2009-2010

2009–2010: Focus on international activities, touring and line-up changes

Main articles: 2 Different Tears and Wonder Girls World Tour

Wonder Girls performing "Tell Me" at The Fillmore in San Francisco on June 13, 2010. From left to right: Yeeun, Sohee, Hyerim, Yubin and Sunye.

The Wonder Girls tour began on February 28, 2009, in Bangkok, Thailand. Along with their mentor, JYP, they held concerts throughout the United States.^[28] The group then returned to South Korea, holding concerts in late March in Seoul and Busan.^[29] This tour was documented in the M.net reality show Welcome to Wonderland. Following the tour, the Wonder Girls debuted a music video for "Now", a cover of Fin.K.L's single from their third album.
In March 2009, the Wonder Girls confirmed that the group would launch in an English-language music career in the United States with the official release of an English version of "Nobody" in summer 2009.^[30] It was later announced that the release would be followed by and English version of "Tell Me",^[31] and that an English album would be forthcoming.^[32] In June 2009, JYP Entertainment announced that the Wonder Girls would be joining the Jonas Brothers on the North American leg of the Jonas Brothers World Tour 2009.^[31] In order to concentrate on their American debut, both Sohee and Sunmi had dropped out of high school.^[33][34] The English version of "Nobody" was released on June 26, 2009, the day before the start of their tour with the Jonas Brothers. The Wonder Girls were initially signed on for 13 concert dates across the US, but they were eventually given the opportunity to join the Jonas Brothers for a total of 45 concert dates.^[35] "Nobody" entered the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2009, making them the first Korean group to enter the chart.^[5][36] The song also topped the Taiwan and Hong Kong music charts.^[37]
On January 22, 2010, JYP announced that Sunmi would be postponing her musical career to pursue an academic career and that Hyerim (Lim), a JYP trainee, would take her place.^[38][39] Sunmi continued to work as a participating member of the Wonder Girls in through February in order to complete scheduled events. Sunmi's departure put many of group's American plans into disarray. The Wonder Girls had been preparing an English album, with six tracks to consist of English versions of Korean singles and the other half of brand new material, initially scheduled for release in February 2010.^[40] They were also planning to have a headlining tour in January 2010;^[40] however, due to the departure of Sunmi, plans for the tour were delayed and the album was eventually scrapped.^[41]
On April 5, 2010, the Wonder Girls announced a 20-show tour of the US and Canada, dubbed "The Wonder World Tour", which included fellow label mates 2PM for nine dates in conjunction with Live Nation.^[42] The tour consisted of a combination of the English and Korean versions of their hits, covers of popular English-language songs, and new songs from their then-upcoming album.^[43] The first leg of the tour began in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2010. The tour was eventually extended to add an additional leg in which label mates, 2AM, would open for the group during certain dates.^[44]
The Wonder Girls followed up their tour announcement with the unveiling of their latest EP, titled "2 Different Tears". The title track was recorded in three different languages: Chinese, Korean and English. The music video for "2 Different Tears" premiered on YouTube on May 15, 2010; it was shot in the Gyeonggi-do province of South Korea. The music video includes Park Jin-young and the Korean-American comedian Bobby Lee.^[45] The EP was released on the same day.

Wonder Girls at Concept Korea Front Row Spring 2011 MBFW on September 8, 2010.

Between May 15 and 31, 2010, the Wonder Girls returned to South Korea to promote the Korean version of "2 Different Tears". They appeared on M.Net's M! Countdown on May 22, 2010. On May 27, the Wonder Girls won their first No. 1 award for "2 Different Tears" on M! Countdown. The group ended their last week of promotional activities in South Korea by performing on MBC's Music Core on May 29, 2010. During this two-week period, the Wonder Girls also appeared on several Korean variety and talk shows, including KBS's Win Win and Happy Together, as well as SBS's Family Outing 2 and MBC's Come to Play.
On July 29, MTV Korea premiered season 4 of Wonder Girls, which introduced the Wonder Girls' everyday life in the United States, such as at their New York home and studio, and preparations for the MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010.^[46] The MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010 was held at the Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach on July 31, and the show was broadcast on August 21 on MTV Asia.^[47] On July 30, M.net premiered a new show Made in Wonder Girls that took viewers behind the scenes of the group's first American tour as well as their promotions in Singapore and Indonesia.^[48] On August 3, the Wonder Girls performed in Singapore's SINGfest 2010 at Fort Canning Park.^[49]