BTOB / BTOB 4U : Newsletter #1

BTOB4U debuted on November 16th. Afraid you missed something. Here’s the sum-up of past week’s activities (this article also quotes BTOB).

Who are they? 

BTOB4U is the second sub-unit of the KPOP band BTOB from CUBE ENTERTAINMENT.

BTOB debuted in 2012 with the song “Insane“. The first song to win a price was “Way back home” in 2015, 3years and 7 months after the band debuted. Since that day, the band won numbrous prices and awards, some of them being prestigious, such as BONGSANG AWARD, intended for promising artists of South Korea. They won this award for the their song “Missing you” (composed by IM HYUNSIK). The band BTOB is mainly known for ballad songs. Some even think they only do ballads, which is wrong when you look at some of their songs such as “Blowing up“, “All are wolves except me“, etc.

BTOB is composed by the members (from the oldest to the youngest) : SEO EUNKWANG (leader, discharged), LEE MINHYUK (discharged), LEE CHANGSUB (discharged), LIM HYUNSIK (or IM HYUNSIK, currently serving), SHIN PENIEL (american citizen, no military duty), JUNG ILHOON (currently serving) and YOOK SUNGJAE (currently serving). They all released a solo album (except for SHIN PENIEL who released few songs on digital platforms) aside from the album “PIECE OF BTOB“, the first album gathering up the first solo songs of the members.

Here’s a summary of the military services of the members : 

√ SEO EUN KWANG : enlisted on August, 21st 2018, discharged on April 7th, 2020
√ LEE CHANG SUB : enlisted on January 14th, 2019, discharged on August 21st, 2020
√ LEE MIN HYUK : enlisted on February 7th, 2019, discharged on September 12th, 2020
LIM HYUN SIK : enlisted on May 11th, 2020, to be discharged on November 14th, 2021
YOOK SUNG JAE : enlisted on May 11th, 2020, to be discharged on November 14th, 2021
JUNG IL HOON : enlisted on May 28th, 2020, tp be discharged on February 27th, 2022
PENIEL is an american citizen and has no military duty.

The first sub-unit of the band BTOB is BTOB BLUE, composed by the vocalists only, SEO EUNKWANG, LEE CHANGSUB, IM HYUNSIK & YOOK SUNGJAE. The members debuted as sub-unit on September 2016 with the wonderful song “Stand by me“.

The second sub-unit has been announced on October 27th this year and is called BTOB4U (비투비 포유). Their first mini album just got released and is entitled “INSIDE“, with the title-song “Show your love”, a warmful song with a beautiful message of love with no conditions.

BTOB 4U – Newsletter #1

Monday, November 16th

BTOB4U released its very first mini-album entitled “INSIDE“, with the title-song “Show your love” composed and arranged by IM HYUNSIK, member of BTOB currently serving. During a live, the members of BTOB4U announced that IM HYUNSIK submitted over 10 songs for the title-song of their album. They also explained that he took some time from his free-time in the military, to help the members getting ready for the album’s release with that title-song (thank you, IM HYUNSIK !).

The 4 members went live on Youtube an hour before the official album’s release. In this live, they explained with more details the concept of the album. They described the songs and unboxed the 2 different versions of the album (IN version & SIDE version) in front of their fans. It’s few minutes before the release that they turned off the live so the fans could get prepared for the release.

The release of the MV “Show your love” was very much awaited, especially after a lot of photo teasers that surprised the fans. The members had announced before that this album would show up a new concept, different from that they usually do with BTOB. Two hours after the MV’s release on Youtube, the video already had more than 160k views and the English subs were already added. In less than 24h, the song cumulated (on Youtube only), more than 3 M views, breaking records for the band.

Fastly, some videos of their performance during the showscase were uploaded on Youtube by different journalists that attended the Showcase. Fans were then able to watch the very first official performance of “Show your love“.

Almost immediately, the members appeared on KAKAOTV for the show MU:TALK LIVE to introduce their new song. They also sung “Mirage“, another song from the album.

VIDEO : MU:TALK LIVE COMEBACK SHOW BTOB4U

Also, 1THEK was already announcing a suit dancing video to be uploaded on the next day.

Slightly forgotten information, the fans of YOOK SUNGJAE could see few pictures of him as he was on a footage for the army, for a campaign to promote Military’s Manpower Administration.

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Tuesday, Novembar 17th

Through the interviews, the Idols were able to express their gratitude to the fans who have been waiting a long time for them to be discharged. LEE MINHYUK :

Rather than being focused on the results, this time, I was just happy to be able to be reunited with the members to meet our fans

The other members of the band, currently serving, shown their support through comments left on SNS. The member JUNG ILHOON, who barely updated his fans since the beginning of his military service, called SEO EUNKWANG to congratulate the band and show his support.

The BEATCOM 115 has been uploaded on the official Youtube channel of BTOB. Lasting for a bit more than 11 min, the video shows up the members preparing the unit BTOB4U, the creation of the concept, the album’s creation and the choregraphy of “Show your love“.

Meanwhile, LEE MINHYUK, who always organized the fanchants for BTOB, organized the fanchant for “Show your love“. The video has been uploaded. The members there explain that, even if they would not be able to meet than fans face to face before quite a while, the fans need to be ready for the day when they can finally meet again during a show or a concert. To get ready for that day, the fans would need to work hard on this fanchant as it’s harder that the usual fanchants they used to have.

