Upcoming boy band Enhypen, who are expected to release their first music later this month, have the backing of some of the biggest names in the K-pop industry. A seven-member group produced by media company Belift Lab, the new team will release their first mini album, Border: Day One , on November 30. Even without any music released, Enhypen have become one of the world’s most popular K-pop groups – the members’ official Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts each have well more than 1 million followers. Here’s what we know about Enhypen so far. How they formed Belift Lab is a joint venture created by Big Hit Entertainment and CJ ENM, two of the biggest players in the South Korean entertainment world. Big Hit is home to K-pop giants BTS and numerous other popular acts including Seventeen, TXT and GFriend, while CJ ENM is the entertainment wing of CJ Group, a South Korean chaebol, or a large family-owned business conglomerate. CJ ENM and subsidiary cable channel Mnet hosts events such as the Mnet Asian Music Awards (Mama) and KCON, an annual Korean wave convention held in locations across the world. K-pop’s BTS win best group and more at MTV Europe Music Awards Enhypen was formed through the South Korean television competition show I-Land , which aired on Mnet between June and September. Over the course of 12 episodes, contestants competed to become part of the final line-up. Ultimately, seven members made the cut: Heesung (19), Jay (18), Sunghoon (17), Jake (17), Sunoo (17), Jungwon (16) and Ni-Ki (14). While six of the members gained their spots in the group thanks to voting by the audience, Sunoo was chosen by several industry insiders who had a hand in the show, including Big Hit founder Bang Si-hyuk . The name During the final episode of I-Land , it was announced that the resulting group would be called “Enhypen”. Just like the way hyphens connect different words to make new meanings, the aim is for Enhypen to come together to connect, discover and grow together to create a new act. Fans of Enhypen are known as “Engene” – a reference to how fans will motivate the group to move forward, propelling them like an engine. It also represents how Enhypen and Engene share “the same DNA” that connects them as they develop and grow together throughout the boy band’s career. Multinational members Of the seven members of Enhypen, three hail from overseas: Jay is Korean-American from Seattle in the US, Jake is Korean-Australian from Brisbane, Australia, and youngest member Ni-Ki hails from Okayama, Japan. Getting sporty Jungwoon has competed professionally in taekwondo and Sunghoon as a figure skater. The latter, whose full name is Park Sung-hoon, retired this year after several years of high-ranking performances and winning medals at international events. The 2019-20 season saw him rank seventh at the South Korean Figure Skating Championships. The next BTS? Psy, J.Y. Park team up to launch new boy band project Album concept and release Border: Day One was announced on October 28 through Weverse , a social media fan platform created by Big Hit Entertainment. The album has been teased through a series of theatrical videos that reflect the themes of the album. Although the track list has yet to be revealed, it is known that there will be different “dusk” and “dawn” variants of the physical release. Ahead of the album’s release on November 30, Enhypen will appear in the four-episode show Enhypen&Hi on Mnet, beginning on November 11.
