An overview of iKON's exciting history!
K-Pop Blog > Artists > iKON
The members of iKON had to overcome two survival shows before they finally made their debut. By then, they had already convinced countless fans worldwide of their talent. Since then, the boy group has released a number of successful albums and conquered the charts in South Korea as well as in Japan and China! We all know hits like "Killing Me" or "Love Scenario" and no doubt the members of iKON will continue to thrill us with their music in the future!
Do you know the story of iKON? If not, here you can find an overview of their albums and the challenges the group has overcome:
- WIN: Who is Next
- The members
- Debut
- Japan Debut, Concerts & MOBB (2016/ 17)
- New Kids Series (2017/ 18)
- B.I leaves iKON (2019)
- Kingdom: Legendary War (2021)
- Bobby becomes a father!
- Flashback (2022)
- iKON leaves YG Entertainment
WIN: Who is Next
This is the title of a survival show by YG Entertainment that aired from August to October 2013. In it, two teams of YG trainees competed against each other: The five-member Team A and the six-member Team B. The stakes were high because the winning team would debut afterwards! Team A won the competition and debuted in August 2014 as a boy group called "Winner."
The six trainees from Team B had to prove themselves again in 2014 in a survival show. They and three new trainees competed against each other in "Mix and Match" to debut at the end. Three former members of Team B - B.I, Bobby and Jinhwan - also participated in the show but were already safe and knew that they would debut at the end. They led and supported the others. "Mix and Match" aired from September to November 2014.
In the end, seven trainees emerged as winners: Jay, Song, Bobby, DK, June, B.I. and Chan. All six members from Team B had made it and now formed "iKON" together with Chan.
The members
| Stage name | Real name | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Jay | Kim Jinhwan | 07.02.1994 |
| Song | Song Yunhyeong | 08.02.1995 |
| Bobby | Kim Jiwon | 21.12.1995 |
| DK | Kim Donghyuk | 03.01.1997 |
| June | Koo Junhoe | 31.03.1997 |
| Chan | Jung Chanwoo | 26.01.1998 |
Former member
| Stage name | Real name | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| B.I | Kim Hanbin | 22.10.1996 |
Debut
On September 15, 2015, iKON debuted with the pre-release single "My Type." It was a little taste of the first album that fans had been waiting for since the finals of Mix and Match in 2014! With the single, the boy group already won their first music show trophy at the end of the month, even though they hadn't even performed live yet!
No effort was spared for iKON's debut, as two more singles called "Airplane" and "Rhythm Ta" were released on October 1, each with its own music video. On the same day, iKON's album "Welcome Back Half Album" was released. It is called Half Album because it is meant to be the first half of the debut album. However, in purely practical terms, it was a normal album with six songs and fans could purchase a physical copy. More than 84,200 copies were sold in the first month. As a result, iKON reached No. 1 on the Gaon Album Chart!
On October 3, the guys held their first concert and on October 4, they finally performed live in a music show for the first time. There, "My Type" brought them the victory for the third time. And on October 8, "Rhythm Ta" was also awarded with a trophy!
Unfortunately, fans had to wait a little longer than expected for the full album, because on October 27 YG Entertainment announced that the album had to be postponed from November 2 to December. In exchange, two more singles were uploaded to Youtube on November 16: "Apology" and "Anthem".
On December 24, the wait was finally over as iKON released their album "Welcome Back". It contains the five pre-release singles, the title track "Dumb Dumb" and five more songs. B.I and Bobby wrote almost all the songs themselves and B.I composed most of them too! "Dumb Dumb" earned iKON three wins in music shows, just like "My Type" before it.
What an impressive debut! And an interesting one. A pre-release single is nothing unusual, but iKON knocked out several at once. And we've only heard of a "half album" from iKON so far, too.
Japan Debut, Concerts & MOBB (2016/ 17)
Although the boy group only debuted shortly before the end of 2015, their first Japanese album was already released on January 13, 2016: a Japanese version of "Welcome Back".
It sold over 61,000 copies in the first week alone and ranked third on the Japanese Oricon Weekly chart. At the end of the year, iKON was even awarded the "New Artists Award" and "Best New Artists Award" at the 58th Japan Record Awards!
Even before January ended, the guys left for their first Asia tour "iKoncert 2016: Showtime Tour". This ended on September 3 in Jakarta, Indonesia. In between, they have been working diligently on new music and released the digital single "#WYD" on May 30, 2016.
And if that wasn't enough, iKON also appeared in the Chinese music competition "Heroes of Remix" from June to September. In the show, contestants are challenged to reinterpret and perform a song of their choice. iKON's performances were well received by viewers, who voted the boy group as the winner in three episodes. Unfortunately, however, the group was cut from the final episodes due to a political conflict between China and South Korea. Nevertheless, iKON gained a lot of attention in China thanks to the show. They even won awards like "Best Group" at three Chinese award shows this year!
On August 10, the first Japanese single album "Dumb & Dumber" was released, topping several Japanese charts.
So, on September 3, 2016, the tour was over, during which the boy group even released several songs. However, they did not rest on the success, but continued without a break. Just a few days later, Bobby formed the duo "MOBB" together with Mino from Winner. On September 8, the mini-album "The Mobb" was released with four songs: the two joint solo singles "Full House" and "Hit Me" and one solo each from Bobby and Mino. It is the first and last album of MOBB.
