F4 (band)

History

The 2001 Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden, based on the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango, launched the careers of its five leads. Jerry Yan portrayed the arrogant, wealthy college student Dao Ming Si, who clashes with the proud but poor Shan Cai, played by Barbie Hsu. Vic Chou, Vanness Wu, and Ken Chu played his friends Hua Ze Lei, Mei Zuo, and Xi Men. Their characters were called "Flower Four" for their good looks, a nickname shortened to F4. The show was a huge hit after its April release, making all five stars famous across Asia. A sequel, Meteor Garden II, came out in 2002, and the four male actors kept the name F4 as a boyband.

That same year, F4 signed with Sony Music Taiwan and put out their first album, Meteor Rain. In 2002, they released Fantasy 4ever, which included a Mandarin cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love" for the Asian release of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, a Mandarin version of Chayanne's "Yo Te Amo," and the Pepsi ad song "Ask For More." Between 2002 and 2003, they toured with the Fantasy Live World Tour, playing 19 shows in 12 cities to crowds totaling around 570,000 to 600,000 people. They did another Asian tour in 2003 to promote Fantasy 4ever, then went on an unannounced break in 2004 as the members started solo projects.

On April 29, 2007, Meteor Garden producer Angie Chai announced the group would stop using the name F4 because of copyright issues. Japanese publisher Shueisha, which owned the rights to Hana Yori Dango, had allowed the band to use F4 in 2001. But after Japan made its own live-action version of the manga, the Taiwanese group had to change its name to avoid confusion. They became JVKV, using the first initials of each member's name in order of their birth dates from oldest to youngest. The name JVKV never caught on and did not replace F4 in common use.