WINNER (group)

Pre-

In 2010, Son Yoon was a member of the popular Superstar K2 talent show, and reached the final four. In the same year, his contract was signed with YG Entertainment ^[3] and he made his debut as an actor in the sitcom “The Expendable Kick 3: Revenge of the Short-Footed” ^[4] . In 2013, he also debuted as a solo artist and released several tracks, including “It Rains” ^[5] .

Son Hong was a former member of the K-Pop Star 1 talent show in 2012. There he took fourth place and was spotted by YG Director Yang Hyun Suk (he was one of the judges) ^[6] . On May 16, 2012, it was announced that he had signed a contract with the company ^[7] .

Min Ho began his career as an underground rapper Mino, recording collaborative tracks with other artists ( Zico , Ken and Pio from Block B and Taun from SPEED ). Mino was supposed to make his debut in Block B, but left the band before his debut for personal reasons. In 2011, he made his debut in the BoM group of the Y2Y Contents Company , but the team was disbanded two years later. In 2013, joined YG, after auditioning ^[8] .

Jin Woo attended a music dance academy. He was spotted by Big Bang Seanri and brought to the agency. Jin Woo became a trainee in 2010 ^[9] .

Taehyun was accepted into the company through an audition in 2011. In the same year, he and Jin Woo were among the dancers at the YG Family Concert .

2013-14: WIN: Who Is Next and Debut

Five company trainers were assembled in team “A” to participate in the reality show WIN: Who Is Next , which was broadcast on Mnet . During the final episode, October 25, 2013, it was announced that they would debut with the title "Winner", released two singles on October 28 and will be performing at the opening of the Japanese Big Bang tour from November 15 ^[10] . On November 9, band members appeared as dancers in Taeyang 's video “Ringa Linga” ^[11] . On December 13, Mnet began broadcasting the Winner TV show ^[12] .

From June to August 2014, the first photos and video teasers of the group ^{[13] [14] [15] [16]} were presented. The debut showcase took place on August 6, the release of the 2014 S / S studio album in digital format took place on August 12, and on physical media two days later ^[17] . On the day of debut, the company's sales increased by 6.57% ^[18] . On August 17, their performance on Inkigayo was shown, and they became the only male group to be able to win a music show during their first performance ( M! Countdown ) ^[19] . The fan club was called “Inner Circle” ( Russian Circle of Winners ; in Korean, the pronunciation is consonant with “Number 1” ( English Number 1 )) ^[20] . Along with the release of the album, 2 video clips were released - “Color Ring” and “Empty” ^{[21] [22]} . The 2014 S / S reached the top of the Billboard World Albums Chart ^[23] . On August 30, a video clip was released for Mino’s solo song “I'm Him,” which also featured other members ^[24] .

On September 10, the promotion was announced in Japan with the 2014 S / S: Japan Collection , and their first Japanese concert was held on September 11 ^[25] . On October 11, the Japanese tour was completed in Tokyo ^[26] . On December 9, the American television channel Fuse compiled a list of “13 breakthrough artists of 2014”, and Winner were the only Korean artists to be in 11th place ^[27] . On December 17, Dazed published a list of “20 K-pop songs of 2014”, where “Color Ring” took 10th place ^[28] .

2015–16: Solo activity, EXIT: E and Taheung's departure

In 2015, Winner went on a break, and the participants took up solo projects. Taekhyun has participated in several film projects, including the web drama Midnight's Girls ^[29] , Last Night Restaurant, and the Korean-Chinese TV series Under the Black Moonlight. "( Eng. Under the Black Moonlight ) ^[30] . Song Yoon also starred in the successful web drama “We Break Up” ( Eng. We Broke Up ) ^{[31] [32]} . Jin Woo appeared in the drama Magic Cellphone ^[33] , while Mino participated in the show Me The Money , where he finished as a member ^[34] . A number of his digital releases from the program were successful, including "Fear" with Taeyang , who became the show's most downloaded single ^[35] . In December, the company announced that the group would return to the scene in 2016 with "more than five releases" ^[36] .

In 2016, the first release of "for heating" was the duo of Mino and Taekhyun "Pricked". Despite the lack of promotion, he took 2nd place on Melon and 1 on iTunes in 9 countries, including Singapore , Thailand and Brunei ^[37] . In honor of the band's upcoming comeback, a series of musical covers for the title tracks in duets with Li Hai , Zion.T, Epik High , Taeyang and G-Dragon were released ^[38] . On February 1, EXIT: E mini-album was released, which was the band's first release after an 18-month hiatus. The promotion of the tracks "Baby Baby" and "Sentimental" began, the first of the planned series "EXIT: E Movement" ^[39] . In April, the group appeared on the show “ Half-Moon Friends ”, and in September Mino made his debut in the hip-hop duo MOBB along with iKON's Bobby. On October 12, YG Entertainment announced that Taekhyun would suspend activities in the group due to health problems, so all other releases under the EXIT Movement project would be delayed ^[40] . On November 25, it was announced that Taekhyun was leaving the team, and one of the reasons could also be the constant delay in promotion. It was decided to continue the activities of the group of four people without adding new members.

