Boy band Seventeen made a donation to Unesco as a celebration of its ninth anniversary since debut, the band's agency Pledis Entertainment said Tuesday.

The donation will be used for the #GoingTogether campaign, which Seventeen and the organization launched in August 2022 to raise awareness of the importance of education, and for the Unesco International Forum on the Futures of Education, the agency said.

“It's rewarding and an honor to be able to participate in such a meaningful event on our debut anniversary,” Seventeen said in a press release.

Along with celebrating such a meaningful occasion, the band also had another song certified as gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) Tuesday.

“Ready to love,” the lead track of the band’s 8th EP “Your Choice,” released in June 2021, surpassed 50 million streams as of April, according to the RIAJ.

The RIAJ certifies music based on the number of total streams: silver for 30 million streams, gold for 50 million streams, platinum for 100 million streams and diamond for 500 million streams.

Seventeen has a total of 11 gold streaming certifications from the association as of Tuesday.

The band previously earned gold certification for songs “Very Nice” (2016), “Pretty U” (2016), “Clap” (2017) “Don’t Wanna Cry” (2017), “HIT” (2019), “Left & Right” (2020), “Rock with you” (2021), “HOT” (2022), “Darl+ing” (2022) and “Super” (2023).

Seventeen is a 13-member boy band that debuted under Pledis Entertainment in 2015. It recently dropped its compilation album, "17 is Right Here," with lead track "Maestro" on April 29.

The band recently held four concerts as part of the Japanese leg of its encore tour “Follow Again,” which finished last Sunday at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama.

The concerts were part of Seventeen’s first stadium tour, with shows performed in front of over 230,000 fans, according to the agency.

Seventeen is also slated to launch a new unit, consisting of members Jeonghan and Wonwoo, on June 17 with its first single “This Man.”

To find out more about Seventeen, visit Celeb Confirmed!



BY KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]