It’s been just two months since Jinyoung, Shinwoo, Sandeul, Baro, and Gongchan made their debut. After soaring high with their debut track ‘O.K.’, B1A4 has started activities with their follow-up ballad number, ‘Only Learned the Bad Things’.
How did these flower boys get together to form one group?
According to rapper Baro, he joined the group after his company saw a photo of him on his friend’s Cyworld page. At the audition, Baro had sung Jo Soo Mi’s ‘Once I Leave’ and Sung Si Kyung’s ‘The Path Leading to Me’. Because he enjoyed hip-hop, he’d also showed off his rapping and beat-boxing, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Leader Jinyoung had continuously admired the world of the celebrities and singers since he was young, and was also casted into his current company after his photo was spotted on Cyworld. Jinyoung had auditioned with the portrayal of character ‘Gong-gil’ from movie “Man of the King“. He can also act, having some experience in the field of dramas.
Maknae Gongchan was the third member to be contacted thanks to Cyworld, but it turns out that he won the site’s ‘Uljjang Challenge’ event when he was in middle school. Gongchan’s beauty also earned him a runner-up position in a cross-dressing contest after he performed a dance of Ivy’s.
Main vocal Sandeul originates from Busan, and prepared to become a singer by going to various singing competitions. His agency approached him during a talent show after Sandeul delivered a stirring performance of a ballad song from Kim Yun Woo.
Shinwoo, who has the role of both vocals and rap, was inspired by his musical family. There is a trot singer in his family, and one of his noonas tackled traditional Korean singing as well. He decided to participate in a teenage singing contest one day, which proved to be fateful after he cracked a smile on-stage. A company associate attending the event fell head-over-heels over that smile and contacted him, resulting in his enlistment with B1A4.
B1A4 all originate from the countryside, earning them the nickname ‘country-dol’. Jinyoung and Shinwoo are from Choongbook, Cheongju; Sandeul from Kyungnam, Busan; Baro from Junnam, Kwangju; and finally Gongchun came from Junnam, Soonchun. Jinyoung had been counted as the number 1 attendee for any talent shows or festivals during his school days. Saying that he loved to go out in front of people since he was young, Jinyoung had a mischievous but bright and cheery smile, and was a popular student who partook as a grade representative as well.
Shinwoo had participated in the school’s band club, and was a child who loved music, even going to perform in Hongdae at times. Contrasting from his gentle image now, Shinwoo – who says he liked rock and did rough music then – makes people around him smile by saying, “During school, I didn’t ‘know’ smiling, but people say that my smile’s pretty and that I should smile a lot now.”
Sandeul had also become famous by having a singing battle among his musical friends. Everyone had been surprised because they only knew him as a child who liked music. Sandeul mused, “My mother was from a choir, so she gave me advice that when I sing, I shouldn’t imitate another person but to do my own type of singing. I engraved that advice into my heart.”
Bright Baro also was an active and extroverted type of person since he was young. Aside from becoming the grade president just one week after transferring schools, he also has the experience of emceeing a festival and participating in a comedy club during high school.
Having lived and worked hard in their respective homes, these members all flocked to Seoul and made their singing debut after undergoing two years of training. There are many children who wish to become singers, but it isn’t easy to come to debut. The homesickness they sometimes felt was smoothed over by their aspirations to become a singer and by each other’s company.
B1A4, who picks ‘familiarity’ as their charm without hesitation, said that they wanted to approach us like a neighborhood oppa or a school friend, and requested for people to watch their progress well.
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