ATEEZ: K-pop boy group bombards the European market, has an unprecedented honor

ATEEZ is a South Korean boy band affiliated with KQ Entertainment. The group currently consists of 8 members: Seonghwa, Hongjoong, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung, and Jongho. ATEEZ debuted on October 24, 2018 with two songs, 'Treasure' and 'Pirate King'.

In 2017, KQ Entertainment trainees (including the current 8 members of ATEEZ) participated in the survival show "Mix Nine". However, only 4 members were selected. Mingi and Wooyoung were eliminated after episode 7 with rankings #63 and #72. Hongjoong and Jongho stopped at episode 10 with rankings of #42 and #43, respectively.

Prior to its debut in 2018, KQ uploaded a series on the company's official Youtube channel called 'KQ Fellaz 美国연수기' (translation: KQ Fellaz trains in the US). In this series, the members practiced and learned more in Los Angeles.

In the last episode of the series which aired on July 2, 2018, KQ released the song "From". At the same time, it was announced that trainee Lee Junyoung would not debut with the group because the internship period was short and inexperienced.

Starting on July 20, 2018, KQ collaborated with Mnet to broadcast a reality project called "Code Name is ATEEZ" with the aim of following ATEEZ boys in their daily activities and debut preparations.

On October 24, 2018, ATEEZ officially debuted with two songs "Treasure" and "Pirate King". On July 8, 2019, the group signed a cooperation contract with RCA Records of the United States.

The group name "ATEEZ" carries the meaning of "A TEEnage Z" and "everything belongs to the 10X generation". The group's slogan is "8 makes 1 team! Hello, this is ATEEZ."

In early 2021, ATEEZ confirmed to participate in the program "Kingdom: Legendary War" with 6 famous K-Pop groups including: BTOB, iKON, SF9, The Boyz, Stray Kids and ATEEZ. The teams had to go through 4 rounds of performance to determine the champion. ATEEZ ranked 3rd overall with a total score of 21,298,106.

Not long ago, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was held in Coachella Valley, Indio, California from April 12 to April 19, 2024, with the announcement of the performers. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which was first held in 1999, is the largest music festival in the world, attracting about 200,000 attendees each year.

Accordingly, Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt, J Balvin... are the famous names that will appear one after another at Coachella. This year's Korean representative named 3 groups ATEEZ, The Rose and LE SSERAFIM. In particular, if you don't count The Rose pursuing a band model, ATEEZ was honored to become the first K-pop boy idol group to perform on Coachella's stage.

Before ATEEZ and The Rose, no K-pop boy group had performed at Coachella, including BTS. Epik High belongs to the hip-hop music genre that appeared in 2016, GOT7 member - Jackson also has a solo stage in 2023.

ATEEZ is an 8-member group formed by KQ Entertainment in 2018. Although not too prominent in their hometown, the boys have created a lot of buzz in the international market.

ATEEZ's participation in this popular music festival marks a significant milestone, cementing their position as a top K-pop artist. In addition to debuting at Coachella, ATEEZ is also on a 2024 world tour called TOWARDS THE LIGHT: WILL TO POWER.

In 2022, the group has controversies erupting around the trend dance of the idol world, "New Thing" has signs of plagiarism of ATEEZ's "My Name" is becoming increasingly tense. All key people must speak up quickly.

Vata, who appeared on Mnet's survival show Street Man Fighter as the leader of the We Dem Boyz dance group, took on a challenge on the show in which all the group leaders were tasked with creating the choreography for Zico's new song, New thing. With skillful dance steps, although they look gentle but require skillful and agile force control, the choreography choreographed by Vata has quickly become a big trend, being covered by many idols from music groups (NCT, The Boyz, etc ASTRO, IVE...)

However, many people soon realized that the beginning of Vata's choreography was similar to the main dance move used in the chorus of ATEEZ's "Say My Name" released in 2019, and this "gliding" movement has since become a signature symbol of the group.

Notably, Zico chose not to dance that particular move when he posted his own version of the New thing challenge, suggesting that the male artist may have noticed the similarities as well.

Anze Skrube, one of three choreographers who came up with the original choreography for Say My Name, spoke out about the controversy on social media earlier this week. The dancer has reposted a lot of ATEEZ fan posts accusing Vata of plagiarism, including one asking for an apology, and he also wrote in a comment: "This looks like ATEEZ's Say My Name Challenge. The original choreography was choreographed by Josh Smith, Johnny Erasme, and me. The special wavy movement is done by Josh Smith."

Fans also speculated that some members of ATEEZ, especially Wooyoung, expressed the group's stance on the controversy by performing "biting", a way that dancers use to call a fellow dancer when copying or stealing other people's moves. During a recent performance of The Real, Wooyoung seemed to use "biting" on stage before dancing the main move from Say My Name.

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