The K-Pop production mill is back in full swing, and there’s a new boyband in town that’s ready to take the country (and possibly the world) by storm. BoyNextDoor is a group consisting of six currently unknown members, who’ve been put together by Zico’s label KOZ Entertainment (a subsidiary of the Big Hit label, who works with iconic groups like BTS).
Zico, real name Woo Ji-ho, is a K-Pop and Korean hip hop icon, who began his career as the leader of the boy band Block B, all the way back in 2011. A famed producer and global superstar who’s been profiled by massive magazines like NME (he produced a huge number of Block B songs, including 2014s global hit “HER”, and also had a massive TikTok hit with “Any Song.”), Zico seemed to be taking a keen interest in this band, and many insiders see it as a kind of passion project for the star. Zico is used to working with other K-Pop artists, having produced songs for acts like Kim Se-jeong and Penomeco.
So, there’s a lot of good hype around BoyNextDoor, and rightfully so it seems. But how were this group formed? And when will BoyNextDoor debut?
How were BoyNextDoor formed?
In January of last year, KOZ Entertainment announced on the HYBE YouTube channel that they would be holding auditions for a new boy group. Later on that year, in June, KOZ also announced they were running auditions for teen rappers in an event entitled “KOZ Teen Rapper Audition: U18 in the Zungle,” and that this competition would be twinned with their other auditions to help to form the new group. Here, they also revealed 2023 as the year this group would be unveiled.
Despite the connection to the rapping competition, in August of 2022, Zico gave a radio interview where he stated the new group wouldn’t be limited to just hip hop, as KOZ wanted to make sure they had a wide appeal.
When will BoyNextDoor make their debut?
In February this year, it was reported on SPOTV News that the new boy group from KOZ Entertainment would be debuting in May. The exact date of the debut was revealed on April 3, when KOZ Entertainment put a 56 day countdown on their official website. The next day they confirmed that the band would be debuting on May 30.
Two weeks later, on April 17, the group’s name — BoyNextDoor — was revealed through the HYBE Label YouTube channel. The group’s social networks went live on the same day, and there was also confirmation that it would contain six members.
“Boynextdoor, as the name suggests, means that the boy band will be friendly and approachable, like boys living next door,” a statement from the agency said, giving us some idea as to what the new band might look like.
For now, the suspense is building. Given that everything Zico touches seems to turn to gold, there’s every chance BoyNextDoor will live up to the hype.
