ATEEZ: TMI

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Read more about ATEEZ’s official information here.

MANAGEMENT AND FORMATION

• Hongjoong was the first-ever trainee of KQ Entertainment.
  • KQ Entertainment was a small entertainment agency with no pre-existing pool of trainees or open auditions; a staff had found Hongjoong’s self-produced mixtape (CD) one year after he had sent it to KQ Entertainment, and got in touch with him.
  • When Hongjoong joined KQ Entertainment, he was the only trainee of the company. For six months, he trained alone.
• After Hongjoong, Yunho and Mingi joined. They had been friends before from attending the same dance academy.
• The members have become trainees of KQ Entertainment in the chronological order below (from first to last):
  • Hongjoong - Yunho - Mingi - San - Seonghwa - Yeosang - Jongho - Wooyoung
• ATEEZ members, **in order of total time spent training (**from longest to the shortest):
  • Jongho (5 years and 6 months) - Mingi (3 years and 7 months) - Yeosang = Wooyoung (3 years and 6 months) - Hongjoong (3 years and 1 month) - Yunho (2 years and 8 months) - San (2 years and 3 months) - Seonghwa (1 year and 11 months)
  • Jongho had trained in TOP MEDIA, Mingi had trained in Maroo Crop, and Yeosang and Wooyoung had trained in Bighit Entertainment before joining KQ Entertainment.
  • For Hongjoong, San, Seonghwa, and Yunho, KQ Entertainment is the first and only agency that they trained in.
• In 2018, KQ Entertainment revealed the 8 members of ATEEZ (who were trainees at the time) as the pre-debut team “KQ Fellaz.”
  • The members, as KQ Fellaz, went to America to receive special training; 19 vlog episodes of their training in America were uploaded on the official KQ ENTERTAINMENT YouTube channel.

ALBUM CONCEPT PROMOTIONS

For their album series THE WORLD, ATEEZ have incorporated unique marketing campaigns to promote their concepts.

• THE WORLD EP.1 : MOVEMENT: With the concept being anarchism and rebellion, ATEEZ incorporated “Circle-A,” the in-universe logo symbolizing anarchism, on various KINGDOM: LEGENDARY WAR and music show stages. Posters with the “Circle-A” logo were put up in various locations across Hongdae, a popular youth/underground culture district in Seoul, South Korea. For the pre-recording stages of “Guerilla,” ATEEZ put up the flag with the “Circle-A” logo and dropped propaganda posters from the sky.
• THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW: The second part of THE WORLD series featured Western theme of cowboys and Korean chili peppers; the members have recorded “Chili peppers are here” in Korean and played the messages through megaphones mounted on trucks, with the intonation of vegetable/food truck vendors often seen in South Korea. A train car on Seoul subway line 2 was converted into the “chili car.” For the music show performances of “BOUNCY,” fans were gifted a box of chili peppers. The members even ate the chili peppers on stage for their 2023 TMA performance of “BOUNCY.”
• THE WORLD EP.3 : WILL: A QR Code of a snippet of the title track, “Crazy Form,” was placed in various locations across Hongdae and Los Angeles. A train car on Seoul subway line 2 was converted into the “crazy form car.”

ANITEEZ

• On January 31st, 2024, ATEEZ released their official character IP, ANITEEZ.
  • JJOONGrami - Hongjoong (squirrel)
  • DDEONGbyeoli -Seonghwa (rabbit)
  • TYUdeongi - Yunho (yellow puppy)
  • HETmongi - Yeosang (white puppy)
  • SANdeoki - San (cat)
  • bbyongMING - Mingi (baby chick)
  • WOOYOnyang - Wooyoung (cat)
  • JJONGbear - Jongho (bear)

MISCELLANEOUS TRIVIA

• All of the ATEEZ members are Korean; none of them have lived overseas.
• All of the ATEEZ members use their given names as their stage names.
• Five of ATEEZ members are born in the year 1999; there are two members born in 1998, and one member born in 2000.
  • The five ATEEZ members bon in the year 1999 are known as the 99z - Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung.
• ATEEZ is often referred to as one of the “miracle from a small company” idol groups; the members themselves have used the popular Korean idiom, “A dragon rose from a small stream,” which means “grand results despite humble beginnings.”
• ATEEZ is known for their Halloween-themed stages; most notably, “WONDERLAND” with zombie concept, “Black Cat Nero,” and “Deja Vu” with vampire concept.

• Before debut, Hongjoong, Yunho, and Mingi went to a Block B concert as trainees of KQ Entertainment; coincidentally, Wooyoung and Jongho were also in the audience on the same day, individually.
• None of the ATEEZ members have sisters.
• None of the ATEEZ members have the AB blood type.
  • Type-A: Yunho, Yeosang, Wooyoung
  • Type-B: Hongjoong, San, Mingi
  • Type-O: Seonghwa, Jongho
• All of the members, especially Yunho, Seonghwa, San, and Yeosang, are big fans of Abura Soba (Japanese dish).
• The members of ATEEZ are quite close to ONF and ONEUS, as they were on the survival audition program MIX NINE together pre-debut.
• ATEEZ are known for taking group photos with their funny signature pose, called the “morning soccer club” pose.
  • The members look directly into the camera with one fist held up, unsmiling. The pose is recognized in Korea as it is often used by stereotypical “morning soccer clubs,” usually of amateur players of middle-aged men.