The eight-member boy band ATEEZ debuted in October 2018, but had already attracted attention with energetic performances long before that. Today, Hongjoong, Seonghwa and Co. are celebrated by fans all over the world for their impressive choreographies and hits like “Wave”, “Thanxx” and “Guerrilla”!
Do you want to get to know the group better? We introduce them to you!
- Pre-debut
- Debut - Treasure Series (2018 - 2020)
- Zero: Fever Serie (2020 - 2022)
- The World Serie (2022 - Today)
- The members
Pre-debut
A year before ATEEZ's debut, eight trainees from KQ Entertainment attracted attention. Hongjoong, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho presented themselves to the public for the first time in 2017 in the survival show “Mix Nine”, in which Hongjoong and Jongho were most recently eliminated in 42nd and 43rd place. They probably didn't worry about it for too long, because less than four months later, on May 18, 2018, a performance video appeared on KQ Entertainment's YouTube channel in which the future members of ATEEZ performed “Pick It Up” by the rapper Famous Dex danced.
This video was the first to feature all eight trainees together. It quickly spread among fans, who wondered who the talented boys were and were eager to see more. They got more with the reality show “ KQ Fellaz American Training ”, in which the trainees traveled to LA to train, train and train again. During the show, the group was expanded to include a ninth member - Lee Junyoung - who did not end up debuting with the others. After 19 short episodes, the adventure ended in LA; for the finale, KQ Fellaz released the single “From”, which was composed and produced by Hongjoon.
In July 2018, the fans who had already gathered had to get used to a new name, because in the teasers of the reality show “ Code Name Is Ateez ”, which follows the boys on their way to debut, KQ announced that the KQ Fellaz had adopted the name “ATEEZ”.
Debut - Treasure Series (2018 - 2020)
After months of being the talk of K-pop fans, Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho finally debuted the album “Treasure Ep.1: All to Zero” on October 25th. The album has two title tracks - "Pirate King" and "Treasure" - which were released simultaneously. All to Zero marks the start of the “Treasure Series” of a series of albums called “Treasure”, which continued for almost a year and a half and ended in February 2020.
| Treasure Ep.1: All to Zero | October 2018 |
|---|---|
| Treasure Ep.2: Zero to One | January 2019 |
| Treasure Ep.3: One to all | June 2019 |
| Treasure Ep.Fin: All to Action | October 2019 |
| Treasure Ep.Extra: Shift the Map (jap.) | December 2019 |
| Treasure Ep.Extra: Shift the Map (Remixx!) | December 2019 |
| Treasure Epilogue: Action to Answer | January 2020 |
| Treasure Ep. Map to Answer (jap.) | February 2020 |
On August 13, 2021, the boy group also released the photo book " Treasure: Hidden Map ," which allows fans to take a look back at this time. Find out more here !
Back in November 2018, just a month after the debut, ATEEZ revealed the official name for their fan club: “ATINY”. The name is a combination of “ATEEZ” and “DESTINY” and means that ATEEZ and their fans were destined to meet. The ATINY's support brought the idol group the “Next Generation Award” at the “Golden Disc Awards” two months later in January 2019.
That same month, ATEEZ released their second album “Treasure Ep.2: Zero to One” and announced that their first tour “The Expedition Tour” would take place in five American cities in March. So the fans were definitely rewarded for their efforts! In fact, the tour was extended twice, with ten dates in Europe and two concerts in Australia, all of which were sold out.
In between, in June 2019, ATEEZ's third album “Treasure Ep.3: One to All” was released. As with the debut, two music videos were released simultaneously - Wave and Illusion - with fans allowed to choose which of the two songs the boy band would primarily promote. They made exactly the right choice with “Wave” because the song brought ATEEZ their first win at a music show. With their next and fourth album “All to Action” the boy band was able to celebrate another success, as they reached number 1 in the Korean Gaon Album Charts for the first time!
At the end of the year, on December 4th, the boy band's first Japanese album “Treasure Ep.Extra: Shift the Map” was released under a good star, because on the same day ATEEZ won the “Worldwide Fans Choice Awards” at the “Mnet Asian Music Awards” in Japan.
“Treasure Epilogue: Action to Answer”, the last Korean album in the Treasure Series, was released on January 6, 2020. The series only ended a month later with “Treasure Ep. Map to Answer”, ATEEZ's first Japanese mini album.
