The hugely popular K-pop group Stray Kids has been doing especially massive numbers recently, after the release of their 2023 album 5-Star. But exactly how long has Stray Kids been around?
The official debut date of Stray Kids was back on March 25, 2018. According to Billboard, the band was first announced all the way back in August 2017. Record label JYP Entertainment talked about plans to launch an all-male K-pop group soon. It wasn’t the company’s first rodeo with K-pop groups, as they also created the girl K-pop group TWICE in 2015.
It wouldn’t be until October 6, 2017, when the world first got a taste of Stray Kids. Their track “Hellevator,” along with an accompanying music video, was released on YouTube to great popularity. Several weeks later, the official band member lineup was revealed: Lee Know, Bang Chan, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N.
After the band’s debut on March 25, 2018, they released their first album, I Am Not. They would go on to win the 2018 Rookie Award from the Soribada Best K-Music Awards on August 30, 2018, along with a buffet of other awards like Best New Male Artist from the Mnet Asian Music Awards and so on. Their first tour, The Unveil Tour, started in Bangkok on January 19, 2019.
From there onward, they became one of the most beloved K-pop groups in the world. Their 2021 album Noeasy sold over a million copies. Their subsequent albums Oddinary, Rock-Star, and Maxident would also do well overseas. 5-Star, which is their 2023 album, surpassed 5 million records sold and hit the top of the US Billboard 200 charts.
As we’ve discussed before, they may have a comeback season in store for us in 2024, though nothing is officially announced as of now. Keep an eye out for future details on Stray Kids.
(featured: JYP Entertainment)
