SHINee
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50 free SHINee trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
SHINee debuted in 2008 as a five-member R&B group and quickly became one of the most admired acts in K-pop. Known for adventurous songs, tightly drilled choreography and strong live vocals, they have stayed together through solo projects, military service and the loss of a beloved bandmate. This quiz covers the whole story. Expect questions on each member's background and work outside the group, the best-known singles and their videos, the albums in Korean and Japanese, the concerts and honours, and the writers and choreographers behind the scenes. The opening questions suit anyone who knows a few of the songs, while the later ones are for the fans who can tell every era apart. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so even a miss teaches something new about the group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In 2011 Shinee became the first Asian artists to perform at which London recording studio?
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios hosted the group's Japan Debut Premium Reception on June 19, 2011. Three days later their first Japanese single came out and sold over 91,000 copies in a week.
Q 02Which 2009 Shinee hit have South Korean exam takers voted the number one song to avoid while studying?
Ring Ding Dong
Ring Ding Dong has a hook so sticky that it is said to distract students from their studies. In 2020 its words went on show at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul.
Q 03Which American singer-songwriter is credited as a composer and arranger of Shinee's 2010 single 'Lucifer'?
Bebe Rexha
Bebe Rexha shares the credit with longtime SM songwriter Yoo Young-jin and two others. The track sold over a million downloads in South Korea in 2010 and stayed 57 weeks on a Billboard world chart.
Q 04Which American star originally wrote 'Press Your Number', a 2016 solo single for Shinee's Taemin?
Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars wrote the demo years earlier with production team The Stereotypes, and SM Entertainment bought it. Taemin did not work with him in person, and penned new Korean lyrics himself.
Q 05Taemin of Shinee joined members of Exo, NCT 127 and WayV in which act that topped the Billboard 200 in 2019?
SuperM
SuperM debuted in October 2019 with a self-titled EP led by the single 'Jopping'. It made them the first Asian act to top the American albums chart with a debut release.
Q 06Shinee's 2008 debut single 'Replay' is sung from the viewpoint of a young man in love with whom?
An older woman
An older woman is the one he adores, a theme aimed squarely at adult female listeners. The group's youngest member, Taemin, does not sing on it at all.
Q 07Which Shinee member, the group's leader, played a resident doctor in the hit drama Descendants of the Sun?
Onew
Onew played first-year resident Lee Chi-hoon in the 2016 series, which passed 30 percent ratings in South Korea. The part won him the Newcomer Scene Stealer Award that year.
Q 08In the video for Shinee's 2013 single 'Everybody', Minho winds up the other members, who appear as what?
Toy soldiers
Toy soldiers was the concept, with military uniforms by the designer Thom Browne. Choreographer Tony Testa said he drew on the action figures he played with as a child.
Q 09Shinee's 2013 funk rock single 'Why So Serious?' tells of which creature falling in love with a human girl?
A zombie
A zombie that has lived in darkness for ages is the lovestruck hero, so the dance opens with the members lying on the floor and reaching skyward. Kenzie wrote and produced the song.
Q 10To match its retro theme, Shinee's 2016 album '1 of 1' was also sold in a limited run on which format?
Cassette tape
Cassette tape copies, limited to 50,000, suited an album that reached back to the sounds of 1980 to 1990. Its title video used a plain white backdrop and old film transitions.
Q 11The 2008 'Shinee Trend' among Korean students paired high-top sneakers and colourful sweaters with which legwear?
Skinny jeans
Skinny jeans completed the debut look created by the designer Ha Sang-beg. Minho had modelled in his Seoul Collection show a month before being picked for the group.
Q 12The dance for Shinee's 2013 chart-topper 'Dream Girl' is built around tricks with which stage prop?
Microphone stands
Microphone stands are the heart of Tony Testa's routine, which won Best Dance Performance at the Mnet Asian Music Awards. The video shoot also had the members bouncing on trampolines.
Q 13Min Hee-jin, the SM creative director behind Shinee's visual concepts, later launched which girl group at ADOR?
NewJeans
Q 21Key of Shinee made his theatre debut in 2012 as the con man Frank Abagnale Jr. in which Broadway musical?
Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me If You Can opened at Seoul's Blue Square in March 2012, with Key rotating the lead with four other actors. He went on to star in Bonnie & Clyde, Zorro and Chess.
Q 22As a trainee, Key of Shinee rode a two-hour train to Seoul every weekend from which home city?
