 31, Mamamoo returned to the Immortal Song 2, singing a rendition of Korean trot singer Bae Ho's song "Backwood's Mountain" (두메산골). Their performance earned their first overall win on Immortal Song with 404 points.

2016–present: Melting, Memory and Purple

On January 26, 2016, Mamamoo pre-released an R&B ballad, "I Miss You", from their first full-length album Melting. On February 12, another track, "1cm/Taller than You" was pre-released with a music video. The full album was released on February 26, debuting at number 3 on the Gaon chart. The title track "You're the Best (넌 is 뭔들)" also debuted at number three but peaked at number one the following week, becoming their first number-one single. On March 6, they received their first music show win with the song "You're the Best" on Inkigayo[35], followed by wins on Music Bank, M! Countdown, and other music shows. They received eight wins in total for the single. On March 16, Mamamoo performed in Austin, Texas at South By Southwest's K-Pop Night Out. A little over three months later, they returned to the United States, performing at KCON NY in Newark, New Jersey on June 25. Alongside girl group GFriend, they have also starred in Season 7 of reality television show "SHOWTIME". On August 31, Mamamoo released the singles "Angel" and "Dab Dab" as subgroups consisting of vocalists (Solar and Wheein) and rappers (Moonbyul and Hwasa) respectively. On September 21, Mamamoo released their follow-up digital single "New York" and accompanying music video. After wrapping up promotions for "New York" Mamamoo's agency announced that the group will make their comeback on November 7 with their fourth mini album, Memory. The lead single for Memory was announced to be "Décalcomanie." Shortly afterwards, MAMAMOO participated in several year-end award shows, while also featuring in the OST titled "Love" for hit TV show Goblin.

On June 17, 2017, Mamamoo participated in Immortal Song 2 with a rendition of Noh Sa Yeon's "Love" which garnered '430 points'.

Mamamoo announced the release of their fifth mini album Purple on June 22, 2017, with the title track "Yes I Am". The title track quickly climbed to the number one spot on the Melon real-time chart . After one day, Mamamoo sets the record for the highest first 24-hours unique listeners with "Yes I Am" on Melon for girl group. On June 27, they received their first music show win on The Show, followed by wins on Show Champion, M Countdown, and Show! Music Core.- Wikipedia