YG Entertainment’s CEO Yang Hyun Suk has revealed that iKON will debut after BIGBANG’s comeback. This is contrary to what was initially revealed – which was that WINNER would release their album before iKON would do so.
CEO Yang shared that he has been meeting with iKON once every three days and that WINNER’s album will likely follow closely in the footsteps of iKON’s. He added that given that WINNER has already picked up a rookie award and built up a strong fandom after their debut last year, the CEO reasoned that iKON should be given the chance to shine as well.
WINNER, who was then known as Team A, had a chance to debut after coming out tops in YG’s reality survival programme, Who is Next: Win in 2013. The remaining six members of Team B, however, had to go through another gruelling reality survival show, Mix & Match, before they were given a chance to debut.
After going through both shows, the eventual iKON members were confirmed to be B.I, Bobby, Jinhwan, Yunhyeong, Dongjyuk, Junhoe and Chanwoo.
Mix & Match aired in June 2014, which translates to iKON having waited almost a year for their debut. They were initially slated for a January debut, which was then pushed back without a new confirmed debut date.