F.T. Island
F.T. Island, is a South Korean rock band formed by FNC Entertainment in 2007. The band currently consists of main vocalist Lee Hong-gi, bassist Lee Jae-jin, and drummer Choi Min-hwan. Guitarist Oh Won-bin left the band in 2009 and was replaced by Song Seung-hyun. Former leader Choi Jong-hoon left the band and retired from the entertainment industry on March 14, 2019, while Seung-hyun left the group on December 31, 2019, to pursue his acting career.
F.T. Island debuted on the music television program M Countdown on June 7, 2007, with the single "Love Sick". Their debut studio album, Cheerful Sensibility, was the sixth best-selling of the year and "Love Sick" topped the K-pop charts for eight consecutive weeks. Later that year, the band won the Best New Male Group at the Mnet Asian Music Awards and the Popularity and Rookie of the Year awards at the Golden Disk Awards.
F.T. Island made their Japanese debut on June 8, 2008, with the extended play Prologue of F.T. Island: Soyogi. The band started getting recognition in the country following the release of their third Japanese studio album, Five Treasure Island, in 2011, which topped the Oricon Albums Chart and spawned the single "Flower Rock". Additionally, F.T. Island is the first foreign male band and the first band in 42 years to top the Oricon Daily Charts.
F.T. Island's most well-known songs include "After Love", "Bad Woman", "I Hope", "Hello Hello", "Severely", "I Wish", and the chart-toppers "Love Sick", "Thunder", "Until You Come Back", and "Love Love Love". Considered to be South Korea's first idol band, F.T. Island paved the way for such acts, including label mate N.Flying.
History
2007–2008: Debut with ''Cheerful Sensibility'' and Japanese debut with ''Prologue of F.T. Island: Soyogi''
F.T. Island's first album, Cheerful Sensibility, was released on June 7, 2007. Prior to that, the members appeared on the South Korean television show "Wanna be my girlfriend?" on Mnet. The band also performed live on stage at Rolling Hall and held their first official showcase at Live House Melon-AX, Gwangjang-dong in Seoul on May 27, 2007.The album combined 13 songs that were loosely divided into two parts, "Emotional Chapter" and "F.T. Island Chapter", according to the genre of the songs. The "Emotional Chapter" consists of rock ballads, while the "F.T. Island Chapter" consists of a variety of pop rock sons produced by Japanese composers who worked with the Japanese band SMAP. Selling over 79,000 copies in 2007, it was the sixth best-selling album of the year. The album was later re-packaged on December 3, 2007, titled The Refreshment with three extra songs, a photo book, a stack of photo cards and a mixing program called Music 2.0, which allows one to adjust the levels of the instruments and vocals. The edition sold 25,724 copies in December 2007.
After debuting in South Korea, FNC Entertainment moved F.T. Island's activities overseas. On March 31, 2008, an autograph session in Malaysia at the Damansara Cineleisure was held, which was to be followed by the group's first concert at the Sunway Lagoon Amphitheater the next day. However, the performance was canceled and subsequently held in Thailand instead, at the Royal Paragon Hall on April 14, 2008.
F.T. Island's first Japanese debut album, titled Prologue of F.T. Island: Soyogi, was then released on June 7, 2008. The album consists of eight songs, two of which were newer versions of the original songs "F.T. Island" and "Primadonna". The last track, "Always Be Mine", is an English version of "First Kiss" from their debut album. Music videos were also released for "Soyogi" and "Friendship", displaying the band's professionalism and playful sides.
After their promotional activities in Japan, the band then returned to Korea, releasing their second Korean album Colorful Sensibility on August 27, 2008. A follow-up epilogue, Colorful Sensibility Part 2, was later released on October 17.
Later that year, F.T. Island also released "The One", their first Japanese commercial single under indie label AI Entertainment. The single charted at ninth on the Oricon daily charts. The single was also the last official release with member Oh Won Bin before his departure.
2009–2010: Lineup changes, F.T. Triple and breakthrough in Japan
On January 28, 2009, it was announced that member Oh Won Bin would be leaving the group, with FNC trainee Song Seung-hyun replacing him as a guitarist and backup vocalist. With the new change in lineup, F.T. Island then released the music video for their mini-album with the title song "Bad Woman". They promoted it on SBS Inkigayo, and released their first South Korean mini-album Jump Up two days later.On April 22, F.T. Island later released their second Japanese single, "I Believe Myself". For the first time, members participated in lyrics composition. For the song "Moonlight Angel", Jae-jin co-wrote the lyrics and Jong-hoon co-composed the song. "I Believe Myself" was the first Japanese single with member Seung-hyun. They held their 2009 F.T. Island Tour-I Believe Myself in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo during the summer of 2009. F.T. Island also toured parts of Asia which included Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and others to promote themselves in the summer of 2009. The showcase kicked off in Singapore during June 25 to 27.
While preparing for overseas promotions, the members were in the midst of recording their third album. On July 9, FNC Entertainment released jacket photos for the upcoming third album called Cross & Change. On the following day, a music video teaser for "I Hope" was released online, featuring kids watching their idols on TV. The title song, called “I Hope/Barae”, was released on July 16. F.T. Island tried out a variety of music styles for Cross & Change; it included a total of 12 songs, ranging from moving ballads to addictive songs with a bright melody. F.T. Island adopted a new fashion style and concept for the album using a "retro" and the “Bokgo” approach, which was inspired during the “jeans jeans look” from the 80s in Korea.
