Girls' Generation member Kwon Yu-ri ended a 19-year exclusive contract with SM Entertainment on August 31, 2026, closing a relationship that began when she entered the company as a trainee in 2001. The group, SM confirmed in the same statement, continues unchanged.
What Ended, and When: Yuri's SM Contract Timeline
Yuri's exclusive contract with SM Entertainment expired on August 31, 2026, after 19 years, and SM announced the conclusion on July 31, 2026 . The agency described the split as mutual and stated that her Girls' Generation work would not change. As of early September 2026, no new agency has been announced for Yuri .
Quick Answer: SM Entertainment announced on July 31, 2026 that Kwon Yu-ri's exclusive contract would end August 31, 2026, after 19 years. SM confirmed in the same statement that "Yuri's activities with Girls' Generation will remain unchanged." She remains in the group; no new agency has been announced.
The announcement went out through SM's Weverse channel and carried the line fans were watching for :
"After in-depth discussions with Kwon Yu-ri, we have mutually agreed to conclude our 19-year journey together as of Aug. 31. Even after the contract ends, Yuri's activities with Girls' Generation will remain unchanged," — SM Entertainment official statement, July 31, 2026 (source: Korea JoongAng Daily)
Two numbers circulate in coverage of this story, and they measure different things. The 19-year figure is the contract term, counted from Yuri's Girls' Generation debut in 2007 to the August 2026 expiry . The 24- or 25-year figure some outlets use counts her total relationship with the company from her 2001 trainee entry, including the six years she trained before debuting . Yuri herself used the longer count in her farewell post.
SM's statement also praised her range across music, acting, variety and hosting, and said the company would support her next step . With Taeyeon, Yoona and Hyoyeon now the only members still signed to SM, the roster question and the group question have formally separated .
Why This Doesn't Break Up Girls' Generation
The line that mattered most in SM Entertainment's July 31, 2026 statement was the one about the future: "Even after the contract ends, Yuri's activities with Girls' Generation will remain unchanged" . That guarantee pre-empts the outcome fans braced for. Because the agency that owns a group's trademark usually controls whether it can perform, a member's departure from that label has historically functioned as a de facto exit from the group itself — and Korean outlets identified this as exactly the fear SM moved to defuse .
Yuri is also not the first to make this move. She is the fifth of the eight current members to leave SM's roster while remaining in Girls' Generation, following a pattern set nearly a decade ago .
| Member | Left SM roster | Still in Girls' Generation? |
|---|---|---|
| Jessica Jung | September 2014 | No — left the group entirely |
| Tiffany | October 2017 | Yes |
| Sooyoung | October 2017 | Yes |
| Seohyun | October 2017 | Yes |
| Sunny | August 2023 | Yes |
| Yuri | August 31, 2026 | Yes |
| Taeyeon, Yoona, Hyoyeon | Still signed to SM | Yes |
Member departure dates per Girls' Generation's documented history ; current-roster context from The Korea Times.
The arrangement now common among veteran K-pop acts is that the group operates as a shared project its members return to, rather than a lineup housed under one agency. GMA News placed Yuri's exit next to two other recent SM departures: BoA, who left after 25 years, and Ten Lee, who left the company while continuing in NCT and WayV .
There is a scheduling reason the reassurance carries weight. Girls' Generation debuted on SBS's Inkigayo on August 5, 2007 as a nine-member act with the single "Into the New World," a date also documented by The Korea Herald , which puts the 20th debut anniversary in 2027. The group has marked round anniversaries before — the 15th brought the full-group album Forever 1 in August 2022, per NME — so a 2027 project is widely expected, and it would have been difficult to plan around an unresolved question about Yuri's participation. As of early September 2026, her next agency had not been announced , but under SM's stated terms that decision sits separately from her place in the lineup.
Girls' Generation-HRS: The Subunit That Launched the Same Day
Girls' Generation-HRS is the group's third subunit, made up of Hyoyeon, Yuri and Sooyoung, and it released its debut digital single on August 31, 2026 at 6 p.m. KST — the same calendar day Yuri's SM contract lapsed . The name is built from the first syllables of the three members' Korean names, read as "HyoRiSoo" . The timing meant Yuri closed a 19-year label relationship and opened a new group project on the same date.
The two-track single pairs title song "Skibidi" with dance-pop B-side "Lowkey In Love." "Skibidi" opens on house before shifting into hip-hop over Arabian string samples, and was written by KENZIE — the songwriter behind Girls' Generation's 2007 debut single "Into the New World" . That credit links the unit directly back to the group's first release rather than treating it as a standalone side project.
The rollout was planned well before the contract news settled. Key markers:
- Sept. 24, 2025 — Hyoyeon floats the subunit idea in a video on her personal YouTube channel .
- Aug. 5, 2026 — SM formally discloses a third-quarter unit debut in its second-quarter 2026 business results .
- Aug. 22, 2026 — Both tracks are premiered live at the CassCool Festival in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province .
- Aug. 31, 2026 — Digital single released at 6 p.m. KST, with a performance video premiering on SM's official YouTube channel the same day .
Early chart movement was upward rather than front-loaded. "Skibidi" entered Melon's daily TOP 100 at No. 94 and had climbed to No. 31 by September 2, 2026, with the music video passing 5 million views over the same stretch . For fans tracking whether Girls' Generation activity continues past the contract change, the unit is the first concrete data point: three members, two of whom — Yuri and Sooyoung — are no longer signed to SM, releasing through SM's channels anyway . Longtime followers of the group will recognize the pattern of leaning on KENZIE at pivot moments (video: Jonathan Miller Music).