Und schon am 10. September startete die erste Japan Tour “iKon Japan Tour 2016", die etwa sieben Monate andauerte. Ursprünglich wurden 14 Konzerte angekündigt, aber wegen der hohen Nachfrage fügte YG Entertainment noch im August zwei Termine hinzu. Im November kündigte das Label noch einmal 9 weitere Konzerte an! iKON wurde auf der Tour von Winner’s Mino begleitete die Tour, der gemeinsam mit Bobby Songs von MOBB aufführte.
This tour ended in March 2017 and after only two months break, the next one already started in May 2017! In fact, a tour took place every year, supplemented by some individual concerts. Tickets for iKON concerts in Japan in 2022 sold out within 15 minutes, showing that the boy band is still extremely popular there today!
But of course, iKON has also released a few more albums over the years and has overcome one or two challenges.
New Kids Series (2017/ 18)
On May 22, iKON's single album "New Kids: Begin"was released; almost exactly a year after the digital single #WYD. It reached #2 on the Gaon Album Chart and marks the beginning of a four-part album series. It was originally supposed to come out in April, but Chan injured his ankle, so the shooting of the music video was postponed, and with it the release.
The series continued on Jan. 25 with the studio album "Return" , including the title track "Love Scenario." The song not only topped Gaon's Weekly Chart for six weeks, which no artist had managed before, but also caused a real hype among children! The reason is that the melody and lyrics were easy for children to follow.
Some elementary schools even forbade their students to sing the song because it was getting out of hand. So, Love Scenario is a song for all ages! By the way, iKON fans who love to play Fortnite could enjoy an exclusive Love Scenario emote.
In the second half, the New Kids series came to an end: on August 2, iKON released the mini album "New Kids: Continue" and just two months later, on October 1, the mini album "New Kids: The Final". The Final was particularly successful, topping several charts in Korea and even QQ Music's real-time chart in China!
As with the debut album, B.I. and Bobby wrote all the lyrics of all the songs on the four albums completely themselves! B.I was also always involved in the composition.
B.I leaves iKON (2019)
On June 12, 2019, there was unfortunately bad news for fans. The leader B.I announced on his personal Instagram account that he would leave iKON. In the morning, the media company Dispatch had spread the story that B.I tried to buy illegal drugs.
In his statement on Instagram, B.I apologized for the situation and issued a statement saying, "It's true that at one point I was in pain and suffering and wanted to find comfort in something I shouldn't have even been interested in. But even that scared me, so I couldn't participate."
Three years later, in June 2022, several members of iKON - Bobby, Donghyuk and June - were guests on the Korean show "Oh Eun Young's Golden Clinic," where they spoke with psychiatrist Dr. Oh about their experiences. Among other things, they shared their thoughts about B.I. for the first time in public. They explained that it was a difficult time for the team and that they couldn't believe that the leader who had done so much for them was no longer there. They were also worried at the time about what would happen to iKON.
Fortunately, iKON stayed together.
On February 6, 2020, they released "I Decide", the first album without B.I., as a six-piece.
However, the ex-leader supported his former team in the new beginning, as he co-wrote and composed four of the album's five songs! This includes the title track, "Dive."
To date, iKON has not chosen a new leader, making it one of the few K-pop groups without a leader. Other groups without a leader are for example Blackpink, 2PM or Viviz (former GFriend).
In 2020 only one album was released, followed by a Japan tour from April to May. After that the guys had a well-deserved break and returned in 2021 with full force!
Kingdom: Legendary War (2021)
On April 1, 2021, the first episode of the music competition "Kingdom: Legendary War" was aired. In it, six famous boy groups competed against each other to find out who is the best: BtoB, SF9, Ateez, The Boyz, Stray Kids and iKON.
This is the third season of this music competition. In 2019, Queendom gathered several girl groups and in 2020, "Road to Kingdom" took place for the first time with boy groups. The Boyz emerged as the winner and therefore was allowed to participate in "Kingdom: Legendary War".
The show consisted of four rounds. iKON finished fifth in the finals, but in the third round, viewers voted them into first place! Stray Kids won the show. For the finals, all the contestants released a brand new song. iKON's entry was called "At Ease". The song was composed by Winner's Mino, among others.
Bobby becomes a father!
In the second half of the year, Bobby surprised his fans with big news. Namely, he announced on Instagram on August 20, 2021 that he will soon get married and is expecting to become a father in September! The news came as a shock, as it was completely unexpected. Fortunately, many fans were happy for the singer and continue to support him.
In September, YG Entertainment announced that Bobby's fiancée had given birth to a baby boy. So far, Bobby is the only member from iKON who is married and has a child. Not much is known about his fiancée and we hope that the two will continue to enjoy their happiness in private.
Flashback (2022)
"Flashback" is the title of iKON's fourth mini album, which was released on May 3, 2022. It sold 44,359 copies on the first day and 72,362 copies in the first week. Both numbers are a new record for the boy group. They are still showing what they are made of seven years after their debut!
From July to October, the iKON Japan Tour 2022 "FLASHBACK" took place, which included nine concerts. Thanks to the tour, many fans in Japan were able to listen to the new songs live!
iKON leaves YG Entertainment
Like most other idol groups, iKON signed a 7-year contract when they debuted. The 7 years were up on December 30 and all members decided to leave YG Entertainment.
Fortunately, this does not mean that the era of the boy group is over now! On January 1st all six members signed a contract with 143 Entertainment and are already working hard on new music.
iKON already plans to release a new album in April. We are looking forward to many more years with the talented boygroup!
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