Anyone who was in the K-Pop scene this year could hardly avoid IVE. The young girl group from Starship Entertainment debuted in December 2021 and is topping the charts with every new album!
Songs like “Love Dive” or “After Like” are real catchy tunes that every K-pop fan can sing along to; even those who don't know who IVE is. If you have no idea about the girl group, it's high time we introduce them to you! Even if you would simply like an overview of the history of IVE, this is the right place for you.
- Pre-Debut
- IVE
- The members
- Debut with “Eleven”
- First comeback: “Love Dive”
- Second comeback: “After Like”
- Japan debut
Pre-Debut
The story of IVE began in 2018. That year, three trainees from Starship Entertainment competed in the survival show “Produce 48” with the aim of debuting in the temporary project group IZ*ONE: Jang Wonyoung, Ahn Yujin and Cho Kahyeon. Wonyoung and Yujin are now members of IVE.
In the first episode they caught the audience's attention with a performance to “Wings” by Little Mix:
While Kahyeon was eliminated at number 57, Yujin and Wonyoung advanced to the finals and were voted into the top 12 by viewers, debuting together as IZ*ONE on October 29, 2018! Yujin came 5th in the final and Wonyoung even made it to 1st place! By the way, Wonyoung was the youngest participant in Produce 48 at just 14 years old.
After two and a half years during which seven extremely successful albums were released, IZ*ONE disbanded as planned in April 2021. Although it was clear from the start that IZ*ONE would only be active for a certain period of time, fans were very sad about the end. IZ*ONE was considered one of the most successful K-Pop groups of their time!
Given their success, it's no wonder that fans were eagerly waiting for news from the members after IZ*ONE disbanded. At least they were able to continue to see Yujin regularly on the music show Inkigayo, which she hosted since February 2021.
Since Wonyoung and Yujin belong to the same entertainment, it was suspected even before the end of IZ*ONE that they would debut in a new girl group together with other Starship trainees.
In November 2021, the rumors were finally confirmed, because on November 2nd Starship Entertainment announced a new girl group! In the following days, all six members were revealed: Wonyoung, Yujin, Gaeul, Liz, Rei and Leeseo.
IVE is Starship Entertainment's first new girl group in six years. The girl group WJSN (also called Cosmic Girls) most recently debuted under the label in 2016. Apart from that, the boy groups Monsta X and Cravity, as well as the solo singers K.Will and Jeong Sewoon, are among IVE's agency colleagues.
The name “IVE” is an abbreviation for “I have”. It means that the members confidently show us what they have.
The members
| Artist name | Real name | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Yujin | An Yujin | 01.09.2003 |
| Wonyoung | Jang Wonyoung | 31.08.2004 |
| Gaeul | Kim Gaeul | 24.09.2002 |
| Rei | Kim Rei | 03.02.2004 |
| Liz | Kim Jiwon | 21.11.2004 |
| Leeseo | Lee Hyunseo | 21.02.2007 |
Did you know that Rei is Starship Entertainment's first Japanese idol?
On December 1st, IVE debuted the single album Eleven!
The single album contains two tracks, including the title track of the same name “Eleven”:
The album debuted at number 3 on the Korean Gaon Album Charts and fell to number 4 the following week. Then it shot up to number 1 again two weeks later! Even though IVE only debuted in December, Eleven ended up being the 10th best-selling album by a female artist or group in South Korea in 2021!
The title song earned IVE their first win on a music show just seven days after their debut. In doing so, they broke the record for the fastest music show win by a girl group after their debut! Previously, ITZY set a record of nine days in February 2019 and held it for over three and a half years. In total, Eleven has been awarded a trophy by music shows 13 times!
The debut could hardly have gone better!
Just a week after the debut, IVE also announced their official fandom name on Twitter. The fans have been called “DIVE” ever since. The name is based on the girl group's greeting, which is “DIVE into IVE”.
On April 5th, 2022, IVE celebrated their first comeback with the second single album “Love Dive”!
The music video for the title track, called “Love Dive” like the album, had been viewed 100 million times by June 15th. Love Dive hit the 100 million mark a month faster than the music video for Eleven!
The album went straight to number one on the Gaon Album Charts and also sold over 544,000 copies in its first month, more than twice as many as Eleven in the same period! So IVE has improved even further and leaves no doubt that we can expect a lot more from them.
Not long after the comeback, IVE performed at the KPOP.FLex Festival in Frankfurt, Germany on May 14th & 15th.
It was a special milestone because, like many other groups debuting in 2020 and later, IVE had little opportunity to perform live in front of their fans due to the global Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions up to that point. Thanks to the festival, six months after their debut, the time had finally come: in Frankfurt, the young girl group was cheered on by no less than 65,000 spectators! It was also the first time that IVE performed abroad.
The third single album “After Like” was released on August 22nd, 2022!
The melody in the chorus may sound familiar to you, as the song uses samples from the well-known hit song “I Will Survive,” released in 1978 by American singer Gloria Gaynor.
With the new album, IVE has improved once again, selling more than a million copies in August! Like the previous two albums, After Like topped the Korean Gaon Album Charts, now called the “Circle Charts”.
While IVE performed their new song on music shows, fans could also look forward to the Japanese debut in autumn, which was announced on August 10th!
On September 19th, the girl group premiered a Japanese version of their debut song “Eleven,” along with a brand new music video:
The physical album will be released exactly one month later, on October 19th.
We are excited to see what IVE will present to us this year and in the future! Personally, we suspect that after three single albums, the first mini album or maybe even a full album will soon be coming. What do you think?