On UCUBE, website dedicated to CUBE ENTERTAINMENT’s artists, the members’ profiles have been updated with the pictures of the promotion of “INSIDE“. Also, the profile of SEO EUNKWANG was changed for  DIRECTOR SEO EUNKWANG ( article).

The video of 1THEK, showing BTOB4U dancing on “Show your love” in suits, has been uploaded and was seen, in less than 2 hours, more than 50k times.

The choregraphy, powerful and manly, has known a great success within the fandom. The singer trained very hard on it, as said in some posts on LEE MINHYUK & SHIN PENIEL’s SNS. They wanted to be ready for stage. While dancing has never been the asset of the band, they shown up on a new day with a choregraphy perfectly synchronized and with a good rythmn.uveau jour avec une chorégraphie parfaitement rythmée et synchronisée.

GEMS published pictures of the members, announcing that BTOB4U would show up on their channel the day after.

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At the end of the day, the 4 singers gathered up on NAVER NOW for a live they called “Our concert, part 3“. They talked a lot about the songs, what they represent, the way they created them, the lyrics, etc. A lot of comments were left saying that SHIN PENIEL, usually quite shy, is actually glowing since BTOB4U. The 3 other members agreed. His answer was simple and honest when he explained that he has been waiting for the discharge of the members for quite a long time and as he was very happy to see them again and be able to sing with them. 

On the same day, a video of YOOK SUNGJAE got posted by a fan. The Idol, healthy, is seen rapping for a concert in the army.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1328586174332604416

Finally, LEE MINHYUK ended up this day with a picture posted on his Instagram account that was probably takent after of before the suits performance.

Wednesday, November 18th

The unit BTOB4U performed on the stage of SHOW CHAMPION for the first tiem. After an introduction “BTOB MADE“, the members executed their choregraphy perfectly and with a perfect singing.

>>ARTICLE<<

The members also went in the studios of KBS COOL FM, as guests of the second part of the show “Kang Hana’s turn up the volume“. The fans could learn there that the final scene on the MV of “Show your love” was not showing the end of BTOB4U, as the fans were thinking. SEO EUNKWANG added “wait for it”. 

INFO : at the of the song, the 4 members of BTOB4U are in front of a gate that is about to open. When it opens, the members look surprised and happy. The fans did think that, behind the door, are the members who are currently serving. That hypothesis seems to be wrong or might reveal a surprise.

>>LINKS FOR THE SHOW : PT 1 // PT 2 // PT3<<

The video of their performance at GEMS got uploaded with a twitter even (here GEMS – GENIE) allowing few fans to win a signed polaroïd.

Finally, to end up the day, LEE MINHYUK made a live in the one he gave a “private lesson” to Melody who were watching. Full of passion, he gave more details so Melody could sing the fanchants perfectly when they will meet again.

>> LINK <<

Thurday, November 19th

The band has been invited at SBS POWER FM for the show “CULTWO SHOW”.

>>LIEN<<

Meanwhile, KBS studios posted a video gathering up each BTOB’s comeback up to BTOB4U.

While the view for “Show your love” keeps increasing, exceeding now 7M, and while the fans are getting organized on SNS to get some prizes for the band, the 4 members gathered to make a live on the TWITTER BLUEROOM. The live was meant to answer the questions asked by the fans.

LEE MINHYUK, after the live, created a hashtag so the fans could recommend some good restaurants. The hashtag is “#여기_도토리”. 

Finally, to end this day, SEO EUNKWANG shared few pictures on Instagram with the legend “In the evening, when the sunset becomes particularly red“. Those words are the lyrics of one of his solo songs, “Like that day“.

Friday, November 20

The members of BTOB4U went to MUSIC BANK to perform “Show your love“. The introduction of the band amused the fans with the memner SOOBIN (from the band TXT), who’s friend with LEE MINHYUK. The two men actually look quite alike, which amuse them.

Introduction of the band :

Performance of “Show your love” :

The lyric video for the title-song of “INSIDE” has been oploaded on the official Youtube channel of BTOB.

>>LINK<<

The members also went on WEEKLY IDOL for the footage of the show that will be released on November 25th.

Finally, for the MELODY SELCA DAY, SEO EUNKWANG went live on VLIVE and LEE MINHYUK posted a photo on Instagram that was taken during the footage of the MV “Show your love“.

Sunday, November 22nd 

If saturday was quite calm, that wasn’t the case for the sunday.November 22nd, SEO EUNKWANG’s birthday, who celebrated 31 year old (korean age). A hashtag even was created by the fans on twitter to celebrate the birthday of the leader of BTOB.

With a live on Instagram for LEE MINHYUK (that wasn’t saved because of an interruption), the BEATCOM 116 was published on the Youtube channel of BTOB. The video is kind of a “behind the scenes” for the MV’s creation of “Show your love“.

Then, to end this week full of content, the members went live on VLIVE to celebrate SEO EUNKWANG‘s birthday with the fans.

Finally, “Show your love” reached, within 6 days, a total of 12.9 M views, a real breaking record for the band. Contratulations, BTOB4U, and happy birthday SEO EUNKWANG !

Journalist : Natacha
Translation : Natacha
Sources : BTOB SNS