Seoul, South Korea
—
The week earlier than Close Your Eyes stepped onto the stage for his or her first-ever solo live performance, the seven members moved in practiced formation throughout a basement rehearsal studio in Seoul’s Gangnam district.
Surrounded by managers and coaches, the band reviewed staging ideas for the efficiency at Seoul’s Olympic Hall, and repeatedly ran by the steps to the 20-song setlist.
For a rookie group barely a yr outdated, it’s an enormous second that reveals how far they’ve are available an extremely quick time.
Formed by global viewer votes on the 2024 cable TV survival show “Project 7,” the band has launched three mini albums with 1.2 million gross sales in 10 months, selecting up seven trade awards alongside the way in which. In November, Close Your Eyes even clinched the number two spot on the United World Chart, simply behind Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Their relentless productiveness, fast reinvention, and fiercely invested fanbase have turned them into one in every of K-pop’s most-watched new acts.
But ask the members what makes them distinctive, and so they’ll level not to the accolades, however to the depth of the work behind the scenes.
After a day of fan occasions, photoshoots and recording, “we practice every single day, until past 3 a.m.,” says Min‑wook Jeon, the band’s chief. Their rise might look quick from the surface, however he insists it’s not only a pure aptitude. “We’re not those kinds of people; we spend a lot of time on it.”
The band’s beginnings on leisure company SLL’s reality competition series “Project 7” did, in some methods, put together them for the highway forward.
“You didn’t have much time to prepare for the stage,” remembers Close Your Eyes dancer and vocalist Yeo‑jun Jang. “So, there were many situations where we had to produce something quickly.”
From 200 candidates to 100 trainees on the show, solely seven made the ultimate lineup. Viewers voted to create groups for each main spherical of the competitors, which meant the trainees have been continuously reassembled into new lineups, with low-ranking contestants eradicated.
As a end result, the ultimate lineup is a mixture of personalities, skillsets, and nationalities.
Jang, typically seen as aloof regardless of what he calls a “surprising charm,” shortly grew to become identified for his dancing and is central to the band’s choreography. Chinese member Jingxiang Ma describes himself as hardworking and passionate, whereas the youngest member, 17-year-old Kyungbae Seo, brings a mixture of uncooked expertise and sincerity that resonated with viewers. Rappers Seung Ho Song and Japanese member Kenshin Sakurada present contrasting energies: Song’s simple heat towards Sakurada’s bubbly persona. Sung Min Kim, the self-described bridge between the older and youthful members, is relentlessly constructive. And 26-year-old Jeon, the eldest member, brings quiet management formed by his years within the boyband BAE173.
South Korea’s survival reveals have been producing pop idols for many years, and a number of other main teams — together with TWICE, ZEROBASEONE, and Stray Kids — began on music actuality sequence. These reveals sometimes function a gaggle of trainees who compete for an opportunity to debut in an idol group. Audience members vote after every episode, figuring out which contestants keep and that are eradicated, a system that may generally prioritize reputation over expertise.
Despite this, the ensuing teams are sometimes extremely profitable. In 2024, lady group ILLIT grew to become the first K-pop rookie group to enter the Billboard 100 with their debut single, placing a much bigger highlight on the expertise platformed in these reveals.
But it’s not all the time a sure-fire recipe for pop stardom: from 1000’s of candidates, solely a handful make it to the ultimate lineup, and plenty of bands struggle to remodel their actuality show win into long-term chart success.
Each member of Close Your Eyes earned his spot by fan votes over 12 weeks — over 17 million votes within the closing spherical alone, in accordance to SLL — which has deepened fan attachment, in addition to intensified expectations.
“During ‘Project 7,’ fans supported individuals,” Jang, 20, says. “Now, a lot of the fandom has pivoted to supporting the whole group.”
