A 9-year journey with BTOB
By: Agatha Fabricante
Today marks the 9th anniversary of BTOB!
It has always been a roller coaster ride — full of ups and downs, but always exciting. Now, let us take a trip down memory lane and reminisce the 9 years of togetherness between BTOB and Melody. Grab some tissues and maybe play Someday by BTOB as you read on.
2012
Born To Beat (BTOB) is a South Korean ballad boy group formed by CUBE Entertainment in 2012, with members Seo Eunkwang, Lee Minhyuk, Lee Changsub, Lim Hyunsik, Peniel Shin, Jung Ilhoon, and Yook Sungjae. They made their debut on March 21, 2021 and performed “Insane” and “Imagine” on M Countdown.
2012 was a busy year for BTOB. They released their first EP “Born To Beat” on April 3, 2012. Then, they released their second EP “Press Play” with title track “WOW” in September 2012.
You can stream BTOB’s debut song “Insane” here:
Watch the official MV of “WOW” here:
This was also the year when Melody was born. Just as any K-POP group does, BTOB also gave their fans a name and going with Ilhoon’s idea, they chose “Melody” (Note: It works as a collective noun).
Watch BTOB announce the fandom name here:
2013
BTOB joined the United CUBE Concert in February 2013 and performed in Seoul, China, and Japan. On April 10, 2013, BTOB released their first digital single “Second Confession”. It tells a sweet and cute story of a boy preparing himself to confess his love to a girl for the second time.
Watch the official MV here:
In September of the same year, BTOB greeted Melody with their third EP “Thriller”. The last track of the album is the sweet ballad, “Star” written by members Minhyuk, Hyunsik, and Ilhoon.
You can watch the official MV of “Thriller” here:
It was a good year for BTOB when they won the Next Generation Star Award from Golden Disc Awards.
2014
With the Next Generation Star Award’s energy, BTOB’s promotions and comebacks surely satisfied every Melody back then. In February 2014, BTOB released their fourth EP “Beep Beep”. The song became synonymous to BTOB that year, as the song was automatically played whenever they joined shows.
You can watch its official MV here:
BTOB’s career did not only flourish in Korea but also in Japan. After holding their first solo concert in Japan in July 2014, BTOB released their fifth EP “Move”. In October 2014, BTOB signed with Kiss Entertainment, a Japanese talent agency. BTOB then released their first Japanese single “WOW (Japanese ver.)” in November of the same year which started their active promotions in Japan.
To celebrate all of the success they’ve achieved so far with Melody, BTOB held their first solo concert in Korea titled “Hello Melody” from October 31-November 4.
With all the promotions year round, BTOB didn’t forget to celebrate the Christmas season with Melody, too. In December 22, 2014, BTOB released their sixth Christmas-themed EP “The Winter’s Tale”. “The Winter’s Tale” is BTOB’s first title track that Hyunsik and Ilhoon composed and produced themselves. We know Christmas is 9 months away from now, but it’s always the right time to watch the Christmas-themed MV.
Watch it here:
2015
Three years after their successful debut, BTOB then released their first full-length album “Complete”. The title track of the said album titled “It’s Okay” reached no. 1 in major music sites in Korea for the first time since their debut making it a significant milestone for the group. The MV of this healing song is always lovely to watch.
Watch it here:
BTOB was also able to secure their first music show win with “I Mean” the album’s title track “Way Back Home”. During their first music show win, Sungjae was not able to perform with them because he was filming a drama. Watch the members’ ment after winning the award here:
On December 19 and 20, BTOB held their second solo concert “Born To Beat Time” at Jangchung Arena with 8,000 fans who sang along with them. Tickets were sold out in just 5 minutes.
2016
BTOB continued to give Melody good music and released their eighth EP “Remember That”, to relive the memories of spring. Watch official the MV of the album’s title track “Remember That” here:
After serving the fans with great ballads, BTOB released their ninth EP “New Men”, with the dance title track “Pray (I’ll Be Your Man)”. The song was composed and written by Hyunsik himself. It also topped multiple music charts.
Watch the official MV here:
After promoting in Korea, our hardworking boys then released their first full-length Japanese album “24/7”, which includes the Japanese singles they released before. 24/7 topped the weekly Oricon chart, a total of 27,000 copies a week were sold that time.
As they covered a wide range of genres in music, BTOB was nominated for multiple year-end awards. The group won the Best Vocal Group Award at the 30th Golden Disc Awards, and the Ballad Award for “It’s Okay” at the 25th Seoul Music Awards in 2016.
