BLACKPINK→TREASURE… The High Anticipations on YG’s ‘Global Rookies’
[스포티비뉴스=박수정 이슈팀 기자] YG Entertainment announced the new group TREASURE, notifying the birth of another global rookie group following BLACKPINK.
On January 27th, YG Entertainment (abbreviated as YG) announced that the group name of YG’s next generation boy group will be TREASURE. The 7 members selected from the survival program ‘YG TREASURE BOX’ including BANG YE DAM, SO JUNGHWAN, HARUTO, YOON JAEHYUK, CHOI HYUNSUK, PARK JEONG WOO, and KIM JUN KYU will made debut as TREASURE.
TREASURE is YG’s new idol group being presented in 4 years since BLACKPINK’s debut back in 2016. YG, the agency that has produced a survival program every time they launched a new boy group, has also selected members through ‘YG TREASURE BOX’, the survival program which aired recently.
Despite being a survival show, YG raised anticipations on TREASURE with a new format differentiated from existing survival shows. They pre-released the show through VLIVE, the web-based platform, and broadcasted the show through YouTube and JTBC2 hours later, creating a new wave of survival program broadcasting format.
The selected members are also skilled individuals who have proved their star-material and talents through the program and are receiving high expectations. HARUTO, BANG YE DAM, and SO JUNGHWAN are trainees who were placed at no. 1 on each position, while KIM JUN KYU was the trainee who received the highest score besides the three aforementioned trainees.
BANG YE DAM is the member who established himself as a talented singer-songwriter after winning 2nd place on ‘K-Pop Star 2’ and training vocals and songwriting in YG for 6 years after that. With BANG YE DAM being a crucial member, YREASURE will follow the legacy of BIGBANG, WINNER, and iKON, who followed the YG boy group tradition of producing their own songs.
HARUTO wrote history by becoming the first Japanese member debuting as YG’s boy group. He was the youngest among Treasure J, the group composed of Japanese trainees, but received high scores from the early stages of the show with his amazing skills. His handsome appearance and unexpected low-tone rap grabbed the fans’ hearts in an instant.
SO JUNGHWAN, the youngest member in charge of visuals, showed possibility by being ranked at no. 1 on the dance position during the final stage. He is expected to show rapid growth in the future.
PARK JEONG WOO, confirmed as the fifth member, is a skilled vocalist on part with BANG YE DAM. He was ranked at no. 2 on the first monthly evaluations and reached 2.2 million views on his ‘YG TREASURE BOX’ individual channel, proving his talent and popularity.
YOON JAEHYUK, the sixth member, is the unexpected character who achieved triumph after starting the first monthly evaluations with the lowest rank. Along with his outstanding visuals, he presented rapid growth to eventually become a member of TREASURE.
The seventh member is CHOI HYUNSUK, who has had a large fandom prior to the airing of the survival program. He could not join the debut group while ‘YG TREASURE BOX’ was airing but was eventually selected after displaying his strong leadership and skills as a rapper.
‘YG TREASURE BOX’ not only swept VLIVE daily charts in Korea, but also in Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The final stage reached 1.72 million live viewers, while the first VLIVE by the 7 selected members reached 1.29 million viewers. These numbers are exceptional for a rookie group who hasn’t made debut and prove the heated interest on the members, along with their popularity.
TREASURE is grabbing the people’s attention as they are YG’s next generation boy group created with YG’s know-hows after successfully launching BIGBANG, WINNER, iKON, and BLACKPINK. BLACKPINK is currently rising to become a global group while their MV for ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ has recently surpassed 600 million views on YouTube. The people are paying keen attention on what kind of milestones TREASURE will set in the K-Pop scene utilizing the agency’s know-hows.
2019. 1. 28.
