On March 4, five-member boy band "Tomorrow X Together" debuted under Big Hit Entertainment; the agency that created a worldwide phenomenon with BTS. The name - “TXT” for short - means that members come together with a dream in the hope of creating a better tomorrow.
Back in 2017, Bang Si Hyuk, the founder of Big Hit, announced plans for a new boy group, but it wasn't until 2019 that the time finally came. From January 10th to 20th, the agency introduced the five members Yeonjun, Soobin, HueningKai, Taehyun and Beomgyu step by step with one-and-a-half minute YouTube videos .
| Artist name | Real name | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Yeonjun | Choi Yeonjun | 13.09,1999 |
| Soobin | Choi Soobin | 05.12.2000 |
| Beomgyu | Choi Beomgyu | 13.03.2001 |
| Taehyun | Kang Taehyun | 05.02.2002 |
| HueningKai | Kai Kamal Huening | 14.08.2002 |
TXT is the first boy band to debut under Big Hit after BTS's debut six years earlier, and expectations were high among K-pop fans.
Already with their first album " The Dream Chapter: Star ", with which the five guys made their debut on March 4th, they fulfilled and perhaps even exceeded these expectations.
"The Dream Chapter: Star" peaked at #1 on the Gaon Album Chart, Gaon Monthly Album Chart and Billboard World Album Chart, as well as #140 on the US Billboard 200 and #3 on Japan's Oricon Weekly Album Chart. No debut album by a boy band had ever achieved a higher ranking. The title song “Crown” topped the World Digital Songs Charts, something no K-pop group has ever achieved so quickly after its debut. The music video for “Crown” was viewed 14.5 million times and liked 2.3 million times in the first 24 hours; With these numbers, TXT broke the record for the most viewed and most liked K-pop debut music video by a boy band.
TXT also placed at the top of the Billboard Emerging Artist Charts and won their first music show win just one week after their debut. After all of this success, it was hardly a surprise that TXT also received numerous rookie awards, including “Rookie of the Year” at the Golden Disc Awards, “New Artist of the Year” at the Gaon Chart Music Awards and “Best New Male Artist”. ” at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.
In May, TXT released an English version of the song "Cat and Dog" from "The Dream Chapter: Star" with its own music video.
Although it had only been a month since their debut, the boy band announced six shows in April in six American cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles; which sold out in under 24 hours. After further appearances at festivals in Japan and New York, a new album was supposed to be released in August, but this was postponed due to Soobin's infectious conjunctivitis and Yeonjun's back pain. The new September release date was also canceled because Taehyun and HueningKai also contracted conjunctivitis after Soobin.
After the members recovered, the fans' eagerly awaited second album " The Dream Chapter: Magic " was finally released on October 21st, with TXT once again topping the Gaon Album Charts. Four songs from the album entered the Billboard World Digital Songs Charts, including the title song " Run Away ", which was named one of the best K-Pop songs of the year by Billboard and Dazed! At the end of the year, TXT once again won a number of Rookie Awards, including the Asia Artist Awards, Melon Music Awards, Mnet Asian Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards.
The first year couldn't have gone better for TXT, but in 2020 the boy group showed that they can still aim higher. On May 18, 2020, the third album " The Dream Chapter: Eternity " was released with the title song " Can't You See Me? ". With the album, TXT reached the top of the Japanese Oricon charts for the first time. They also received a platinum certificate from Gaon for the album in July. Two months later, further platinum certificates followed for the first two albums - "The Dream Chapter: Star" and "The Dream Chapter: Magic". "The Dream Chapter: Eternity" concludes the Dream Chapter series.
The Dream Chapter Series
| The Dream Chapter: Star | published on 4 March 2019 |
|---|---|
| The Dream Chapter: Magic | published on 21 October 2019 |
| The Dream Chapter: Eternity | published on 18 May 2020 |
On October 26, almost exactly one year after the second album, TXT released their fourth album “ Minisode1: Blue Hour ”. The album topped the Billboard Album Charts and earned TXT their second top spot on the Oricon Charts. The boy group also reached number 1 on the Emerging Artist Charts again, for the first time since their debut in March 2019. In April 2021, Blue Hour became the first TXT album to be certified double platinum.
The boy group's fifth album, " The Chaos Chapter: Freeze ," was released on May 31st. This time, TXT is building on its previous successes: the new album has been pre-ordered over 700,000 times, almost twice as many as "Minisode1: Blue Hour." "The Chaos Chapter: Freeze" climbed to number 5 on the Billboard 200, making it TXT's highest-ranking album in America to date. The album is also the only album by a fourth-generation K-pop group to be awarded triple platinum. The title song " 0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You) " was written by BTS RM, among others.
On August 17, TXT released three new songs on their first repackage album “The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape ”, including a remix of “0X1=Lovesong” and the title song “LO$ER=LO♡ER”.
| Minisode1: Blue Hour | published on 26 October 2020 |
|---|---|
| The Chaos Chapter: Freeze | published on 31 May 2021 |
| The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape | published on 17 August 2021 |
Although TXT has already released six Korean albums in just two and a half years, three Japanese albums - two of which are single albums - have also been released since 2020.
| Magic Hour | published on 15 January 2020 |
|---|---|
| Drama | published on 19 August 2020 |
| Still Dreaming | published on 20 January 2021 |
The boy group made their Japanese debut in early 2020 with the single album “Magic Hour”, which contains Japanese versions of their two previously released title tracks “Run Away” and “Crown” as well as the song “ Angel or Devil ” from “The Dream Chapter: Magic”.
The second single album “Drama” followed in August with Japanese versions of “Can't You See Me?” and “ Drama ”; both songs are from “The Dream Chapter: Eternity”. In addition, TXT also presents the first original Japanese single “ Everlasting Shine ” with the album, which serves as the soundtrack for the anime “Black Clover”.
The first Japanese full album “Still Dreaming” was released on January 20, 2021. The ten tracks on the album include all six songs that can be found on the two single albums, the Japanese version of “Blue Hour” from “Minisode1: Blue Hour”, a short intro and outro, and the brand new song “ Force ”, which, like “Everlasting Shine”, serves as the soundtrack for an anime; in this case “World Trigger”. “Blue Hour” already has a Korean music video, but a new one has been released for the Japanese version:
TXT has already announced that a new Japanese album titled “Chaotic Wonderland” will be released in November! It will contain two new songs as well as Japanese versions of “0X1=Lovesong” and “ MOA Diary (Dubaddu Wari Wari) ”.
The five-member boy band has only been active for two and a half years, but has already impressively proven several times that we will continue to hear from them regularly in the next few years!
Bonus
HueningKai's younger sister Huening Bahiyyih also dreams of debuting as an idol in Korea and can currently be seen in the survival show “Girls Planet 999”. She survived the first elimination, after which 45 of 99 participants had to leave the show, and most recently performed “Ice Cream” by Blackpink with eight other trainees.
Bahiyyih wears an orange and brown outfit and stands in the middle at the beginning of the performance.
In the first episode of Girls Planet, Huening Kai was even seen briefly on a video call with his sister . Although he cheekily asks Bahiyyih to try harder, as brothers tend to do, we're sure he's cheering her on and wishing her the best of luck!
Of course, we hope that Bahiyyih will survive this round and are excited to see whether she will ultimately make her debut in the nine-member project group!