2017
2017 was definitely THE year for BTOB!
BTOB held their third solo concert “BTOB TIME”, from January 21-22, 2017.
After a little rest from the third concert, BTOB released their tenth EP “Feel EM” in March 2017. Hyunsik wrote a pre-released ballad single of the album titled “Someday”. Following the hype from “Pray (I’ll Be Your Man)”, BTOB decided to release another funky dance title track and this time, it was Ilhoon who co-wrote and co-composed the song titled “Movie”.
You can watch the official MV of “Movie” here:
On October 16, 2017, BTOB released their second full-length album “Brother Act”. The title track “Missing You”, also known as BTOB and Melody’s QUEEN, is a pop-ballad written by Hyunsik, with the rap verses written by Minhyuk, Peniel, and Ilhoon themselves.
Missing you topped 5 major music charts after its release. It peaked second at the Gaon Digital Chart. As of the latest update on March 1, 2021, Missing You is in the top 3 longest charting Idol group songs on MelOn.
Image source: @SerieTV46 on Twitter
Watch the official MV of BTOB’s legendary song, “Missing You”, here:
To celebrate the success of the awesome year 2017, BTOB held their fourth solo concert from December 23-24, 2017.
2018
Just like a scene in a movie, where something good happens before a sad moment occurs, BTOB released their 11th EP “This Is Us”, with the title track “Only One For Me” on June 18, 2018.
Watch their performance of “Only One For Me” here:
BTOB held their sixth solo concert “BTOB Time – This Is Us” from August 10-12, 2018. And this was the last concert where we watched them perform all together in one stage. Days after the emotional and intimate three-day concert, leader Eunkwang went on hiatus because of his mandatory military service.
After Eunkwang enlisted, the remaining members continued to promote and even released their special album “Hour Moment”. In this special album, Hyunsik also gave his all as he composed and wrote the title track “Beautiful Pain” himself.
Watch the official MV of “Beautiful Pain” here:
2019
Minhyuk and Changsub also fulfilled their duties to the country in early 2019. This left Hyunsik, Peniel, Ilhoon, and Sungjae as the active members of the group. They called themselves “BTOB Squad”. The members mostly had individual schedules on tv and radio shows. Hyunsik visited the Philippines in December 2019 for a fanmeet, after releasing and promoting his solo album “Rendezvous”. Philippine Melody appreciates this so much.
Watch Hyunsik being a cute Santa during his fan meet here:
2020
In mid 2020, the “maknae line” also began to enlist early, with the goal of celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2022 complete. Hyunsik and Sungjae enlisted on the same day, while Ilhoon enlisted a few weeks afterwards. 2020 may have been a sad year for all of us, but one of the few good things that happened in 2020 was Eunkwang, Changsub, and Minhyuk’s completion of their mandatory military service.
In November 2020, the long awaited comeback finally happened. BTOB4U, an official subunit of BTOB, with members Eunkwang, Minhyuk, Changsub, and Peniel, made their debut with their “first” mini album “INSIDE”. And surprise, the title track “Show Your Love” was written and composed by Hyunsik! The other tracks of the mini-album were written by Minhyuk and Peniel. BTOB4U held their first solo online concert on January 23, 2021.
“Show Your Love” is a song that literally conveys the message of sharing your love to others especially during these trying times (a.k.a. COVID and the pandemic).
You can watch the official MV here:
What can we look forward to in 2021?
BTOB’s active members have their own schedules, including podcasts, musicals, radio, and tv shows. And to everyone’s surprise, they are part of “Kingdom”. The general public’s response to their introduction stage on Kingdom last February was overwhelmingly positive.
There’s so much to be excited about in the show, where BTOB will surely show their unique colors. The show will start on April 1. If you’re willing to be part of the voting and streaming teams, don’t hesitate to send BTOB Philippines a message!
Another thing to look forward to – in November this year, Hyunsik and Sungjae will finish their mandatory military service.
And so today, we celebrate BTOB and Melody’s 9th Anniversary. Time surely flies by so fast. It was not long ago when we were just celebrating our first music show win, first solo concert, first debut in Japan, our first “PAK” and many more. This journey was not easy. But look how far we’ve come. Please send happy greetings to BTOB and your fellow Melody today!
The future is unknown and never promised, but together let us hope for the day they perform on one stage again, complete with all the members. 예지앞사
And with this hope to hold onto, here is BTOB’s hopeful song, “Someday”.
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