Large-scale rookies appeared and led K-pop last year, but it is not easy to find a rookie with overwhelming performances this year.
However, in the second half of the year, large-scale idols that major agencies have been working hard on for a long time are about to debut, so the industry and K-pop fans are paying keen attention.
According to the industry on July 24th, the four major agencies are ready to launch rookie idols in earnest. First of all, SM Entertainment will debut a boy group 7 years after NCT in September. They are a seven-member multinational group including former NCT members Shotaro and Sungchan, SM Rookies members Eunseok and Seunghan. SM Entertainment is also preparing a girl group to be launched 3 years after aespa with the goal of debuting in the 4th quarter.
YG Entertainment’s seven-member multinational girl group “BABYMONSTER“, which will succeed BLACKPINK, will also debut in September. Even before their debut, they recorded over 3 million YouTube subscribers and 500 million cumulative views, drawing attention from global K-pop fans. They chose an intense hip-hop song as their debut song and started working on the choreography and the post-production of the music video. Their pre-debut song “Dream” topped Billboard’s Hot Trending Songs chart.
The debuts of JYP Entertainment’s global idol groups stand out. First of all, the debut of Chinese trainee group Project C is imminent. Project C, which was announced in China in 2021, is the next boy group being prepared by JYP China, and consists of 5 members. Even before their official debut, they are active in variety shows, dramas and performances. They participated in a festival hosted by Tencent Music on July 8th~9th and performed their self-composed songs. A youth mini-series in which they were selected as the main characters will also be released in the future.
A2K, a local girl group project in the U.S. that JYP Entertainment and Universal Music are jointly preparing, is also taking off their veil. Auditions had been held in major cities in the U.S. including New York since last fall, and the project started broadcasting on YouTube on July 14th. The first episode recorded more than 4.6 million views. J. Y. Park once said, “It’s the biggest project for myself and JYP.” The industry predicts that they will debut within this year.
JYP Entertainment is also operating the boy group project “Nizi Project Season 2” in collaboration with Sony Music in Japan. Through season 1, the Japanese girl group “NiziU” was produced. This project began airing on July 21st.
Regarding HYBE, the industry predicts that Pledis’ new boy group will debut in the fourth quarter. In addition, Belift Lab’s new girl group is expected to debut in the first half of next year through the survival show “R U Next?”, which is being broadcast on JTBC. The outline of the project for the local American girl group to be produced in collaboration with Universal Music Group is expected to be revealed in the second half of the year.
Source: Daum
