IZone, a project girl group born through the Mnet audition’Produce 48′, will disband in April without extending their activities.
Mnet, which aired’Produce 48′, and Swing Entertainment Off the Record, an IZone management company, announced on the 10th that “Izone’s project activities will be completed in April as scheduled.”
These companies announced the decision to end their activities, saying, “Before the project is over, we have been listening to and discussing the opinions of each agency continuously for the best activities of the 12 members.”
He continued, “I would like to express my gratitude to all of the members and will continue to support my growth as an artist in the future. Please look forward to and cheer for the new image they will show in the future.”
IZone members, who debuted with their 1st mini album’COLOR*IZ’ in October 2018, have been scattered under their respective management companies after completing the originally scheduled activity period of 2 years and 6 months.
IZone was formed through the audition “Produce 48” aired in 2018 in collaboration with Mnet’s producer Yasushi Akimoto who planned the Japanese girl group AKB48.
It consists of 9 Korean members (Wonyoung Jang, Yuri Jo, Yena Choi, Yujin Ahn, Eunbi Kwon, Hyewon Kang, Chaewon Kim, Minjoo Kim, Chaeyeon Lee) and 3 Japanese members (Sakura Miyawaki, Nako Yabuki, Hitomi Honda).
They were popular both in Korea and Japan for their thick fandom accumulated through auditions and their decent performance skills.
In Korea, four mini-albums and one full-length album were released, but the first and third mini albums broke the record for the first Korean girl group (first week sales) at that time.
Because of this, observations have been raised that Mnet and each member’s agency are choosing to extend their activities.
However, it is interpreted that the interests of the management companies did not coincide over whether or not the activities were extended.
The controversy that the group was born through’audit manipulation’ also burdened them.
As it was revealed that the Mnet production team manipulated the overall results of the’Produce’ series, including’Produce 48′, the continuation of IZone’s activities was also on the cutting board.
In particular, the controversy grew as the victims of the manipulation of’Produce 48′ (Lee Ga-eun, 5th in the final ranking, Cho-won Han, 6th in the final ranking) were specifically disclosed in the appeal of PD Ahn Joon-young, who directed the’Produce’ series in November last year.
The boy group X1, which was formed as the’Produce X 101′ season, was disbanded, but the fact that IZone continued its activities was controversial.
Meanwhile, they are scheduled to meet with fans through an online solo concert’ONE, THE STORY’ on the 13th and 14th.