From their first fan meeting to their first million seller, and their first solo concert.

The six-member group Boy Next Door has achieved a perfect quantum jump this year, building up their special ‘firsts’. They debuted as the first group from KOZ Entertainment, founded by singer Zico, in May of last year, and were nicknamed the ‘Zico Group’. In just 1 year and 6 months, they stood tall as a ‘5th generation top tier’ K-pop group with just their presence.

Boy Next Door, who held their first fan meeting in April and met their fandom ‘One Door’ for the first time in their lives, began a steep upward curve with the release of their 3rd mini album ‘19.99’ in September. The album sold over 1 million copies, earning it the title of ‘Million Seller’ for the first time.

In particular, since the members, who are actually around the age of 20, directly participated in the composition and lyrics, and wrote autobiographical stories in the album, it succeeded in eliciting sympathy from the MZ generation around the world, and the size of their fandom grew vertically. The album also caused a big stir overseas, entering the 40th place on the US Billboard main album chart ‘Billboard 200’ and reaching #1 on Japan‘s Oricon monthly album ranking. These rankings are all their best results.

They put the finishing touches on their growth with their first solo concert ‘Knock On Volume One’, held at Inspire Arena in Jung-gu, Incheon on the 14th and 15th. The members proved the power of the phrase “performance group” by nonstop performing hit songs such as ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’, ‘I’m Going to Turn Around’, ‘Parents Can‘t Come’, ‘What’s It Like’ on stage.

In addition, when they passionately sang ‘Nice Guy’, they filled the stage with 20 dancers, increasing the fun of a large-scale performance. Member Liu also incorporated the team‘s individuality into the stage by participating in the point choreography of ‘Lucky Charm’. With Christmas just ten days away, they wore carol-themed costumes under special snow effects and sang ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’.

The fans responded explosively to the concert that was filled with their sincerity, standing up in the audience and ‘singing along’ to parts of the song. Thanks to the strong ‘firepower’ of the fandom, all seats for the two-day concert, including those with restricted view, were sold out even though it was their first concert.

Boynextdoor showed their will to grow, saying, “We are proud to be holding our first solo concert. As the ‘Volume’ number in the title increases, our songs and the scale of our performances will continue to grow, so please look forward to it.”They also said, “This will be the first and last concert where we will fill the stage with only original songs without any rearrangements. We wanted to show our own originality,” they said, adding, “While preparing for the concert, we fought with each other, hugged each other and cried, but it was good that we worked so hard. I’m proud of our name. It feels like our lives were not in vain.”

The members will continue their tour in six cities (12 performances) starting in Incheon, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, and Taipei. Having made their official debut in Japan this year, they will not only perform on tour there, but also participate in major year-end award ceremonies such as TV Asahi’s ‘Music Station Super Live’.

At the end of the concert, Boy Next Door surprised the audience with a surprise ‘spoiler’, saying, “We’ll make a comeback in January next year.” They said, “While preparing for the concert and awards ceremony stage, the members came together and said that they would make a powerful comeback, which led to this opportunity. This is a comeback prepared for One Door (fandom), but it seems like it won‘t be just for One Door. We’ve prepared music that many people will like,“ he announced, raising expectations even higher.


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com