In November, Jin Woo was announced as one of the main directors of the Little Prince project from the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company . He is the first Korean artist to take part in such a project. The participation of Son Yoon and Jin Woo in the web drama "1000 Years of Love" ( English Love for A Thousand More ) was also announced.

2017: Fate Number For and Our Twenty Four

On March 17, 2017, YG Entertainment confirmed the comeback of the band 14 months after the last release ^[41] . April 4 was the release of the single album Fate Number For . The same day, Really Really and Fool videos ^{[42] [43] were released} . On April 26, the Japanese version of Fate Number For ^[44] was released. On August 4, the release of our second single album, Our Twenty Four , took place. The music videos “Love Me Love Me” and “Island” were released ^[45] .

On August 4, Winner returned with Our Twenty For . Two singles were released, “Love Me Love Me” and “Island.” “Love Me Love Me” was selected by Dazed Digital as one of the top 20 K-Pop songs of 2017.

2018: Japanese Tour, EVERYD4Y , WWIC2018, EVERYWHERE: World Tour and Millions

In February 2018, Winner released their second Japanese single, Our Twenty Four, which contained two new original Japanese songs, Raining and Have A Good Day. They also held their fourth concert tour of Japan. ^[46] .

On April 4, 2018, the second studio album EVERYD4Y was released , which included Korean versions of the songs “Raining” and “Have A Good Day”, as well as the previously unreleased song “LaLa”. ^[47] .

On June 17, the group successfully held their private stage, WWIC 2018, 3 years since their last event in 2015. It was held twice in the Olympic Hall, Seoul at 1 pm and 6 pm (KST), ^[48] a total of 6,000 tickets were sold. ^[49]

On July 4th, Winner announced their first concert tour. The tour kicked off in Seoul, South Korea at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena on August 19 at 6pm (KST) and will stop in 7 Asian cities: Taipei , Kuala Lumpur , Bangkok , Singapore , Manila , Jakarta and Hong Kong . Teasers have been released since the announcement to promote their World Tour. ^[50]

On November 14, it was announced that the group would visit North America in early 2019. The group will make six stops in the United States, starting in Seattle on January 15 and one stop in Toronto, Canada on January 27. Other stops in the United States include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York. ^[51]

In December 2018, it was confirmed that Winner would return approximately 8 months after the release of EVERYD4Y . The upcoming new song will be a pre-release single from the 3rd official album. ^{[52] It was} later revealed that Winner’s new single was called Millions. The digital single and its music video were officially released on December 19 at 6 pm, and physical copies were released on December 24. ^[53] Millions topped the music chart of the 7 largest Korean music platforms and iTunes Song charts in 19 different regions. ^[54]

2019: We

On May 15, 2019, Winner released their second We mini album with the title track "Ah Yeah." Ah Yeah has achieved Perfect All Kill status on 8 Korean music charts and topped iTunes album charts in 19 regions of the world. ^[55]

Former members

Korean albums

• 2014 S / S (2014)
• EXIT: E (2016)
• Fate Number For (2017)
• Our Twenty For (2017)
• EVERYD4Y (2018) MILLIONS (2018)
• WE (2019)

Japanese albums

• 2014 S / S: Japan Collections (2014)
• Our Twenty For (2018)

• WIN: Who Is Next (2013, Mnet )
• Winner TV (2013–14, Mnet)
• Half-Moon Friends (2016, JTBC )
• Youth Over Flowers (2017, tvN )
• YG Future Strategy Office (2018, Netflix ) ^[a]
• Winner Vacation - Hoony Tour (2019, Olleh TV )
• W-Log (2019, YouTube / Vlive )

Tours

• Winner 2014 Zepp Tour in Japan (2014)
• Worldwide Inner Circle Conference: WWIC (2015)
• Winner Japan Tour 2015 (2015)
• Winner 2016 EXIT Tour (2016)
• Winner Japan Tour 2018 ~ We'll always be young ~ (2018)
• WINNER EVERYWHERE TOUR (2018)

Concerts

• YG Family 2014 World Tour: Power (2014)

Warming up

• Big Bang Japan Dome Tour (2013) - (Warming Up)
• 2NE1 AON: All or Nothing World Tour (2014) - (Guest)
• Epik High EPIK HIGH 'Parade 2014' Concert Tour (2014) - (Guest)
• Epik High EPIK HIGH 'Now Playing' Concert (2015) - (Guest)
• iKON Japanese concert tour (2016) - (Guests: Mino for MOBB)
• Sechskies 20th Anniversary Concert (2017) - (Guest)
• PSY All Night Stand 2017 (2017) - (Special Guest)

Music Awards

Style Icon Award

Melon Music Awards

Melon Popularity Award

Mnet Asian Music Awards

A-Awards by ARENA Homme +

SBS Gayo Daejeon

2014 Bugs Awards

Golden Disk Awards

Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards

Tudou Young Choice Awards

QQ Music Awards

MTV Asia Music Gala

Music Programs

M! Countdown

Music Bank

Inkigayo

Music Core

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