backback

‘R U Next?’ winners form girl group I'LL-IT ahead of debut

Winners of JTBC's latest girl group audition program ″R U Next″ will form six-member group I'LL-IT [HYBE]


HYBE will debut a new six-member girl group named I'LL-IT as the winning team of its audition program "R U Next?" with members Yunah, Minju, Moka, Youngseo, Wonhee and Iroha.

The six members were chosen as the winning contestants of an audition program that wrapped up on Saturday on cable channel JTBC after a 10-week run featuring various missions and events. Two members — Wonhee and Youngseo — were chosen through fan votes and the remaining four were chosen by a panel of judges.

Four members are Korean and two — Iroha and Moka — are from Japan. All members were born in 2004 or later, with the youngest Iroha born in 2008 and winner Wonhee born in 2007.

The band's name, I'LL-IT, is a mash-up of the words I'll and it, meaning that you have the potential to be anything if you have the will to do so.

"R U Next" ran from June 30 to Sept. 1 as a 10-episode audition program co-produced by JTBC, HYBE's subsidiary Belift Lab, Mushroom Company and Studio Jamm. The program only peaked at 0.7 percent viewership rating due to the flood of similar programs that ran this summer, but won support from fans around the world.

The debut date for I'LL-IT has not been decided yet.

HYBE recently kicked off another girl group debut project named “The Debut: Dream Academy" with Geffen Records, a Universal Music Group (UMG) subsidiary.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]