The end of the Treasure series was supposed to be followed by the boy band's second world tour “The Fellowship: Map the Treasure”, but after the first two concerts all further dates were postponed indefinitely due to the Corona pandemic. In order to be able to perform for their fans despite everything, ATEEZ organized the “Crescent Party” in May; a free online concert.
Even after the Treasure series, ATEEZ started other series to which most of their albums can be assigned. So it makes sense to continue to guide you through the history of ATEEZ along the album series:
Zero: Fever Serie (2020 - 2022)
The conclusion of the Treasure series was followed by “Zero: Fever Part. 1” in July 2020. As before, fans were allowed to have an influence; they chose “Inception” as the title track. A month later, a music video was also uploaded for “Thanxx”, the song that was also available for selection.
“Zero: Fever Part. 1” is the start of a new album series, which was continued in 2021 with “Zero: Fever Part. 2” and “Zero: Fever Part.3”. At the end of the year, “Zero: Fever Epilogue” was released in December. All four albums were a huge success! Three of them topped the Gaon Album Chart, with the exception of “Zero: Fever Part 3”. Part 3 brought ATEEZ to the top of Billboard’s US World Albums Chart for the first time!
ATEEZ started 2022 with their third world tour “The Fellowship: Beginning of the End”. It began in Seoul in January 2022, traveled across the United States and Europe, and ended in May. Before the month ended, the Japanese album “Beyond: Zero” was also released. This album marked the conclusion of the Zero series. It reached second place in several major Japanese charts, building on previous successes!
In March 2021, ATEEZ released a Japanese album called “Into the A to Z”. However, it is the only album in 2021 that does not have the word “Zero” in the title. So it is not necessarily assigned to the Zero series.
| Zero: Fever Part. 1 | July 2020 |
|---|---|
| Zero: Fever Part. 2 | March 2021 |
| Into the A to Z (jap.) | March 2021 |
| Zero: Fever Part. 3 | September 2021 |
| Zero: Fever Epilogue | December 2021 |
| Beyond: Zero (jap.) | May 2022 |
Although the Zero series contains fewer albums than the Treasure series, it lasted longer overall, almost two years! That's because the boy band was busy with several other big projects during the period: These included appearances on the shows Immortal Songs and Kingdom as well as several collaborations with other artists!
Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend
Immortal Songs is a music competition that has been broadcast weekly since 2012 and each episode brings together six or seven artists who perform a cover of a song by the “guest legend”. The participants are made up of artists from a wide variety of genres. Solo singers and idol groups as well as musical singers, rock bands and representatives of traditional music regularly take part. Every episode a winner is chosen and only very rarely does an idol group end up in first place. This makes ATEEZ's success story on the show all the more impressive. On August 29, 2020, ATEEZ performed “Black Cat Nero” by Turbo and won the episode!
This made them only the sixth idol group to win the show! The cover went viral and two months later, the boy group even released a Halloween special performance video for the song with the original singer Kim Jong Kook. The collaboration worked so well that ATEEZ and Jong Kook recorded a joint mini-album in August 2021: Kim Jong Kook X ATEEZ (Season Songs) !
ATEEZ together with Kim Jung Kook.
Although “Black Cat Nero” is undoubtedly the most remembered, ATEEZ's journey on Immortal Songs wasn't over after that episode. In February 2021, the group sang "It's Raining" by Rain and won for the second time. This made them the first boy band to win twice! As if that wasn't enough, ATEEZ scored their third win in May with PSY's "Right Now"!
In 2021, ATEEZ showed their talent in another show: Kingdom
From April to June 2021, the boys appeared in “Kingdom: Legendary War”. The show featured six popular boy bands competing for victory: BTOB, IKON, SF9, The Boyz, Stray Kids and ATEEZ. In five rounds, the groups showed what they were made of with various performances. They all even recorded an original song for the finale. ATEEZ's contribution was the song “The Real”. ATEEZ ended up taking fourth place and Stray Kids won the show.
The collaboration with Kim Jong Kook was not ATEEZ's only collaboration project in 2021:
On August 19, 2021, ATEEZ announced on their Twitter account that Yunho, San and Jongho had collaborated with the a cappella group Pentatonix. The joint single “A Little Space” was released the next day with its own music video!