F.T. Island released their 3rd Japanese single, "Raining", on October 21. A music video of the single was released. Jong-hoon played the piano for the single for the first time instead of the guitar.
After celebrating their 1000th day in the music industry, they travelled to Japan and they stayed until the end of August to prepare for their major debut under their new Japanese label, Warner Music Japan. They also began a new Japanese television show which aired on April 7, 2010. On May 19, F.T. Island released their new Japanese single "Flower Rock". It entered the oricon daily charts in third position on May 19, 2010, on the day of its release, and held the fourth position of that week. On July 14, F.T. Island released another single named "Brand-new days", which was written and composed by Seung-hyun and Jong-hoon. F.T. Island performed a five-city concert tour in Japan after releasing both singles. They also performed at the international rock festival Summer Sonic 2010 in Maishima Arena, Osaka, Japan.
After promotions in Japan, F.T. Island focused on their comeback in Korea in mid-August.
Their new mini album Beautiful Journey and the music video for their main title song "Love Love Love" were released on August 25. They held their comeback performance in Korea on August 27. The title song topped many popular music charts in South Korea and also gained international notice, especially in Taiwan. Jong-hoon co-wrote and co-composed the song, "Don Quixote's Song", making it their first South Korean song that includes the composition of a member. In November and December, F.T. Island held performances such as the Beautiful Journey Concert and So Today... Concert tour, in both Korea and Japan.
While promoting their second South Korean mini-album, F.T. Island recorded another Japanese single titled "So Today..." that was released in November. The song, "Boom Boom Boom", was composed by Jong-hoon. The single ranked sixth on the Oricon Daily Charts. With F.T. Island's 3rd single taking the sixth position, they then had a record of all their singles ranking in the top ten of the Oricon charts. About 10,000 fans turned up at their promotional events in Osaka and Tokyo on 20 and 21 November.
The band then held a concert in Taiwan on December 25, celebrating Christmas together with 9000 fans. Former vocalist and guitarist Oh Wonbin, appeared as a special guest and performed his first single as a solo artist and a brand new song, which had not been released at the concert. F.T. Island performed songs in three languages, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.
With an album sales record of over 100,000, F.T. Island won favorable comments in the Taiwanese media. The revenue for concert tickets and merchandises alone and F.T. Island's Beautiful Journey concert had exceeded a total of NT$20Million. They have been named the South Korean artists who earned the most money in the end of 2010. Four main news agencies namely, China Times, Yonhap News, Apple Daily and Liberty Times wrote news on the concerts, showing the band's high popularity. F.T. Island also broke several records in Taiwan with 500,000 hits on mobile downloads and 10,000,000 hits on music downloads.
2011–2012: Continued Japanese popularity, ''Return'' to South Korea and rising popularity
On April 20, 2011, F.T. Island released their seventh Japanese single "Satisfaction". The single debuted at number two on the Oricon weekly singles charts, becoming the band's highest-charting single in the country. Their title song "Satisfaction" was also selected to be the ending theme song of Fuji Television's anime Toriko.On May 18, F.T. Island released their first major debut album in Japan, entitled Five Treasure Island. The album features songs from their previous singles such as "Flower Rock", "Brand New Days", "So Today...", and "Satisfaction"; it also contains several new tracks, including the soundtracks for Japanese drama Muscle Girl!, in which member Hong-gi played the lead male role. The album ranked first at the Oricon album daily chart.
In late May, F.T. Island returned to the South Korean music scene after almost a year, with a mini-album titled Return. The album was released on May 24. Title track was "Hello Hello", a fast-paced rock song. The album featured five songs in total. "I Confess" featured all of the members' vocals.
File:CN Blue and F.T. Island 20120309.jpg|thumb|F.T. Island with CNBLUE during their Stand Up concert at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, March 9, 2012
After releasing a tragic music video for their title track "Severely", F.T. Island released their fourth mini-album, entitled Grown-Up. Featuring five songs, it is composed of slow-tempo rock ballads. The album was released on January 31, 2012, and secured the No. 1 position on the Hanteo album chart for total album sales on both the daily and weekly charts, with title track "Severely" topping various online music charts. The album was completely sold out ten days after its release, recording some 50,000 copies sold. F.T. Island also achieved the "Triple Crown" recognition for "Severely" on JTBC's Music On Top. "Triple Crown" is a recognition for any artist who have won a music programme three times consecutively and the song would be removed from further trophies.
On March 9, F.T. Island and fellow labelmate CNBLUE performed in North America for the first time at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.
In April, the band returned to Japan to promote their 7th Japanese single "Neverland", which was released on the 18th. “Neverland”, a fast tempo rock song, was chosen as the opening theme song of the animation Ozuma, a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Japanese broadcasting system WOWOW.
F.T. Island released their second studio Japanese album 20 |20 on May 16, 2012. It debuted at number four on the weekly Oricon albums chart, selling 41,726 copies in its first week, earning the band their best first-week sales in Japan.
The same year, F.T. Island released their fourth South Korean studio album Five Treasure Box and its single "I Wish" on September 10. Within the first week of its release, the album sold over 30,000 copies in South Korea.