After controversies surrounded Jaebum which led him to leave the group, 2PM continued with six members. Their most remarkable single probably is “Hands Up” which was released in 2011 and managed to be the first K-Pop act to enter Billboard’s Social 50 Chart the same year. We could hear the song being played in many public spaces back then or even up until now. They also made their Japanese debut in the same year. They continued releasing some singles and albums until 2016. While Taecyeon was serving the military, the rest of the members were all doing their activities. It was reported that their exclusive contract ended in 2018 and five out of the six members have renewed the contract with the agency. So what happened to 2PM? Where are they now? What have they been doing all this time? Are they going to disband? To answer all these questions, Channel-Korea will provide you with more details about 2PM’s latest comeback, disbandment rumor, and their individual activities. So stay tuned!
2PM’s Latest Comeback
As mentioned before, 2PM kept releasing their music up until 2016. On September 3rd, 2016, Junho posted 2PM’s schedule for the following week on his Instagram account (@le2jh), hinting an upcoming comeback of the group. It was a great surprise for the fans because it’s been over a year since their last comeback. It seemed that the next album would be titled Gentlemen’s Game.
The next day, 2PM members celebrated their 8th anniversary. Junho, Nichkhun, and Jun.K left heartfelt messages on Twitter to their fans, Hottest, while Taecyeon uploaded a series of old photos of the group throughout time.
— taec yeon ok (@taeccool) September 3, 2016 A day after the anniversary, just like their schedule, they started releasing teaser images from September 5th to September 8th at 00:00 a.m. KST. As expected, they brought a masculine concept, but this time with mature looks in suits. They released Wooyoung and Junho for the first teaser images on September 5th. We can see the writing “Promise” that could be the title track of the album. The next day, they released Chansung and Nichkhun teaser images. Taecyeon and Jun.K were the last members to release their individual teaser images on September 7th. On September 8th, they finally released the last teaser images. Everything was paired in two and posed in a kind of similar way but different from the other pairs. The next day, they released the title track “Promise (I’ll be)” music video teaser on their official YouTube channel.
They again look very mature in the teaser video. Junho looks desperate while walking and Chansung is playing chess by himself. Meanwhile, Taecyeon, Jun.K, and Wooyoung are separately getting intimate with their girls. Yet it left us a question why Nichkhun looks mad on the roof before throwing the flower bouquet away. The next day, they released the tracklist of the album. The members were reported to have personally written the lyrics for some songs and even helped to work on the music too. Here is the tracklist of the album. Seven out of eleven songs were written by the members. Next, they released the album songs medley on September 11th.
An hour before the official release date, 2PM made a live premiere on V-Live at 11:00 p.m. KST. Finally, on September 13th, the album was released online and offline along with the music video.
The album peaked at first place on the Gaon Chart and also peaked at number 11 on Billboard’s Top World Albums Chart. The album sold over 69,000 copies in Korea alone. They made a comeback stage on Mnet’s M! Countdown with their title track “Promise (I’ll be)” on September 22nd to promote their album for around a month.
2PM’s Inactivity and Disbandment Rumor
When they dropped the sixth album, Taecyeon revealed via SNS that the album might be the last album before they all go to military service. After finishing their goodbye stage for their sixth album in music shows and held fan-meetings, 2PM didn’t seem to have any activities as a group. Due to their inactivity, people started to assume that the group had actually been disbanded. There was no certainty about the group and the disbandment rumor kept going until Junho finally spoke up about their situation. He was a guest in KBS’ Happy Together back in May 2017. In that show, as Soompi reported, he denied the rumors about 2PM being inactive and not involved in any events. “Even though we don’t appear on TV that often in Korea, we still go on international tours,” he said. He revealed that even when he went to the doctor right after they returned to Korea after finishing their tour, the doctor asked about their activities. He then opened up about the negative comments that the group had received from netizens. He also shared about the malicious comments toward him after he was seen to be living in a luxurious house when he didn’t seem like he was active. He referred to another reality program, MBC’s I Live Alone, a couple of weeks before where his living and daily activities were recorded and broadcasted for the program’s purposes. His house was seen and it indeed seemed like a big house with lots of furniture. Regarding the malicious comments about his house, he clarified about the members’ activities. “We’re still working really hard, and we’ve never rested for longer than a week. I want to clear up any misunderstandings,” he said. If we looked back at the time after their latest album, the members started their individual activities.
Jun.K released his very first solo album Mr. NO♡ on August 9th, 2016, and held his first solo concert between January 14th and 15th, 2017, at YES24 Live Hall, South Korea.
A day after Jun.K’s solo concert, the group announced about their concert 6Nights which was held between February 24th and 26th and then between March 3rd-5th at the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium. It was their first concert after a year and nine months since their last one.
Two months later, Junho dropped a Japanese music video of his solo song “Mashup” before holding his solo tour titled 2017 S/S. He also released another Japanese track “Ice Cream.”
In September, Wooyoung also dropped a Japanese music video for his solo track “まだ僕は・・・” and held his solo concert not long after that.
This time, it’s Chansung who dropped a Japanese music video for his solo track “Treasure” in May 2018 and also held his solo concert around that time.
Followed by Nichkhun’s solo Japanese track “Lucky Charm” by the end of the year on November 8th, 2018, for his solo mini-album Me. To summarize, they all focused on their own solo activities so it was not unusual if people started questioning about their group. If we look at the bright side, now we are able to see their individual talent so they don’t have to depend on their group that much, especially when one by one, all of the members start enlisting (except Nichkhun because he is non-Korean).