Yuri's Farewell Message to SM
Yuri posted her farewell to SM Entertainment on September 2, 2026 — one day after her contract lapsed on August 31 — as a message and photo set on her personal social media rather than an agency statement. She wrote that she had entered SM as a trainee in 2001 and that 25 years had passed, thanking the company "for raising me, caring for me, and loving me," and closing: "We will be together again, so let us meet with a smile. I love you, SM. Goodbye" .
The numbers in coverage of the goodbye are worth reading carefully. The contract ran 19 years, from her 2007 debut to 2026; her relationship with SM began with her 2001 trainee entry and six years of training before debut, which is why outlets headline it variously as 24 or 25 years . Yuri herself used 24 in one image and 25 in the text.
The photo set ran from early trainee days to her final exchanges with staff. It included a printout compositing her face onto an image from the anime Inuyasha, captioned "Thank you for raising me for 24 years. Be happy, everyone. I love you, SM," alongside snacks and gifts she had prepared for employees . A separate shot showed her with reddened eyes and a tissue, captioned "I loved you," with SM's account tagged . Korean community boards singled out the register — playful, meme-adjacent, not corporate — as unusual for an SM departure.
The gifts were not an afterthought. During an August 30, 2026 live chat, two days before the post, Yuri said her most expensive recent purchase was the farewell present for her staff . Read against SM's own framing of the split as mutual and its pledge to support her "new journey" , the tone of both sides has stayed consistent: an ending on paper, not a rupture.
What to Watch Next: Streaming HRS and Tracking Yuri's Next Move
The immediate way to follow Yuri right now is Girls' Generation-HRS. The two-track digital single released August 31, 2026 — title track "Skibidi" and B-side "Lowkey In Love" — is streaming on Melon and other Korean platforms, with the accompanying performance video on SM's official YouTube channel . By September 2, 2026, "Skibidi" had risen to No. 31 on Melon's TOP 100 after entering the daily chart at No. 94, and the music video had passed 5 million views .
Outside music, her recent credits point to where her time has been going: the 2024 mystery thriller film Somebody and the 2025 JTBC drama The Art of Negotiation , plus the 2026 two-hander psychological thriller stage production THE WASP . Acting and stage work do not require a label deal in the way idol promotions do, which makes them the likeliest near-term arena.
Two things remain open as of September 7, 2026:
- No next agency announced. Yuri has not confirmed a new label or management company since her contract lapsed on August 31, 2026 .
- No confirmed full-group project. Girls' Generation debuted on August 5, 2007 , so a 20th anniversary falls in 2027 — but nothing has been scheduled, and SM's guarantee covers participation, not a dated release .
The concrete takeaway: nothing about Yuri's schedule changed on September 1. HRS is active, her acting slate is running, and the only genuinely unanswered questions are which company signs her and whether 2027 gets a dated eight-member project.
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Frequently asked questions
Did Yuri leave Girls' Generation?
No. Only her individual exclusive contract with SM Entertainment ended, on August 31, 2026 . In the same statement, SM said that "even after the contract ends, Yuri's activities with Girls' Generation will remain unchanged" . That line is what separates this from a group departure: the label addressed group membership directly rather than leaving it open. Yuri also debuted in a Girls' Generation subunit the day the contract lapsed, which is the practical confirmation.
How long was Yuri under contract with SM Entertainment?
Nineteen years as a debuted artist, from Girls' Generation's 2007 debut to the contract's expiry on August 31, 2026 . Her relationship with the company is longer than that: she entered as a trainee in 2001 and trained for six years before debuting, which is why some coverage frames the total as 24 or 25 years . In her own farewell message she used the 25-year figure for the full run, and the "24 years" wording on one of her printed gifts. Both numbers are accurate; they simply count different starting points.
Which Girls' Generation members are still signed to SM Entertainment?
Three: Taeyeon, Yoona and Hyoyeon . Five of the eight current members have left the SM roster while remaining in the group: Tiffany, Sooyoung and Seohyun declined to renew in October 2017, Sunny departed in August 2023, and Yuri's contract ended in August 2026 . Jessica Jung is a separate case — she left the group itself in September 2014. Girls' Generation now operates as a shared project across multiple agencies rather than a single-label lineup, a structure also seen with BoA and Ten Lee .
What is Girls' Generation-HRS?
Girls' Generation-HRS (소녀시대-효리수) is the group's third subunit, made up of Hyoyeon, Yuri and Sooyoung, with the name taken from the first syllables of their Korean names. It released a two-track debut digital single on August 31, 2026 at 6 p.m. KST — title track "Skibidi" plus B-side "Lowkey In Love" — the same day Yuri's SM contract ended . "Skibidi" was written by KENZIE, the songwriter behind the group's 2007 debut single "Into the New World," and both tracks were premiered live on August 22, 2026 at the CassCool Festival in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province .
Has Yuri signed with a new agency?
No. As of early September 2026, no new agency had been announced . Her farewell post on September 2, 2026 thanked SM — "for raising me, caring for me, and loving me" — and closed with "We will be together again, so let us meet with a smile. I love you, SM. Goodbye," without naming a next step . Her work has continued in the interim regardless of representation, including the HRS release and acting credits such as the 2025 JTBC drama The Art of Negotiation and the 2026 stage production THE WASP .
Official Sources
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This article was written using information collected and analyzed by NAMANE's in-house K-pop research AI engine. We use AI technology to bring you faster, broader coverage, and in the process some details may occasionally differ from the latest facts. For important information such as dates, venues, and prices, please double-check with official sources.
