THE BOYZ

K-pop act the Boyz came together in 2017 when the company Cre.ker Entertainment united a dozen singing, dancing, and rapping young men who had been performing in various singing competitions and attempting to start recording careers of their own. Their initial singles dropped in 2017, and the group were quickly snapped up by Sony. Their debut EP, The First, came out in December of 2017 and went to number 3. The follow-up EP, The Start, climbed one spot higher less than four months later. By the end of 2018 their third EP, The Only, would give them yet another top 5 release, and the group would capture multiple Best New Artist trophies and various industry ceremonies. They toured Asia at the start of 2019, and released their fourth straight top 5 EP, Dreamlike, in August of that year. Two months later group member Hwall left due to persistent health issues. They closed out the year with their first European tour, and came off the road in 2020 in time to release their first album, Reveal. Later that year they triumphed on the competition show Road to Kingdom, and had their biggest chart hit yet for the song “Checkmate”. The Boyz released their first Japanese studio album Breaking Dawn in 2021 and their sixth EP, the hip-hop-flavoured Thrill-ing, arrived in 2021. 2023 saw the release of Korean full-length Phantasy Pt.1 Christmas in August—which went to number one in South Korea—and Japanese full-length Delicious. The second instalment of Phantasy, Pt.2 Sixth Sense, followed later in 2023 before the Boyz rounded off the trilogy in March 2024 with Phantasy Pt. 3 Love Letter.