Close Your Eyes debuted in April 2025 with the mini-album “ETERNALT,” a comfortable, polished introduction that showcased their sentimental vocals and clear pop sound, shortly adopted by the four-track EP “Snowy Summer,” which constructed on that basis.
But it was “blackout,” launched in November, that signaled the band’s first daring reinvention. With home‑impressed manufacturing and a darker, extra experimental sound, the mini-album — which offered greater than half 1,000,000 copies in 4 days — hinted on the group’s inventive ambition.
“It’s not that we changed,” Jeon says. “From the beginning, we’ve tried to tell our own story in various genres.”
The shift, he explains, displays each their evolving artistry and their need to discover new sounds.
Part of that progress comes from taking inventive management. Jeon earned his first writing credit score inside six months of their first album, and contributed closely to “X,” the lead single from “blackout.”
“I really wanted to sing this song with lyrics that I wrote,” he says. “Because it was lyrics that reflected what our team felt, I personally felt a sense of satisfaction, and I think that my affection for the song grew even more.”
The group’s growing musical vary attracted worldwide collaborators as effectively, together with a notable partnership with Grammy-winning Kazakh DJ Imanbek on “blackout,” venturing into “an electronic genre that we don’t do much as K-pop idols,” says Jeon.
“Working with DJ Imanbek made it very different from our previous Close Your Eyes music. And that song definitely stands out on our third EP. It’s a song that clearly has the DJ’s signature sound more than the others,” says Jeon. “I think I learned a little bit that I could do this style of music.”
Beyond the studio, CYE’s first yr has been filled with variety-show appearances, photoshoots, fan meets, efficiency schedules, and now live performance rehearsals. Several members are including new abilities — each Sakurada and Song have taken up guitar, hoping to carry out it reside.
The awards adopted shortly: from the TikTok Awards to the Korea Grand Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards, Close Your Eyes collected seven rookie and artist prizes in 5 months.
But for the members, the highlights have been extra private.
Jang, who like Jeon has earlier expertise as a K-pop trainee, remembers his dad and mom watching him carry out at an occasion final yr after different makes an attempt to launch his profession hadn’t labored out.
“My mother came backstage, and when she saw me, she started crying. Those tears brought back a variety of emotions and memories,” says Jang. “I realized how happy people were that I debuted, how happy my mom and dad were. That’s why I remember that day so vividly.”
The debut live performance marked the tip of their first chapter — and the start of one other.
After their efficiency in entrance of 1000’s of followers in Seoul’s Olympic Hall on January thirty first, Close Your Eyes started their first worldwide tour.
Just final week, the band took the stage in Japan, with upcoming stops introduced in Canada, Malaysia, and Russia.
The Russia date has sparked backlash from followers, who argue that performing in Moscow throughout Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is inappropriate.
UNCORE, the group’s administration company, issued a statement on X (previously Twitter) that performances “are not intended to represent or support any political stance,” describing them as a substitute as cultural exchanges: “At UNCORE, we believe that music has no borders. Our primary mission is to provide fans worldwide with the opportunity to enjoy K-POP performances.”
The band’s Malaysia concert date has been rescheduled by the organizers, after followers raised considerations about holding the occasion throughout Ramadan.
For a rookie band, the controversies illustrate how shortly global fandom can turn into each a platform and a strain level.
In the studio, although, the band stays centered on the work and is already shaping its subsequent musical period.
After three mini-albums in six months, they’re keen to launch a full-length album in 2026, which is able to embody three unreleased tracks — “Best Life,” “Lemonade,” and “Nameless” — which premiered at their debut live performance.
“What I can say for sure is that we’ve explored a variety of sounds, so what we’ll be releasing in 2026 will also be something incredibly new and unexpected,” says Jeon.
As quickly as our interview ended, the seven idols disappeared to change outfits for a night rehearsal, and returned minutes later, slurping down steaming cups of ramyeon. There was barely time for his or her dinner to settle earlier than they have been bouncing across the dance flooring once more, operating by the steps yet another time.