Daegu
Daegu is where he was born and raised by his grandmother. He auditioned for SM Entertainment in 2005 behind the backs of his parents, who had hoped he would go into medicine.
Q 23Key of Shinee competed for Yeong Shin Middle School, in his hometown, in which sport?
Water-skiing
NewJeans arrived in July 2022 with Min leading their creative direction. At SM she had worked with Shinee from the start, and she called their Romeo EP the group's visual turning point.
Q 14Minho of Shinee plays the shop worker in which Girls' Generation video, where mannequins come to life?
Gee
Gee opens with the nine singers posed as mannequins in a clothing store until Minho's character leaves. A portrait on the wall shows him as the employee of the month.
Q 15Minho of Shinee, praised for giving up early discharge to join defence drills, served in which part of the military?
Marine Corps
Marine Corps service ran from April 2019 to November 2020, and he was named an exemplary marine for staying on. His bandmates Key and Taemin both served in the military band.
Q 16Minho of Shinee once hoped to follow his father, the coach Choi Yun-kyum, into which professional sport?
Soccer
Soccer was the dream, but his father talked him out of it, recalling how harsh the game had been in his own playing days. In 2021 the K League named Minho one of its ambassadors.
Q 17Shinee first headlined which Japanese stadium in March 2015, as the finale of a 30-concert tour?
Tokyo Dome
Tokyo Dome hosted the group on March 14 and 15, 2015, as the encore to a tour that had drawn 200,000 fans. They came back to headline it again in May 2016.
Q 18Alongside numerous accolades, Shinee's musical impact in South Korea has earned the group which title?
Princes of K-pop
Princes of K-pop is the name that stuck. Their music has also been listed among the greatest boy band songs of all time.
Q 19Shinee's 2009 single 'Juliette' reworks 'Deal with It', a song by which High School Musical actor?
Corbin Bleu
Corbin Bleu had released the song on Hollywood Records, and SM bought the rights from the label. The lyrics were not part of the deal, so Jonghyun and Minho wrote new Korean words.
Q 20Which 2012 Shinee single is a 'hybrid remix' that fuses two separate songs, 'Clue' and 'Note'?
Sherlock
Sherlock stitches the two songs into one storyline about solving a crime by logic and intuition. Jessica of Girls' Generation appears in the video as a mysterious figure who offers the decisive lead.
Water-skiing was his event as a schoolboy, while he studied dance in secret. He later earned a degree in film and musicals from Myongji University.
Q 24Key of Shinee formed the 2014 duo Toheart with Woohyun, his close friend from which boy band?
Infinite
Infinite singer Woohyun was signed to Woollim, so the duo was a joint project between two companies. It won the Popularity Award at the 29th Golden Disc Awards.
Q 25Key of Shinee sang in Korean and English on a 2018 remix of 'If You're Over Me' by which British pop trio?
Years & Years
Years & Years released the remix on July 6, 2018. Key wrote his own Korean verses for it, in which he asks a lover to stop pushing and pulling.
Q 26Key of Shinee joined which tvN variety show, built on rounds of song dictation, as a cast member in 2018?
DoReMi Market
DoReMi Market, better known as Amazing Saturday, features a different South Korean market and its food in each episode. Key also joined the cast of I Live Alone in 2021.
Q 27Jonghyun of Shinee wrote songs from listeners' stories while hosting which MBC radio show from 2014 to 2017?
Blue Night
Blue Night gave him the material for Story Op.1, a 2015 collection of songs first performed on air. He called the midnight show a turning point in his life.
Q 28After Taemin's Ace, Jonghyun's Base and Key's Face, which rhyming title did Shinee's Minho give his 2022 solo EP?
Chase
Chase kept up a tradition begun in 2015, when Jonghyun named his debut to echo Taemin's. Jonghyun had also played bass in his school band.
Q 29Which singer topped the Korean charts in 2016 with 'Breathe', a ballad written and composed by Jonghyun of Shinee?
Lee Hi
Lee Hi took the song to first place on every major Korean digital chart. Her label boss chose it as a title track before learning who had composed it.
Q 30Taemin of Shinee was paired on the reality show We Got Married in 2013 with Son Na-eun of which girl group?
Apink
Apink singer Son Na-eun and Taemin were the youngest couple the show had cast. Their virtual marriage ran for eight months and 36 episodes, ending in January 2014.