Super Rookies: iKON

iKON, a seven member boy group under the label entertainment company of YG. You may know them as the seven crazy dancing devils all the way to the hilarious duo of double B! It all started out long before the craze though. Back in 2013 iKON (then known as Team B with six members consisting of B.I, Bobby, Donghyuk, Junhoe,Yunhyeong and Jinhwan) competed against Team A, through the reality survival program WIN. 

Competing against the other team for the chance to debut as the group WINNER, Team B unfortunately lost to Team A after a staggering and emotional amount of hardworking performances, ranging from dance battles to group performances that made our hearts burst with nothing but sadness and love.

WINNER, (formerly known as Team A) went on to become digital monsters climbing multiple charts and getting both music show wins and rookie award wins with their debut album, S/S. The album was viewed positively by the public, from the softening ballads of ‘Empty’ and ‘Color Ring’, all the way to the hard pumping banger of ‘I’m Him’ by SMTM4 contestant, Song Mino.

After the promotions for WINNER ended however, the fans of Team B waited, hoping anything would come from anywhere in regards to the six members, only a few months later to shock them with a huge surprise!

In May 2014 B.I and Bobby auditioned for the rap competition “Show Me The Money 3”, with Bobby winning the competition, competing in the final round against fellow newcomer Iron. His victory earned him a special concert, $100,000, and the opportunity to release an album.

Around the same time in the middle of June, 2014 YG had announced that the boys would be competing yet again, this time alongside three trainees for a spot in iKON for the survival show entitled Mix and Match.

The survival show featured the six members of Team B and three new trainees: Jung Chanwoo, Jung Jinhyeong and Yang Hongseok. B.I, Bobby and Jinhwan had been confirmed members of the group, leaving the other three members of Team B and the three trainees to battle it out for the remaining four spots left.

In the end, the battle, the competition, the stress and the anticipation was over. The final confirmed members were Junhoe, Yunhyeong, Donghyuk and Chanwoo.

It felt good to know that the group now under the name of iKON was debuting, but the question was..when? After months and months of continuous waiting the fans had finally gotten a sense of relief and happiness at last. On September 8th 2015, iKON’s official debut was announced through a teaser posted via YG Entertainment’s website.

It was later revealed that iKON would be releasing their debut single on September 15. Additionally, their debut album, Welcome Back, would be split in two parts. The first part, ‘Debut Half Album’ is set to be released on October 1st, followed by the ‘Debut Full Album’ on November 2nd.

On September 15th 2015, 12:00am KST, iKON’s debut single “My Type” was released.

Immediately after release, ‘My Type’ took over all eight major real-time music charts in Korea, claiming the No.1 spot on Melon, Mnet, Olleh, Bugs, Genie, Naver Music, Monkey3, and Soribada. Their explosive popularity was further solidified at 2:30pm KST on September 16th, when they achieved a ‘Certified All-Kill’, topping both the real-time and daily charts of the aforementioned music sites.

After a successful debut, 5 days later iKON would go on to get over 18 roof hits, passing groups such as EXO, BEAST, MISS A, 2PM, Apink, Wonder Girls, F(x), Girls Day, 2AM, T-ARA, KARA and Davichi.

As of right now, iKON have continued to keep up with the music consistency that the public likes, and with that I’d like to hope that after everything they have gone through, things like these are able to be accomplished by hard work, will, strength and hope.

Congratulations on your debut, iKON!