The group IVE (Ahn Yu-jin, Ga-eul, Lay, Jang Won-young, Liz, Lee Seo) has officially confirmed their first comeback in 2025.

The agency Starship Entertainment revealed the coming soon teaser for IVE‘s third EP album ‘IVE EMPATHY’, which will be released on February 3, through IVE’s official SNS channel, the group‘s first comeback in 2025.

The coming soon teaser video begins with the backs of the IVE members linking arms, changing in various ways. This was followed by scenes of them holding hands, covering each other with blankets, and leaning on each other, showing their warm affection, and in particular, the lyrics “May we cherish the six forever” captivated the listeners’ ears. Soon, the scenes changed to the members‘ appearances for the first time as if a puzzle was being put together, and the video ended with the phrase ‘IVE EMPATHY’ appearing.

‘EMPATHY’ means ‘empathy’. This raises curiosity about what ‘empathy’ Ive expresses through this album.

‘Ive Empathy’ is an EP album being released approximately 9 months after the release of their second EP album ‘Ive Switch’ last April. Since their debut, Ive has perfectly digested various concepts with their own style each time, so attention is focused on what kind of image they will show this time. Furthermore, they have raised expectations by announcing that a pre-release title song will be released on January 13th ahead of the album release.

Through his first world tour that began in October of last year, Ibe performed 37 times in 19 countries including Asia, the Americas, Europe, and South America, meeting an audience of over 420,000, and set another record by selling out all seats at the ‘KSPO Dome (formerly the Gymnastics Arena)’ and Japan’s ‘Tokyo Dome’. In addition, in August of last year, he performed on stage at ‘Lollapalooza Chicago’ in the U.S. and ‘Summer Sonic 2024’, Japan‘s largest music festival, and was reborn as a ‘performance powerhouse’, receiving attention from domestic and global media outlets.

Ibe will appear on SBS ‘Gayo Daejun’ today (25th) with the full group, and leader Ahn Yu-jin will serve as MC for the fourth consecutive time. The third EP album, ‘Ive Empathy’, will be officially released on February 3rd, and various teaser contents will be sequentially released through the official SNS in the future to increase the comeback fever.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com Reporter jhj@donga.com