With two successful collaborations in one year, ATEEZ have made it clear that fans can continue to expect new and exciting projects!
And as if that wasn't enough, four members of ATEEZ starred in the K-drama “Imitation”:
Yunho, Jongho, Seonghwa, and San. ATEEZ fans who enjoy watching K-dramas were able to combine these two passions thanks to the series. Yunho, Seonghwa and San played members of the fictional boy band “SPARKLING,” while Jongho starred as a member of the fictional boy band “SHAX.”
Yunho, Seonghwa and San together with Boys Republic's Suwoong as “Sparkling”.
The World Serie (2022 - Today)
On July 29, 2022, the next album series began with the release of the ninth Korean mini album “The World Ep.1: Movement”. And it was a strong start! ATEEZ broke the million mark for the first time ever, as fans had pre-ordered more than 1.1 million copies even before the album was released!
In addition, The World Ep.1 was at number 1 on the Circle Album Chart (previously called “Gaon”) for two weeks in a row and the title song “Guerilla” won no less than six trophies in various music shows!
ATEEZ has continued to rise since their debut, gaining thousands of fans with their music, not only in Korea but all over the world! Luckily, they also got the chance to see the boy band live in 2022, because ATEEZ performed at KCON in LA, Saudi Arabia and Japan, among others, as well as at many other K-pop festivals in Asia. In October 2022, the boys were rewarded for their efforts by “The Fact Music Awards”. Not only did they win the award for “Best Performer,” but also “Artist of the Year.”
But instead of taking a well-deserved break, the success motivated the boy band to give even more! ATEEZ embarked on their fourth world tour, “The Fellowship: Break The Wall,” in October, despite only finishing their third tour in May. The new tour included concerts in Seoul, North America and Japan in 2022. And that was just the beginning! In 2023, ATEEZ will give many more concerts in Europe, Asia and Latin America as part of the tour! Most recently, a concert took place in Manila (Philippines) on September 16th.
Four more albums were released during the tour: The Japanese mini album “The World Ep. Paradigm” (November 2022), the first Korean single album “Spin Off: From The Witness” (December 2022), the Japanese single album “Limitless ” (March 2022) and on June 16th the tenth Korean mini album “The World Ep.2: Outlaw”. Every single one of them topped the charts and proved once again that ATEEZ belongs at the top! The World Ep.2: Outlaw even surpassed The World Ep.1 and is currently ATEEZ's best-selling album ever!
| The World Ep.1: Movement |
July 2022 |
|---|---|
| The World EP.Paradigm (jap.) | November 2022 |
| Spin Off: From the Witness |
December 2022 |
| Limitless (jap.) |
March 2023 |
| The World EP.2: Outlaw |
June 2023 |
The “The World” series currently includes three albums. We can probably expect a third part, a final fourth album and maybe even a Japanese album in the future before a new series begins. No matter what awaits us, we are sure that ATEEZ will reach new milestones and set new records with the upcoming albums!
The members
Before we stop, of course we want to take a quick look at the members. Below you will find an overview that can help new fans find their way as well as "old" fans, because let's be honest - who can remember all eight birthdays?
| Artist name | Real name | Birthday | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hongjoong | Kim Hongjoong | 7. November 1998 | Leader, Lead Rapper |
| Seonghwa | Park Seonghwa | 3. April 1998 | Lead Vocal, Visual |
| Yunho | Jeong Yunho | 23 March 1999 | Lead Vocal, Main Dancer |
| Yeosang | Kang Yeosang | June 15, 1999 | Visual, Lead Dancer |
| San | Choi San | 10. July 1999 | Lead Vocal |
| Mingi | Song Mingi | 9. August 1999 | Main Rapper, Lead Dancer |
| Wooyoung | Jung Wooyoung | 26. November 1999 | Main Dancer |
| Jongho | Choi Jongho | 12. October 2000 | Maknae, Main Vocal |
Of course, in the five years since their debut, the members have also faced difficulties. Among other things, the boy band had to do without Mingi from November 2020 to July 2021, who interrupted his activities due to anxiety. And just recently, at the end of August 2023, Jongho underwent surgery for previous injuries and pain.
Luckily, fans support the boy band no matter what. The love of ATINY’s is what motivates ATEEZ to continue doing their best. We're looking forward to many more hits from the boy band!
