FT ISLAND

 JONGHUN         HONGKI    SEUNG HYUN      MINWHAN      JAE JIN

(F.T. Island  Korean: 에프티 아일랜드), Five Treasure Island, or FTI, is the name of the band . The name F.T. Island stands for 'Five Treasure Island', each of the five members being a treasure.  The band's official color is sunshine yellow, and their fans carry yellow flags known as "pentasticks." Their debut album, Cheerful Sensibility, made the sixth best-selling album of 2007 in South Korea. Their official fanclub is "Primadonna".

                              CAREER

2007

Debut

F.T. Island's first album was scheduled to be released commercially in May 2007.However, instead of releasing the album as planned, all of the members appeared on a television program called “Dugeun Dugeun Yeochinmandeulgi” (Korean: 두근두근 여친만들기) on the Korean television channel MNet. The program title is officially translated by MNet as "Wanna Be My Girlfriend?" although "두근두근" refers to the sound a heart makes. The band also performed on stage live at Rolling Hall and held their first official showcase at Live House Melon-AX, Gwangjang-dong in Seoul on May 27, 2007. On June 7, 2007 F.T. Island performed their debut song on the music television program M!Countdown. They received their first #1 M!Countdown and beat other top artists such as Dynamic Duo and Fly To The Sky just 2 weeks after debuting.

Cheerful Sensibility

Their first album Cheerful Sensibility combined 13 songs that can be divided into 2 parts: “Emotional Chapter” and “FT Island Chapter” respectively according to the style of the song in the album. For the “Emotional Chapter”, the genre is rock ballad oriented which produced by the composers who work for many songs of famous Korean singer such as SG Wannabe. The other part, “FT Island Chapter”, tend to be the upbeat pop-rock oriented style, which was produced by the Japanese famous composers participating with the Japanese band, SMAP. The album sold 79,786 copies in 2007, making it the sixth best-selling album of the year

The album was re-released on December 3, 2007 and it was named "The Refreshment". In addition to three extra songs, the package also included various extras, including a photobook, a stack of photocards, and a mixing program called Music 2.0 which allows one to adjust the levels of the instruments and vocals accordingly. This edition sold 25,724 copies in December 2007

2008

Overseas promotions

The group was scheduled to hold their first concert in Malaysia on March 30, 2008, at Sunway Lagoon Amphitheater.  On the day before the concert, they held an autograph session at Damansara Cineleisure. A special version of their debut album was released in mid-February. However, the concert was suddenly cancelled, with no explanation given.

On April 12, 2008, the group held their first concert in Thailand, at the Royal Paragon Hall.  In addition to playing material from their album, each member of the group had their own solos as well.

F.T. Island's Japanese debut album, entitled Prologue of FT Island, was released on June 7, 2008, with the first single released being "Soyogi". The album consists of 8 songs, 2 of which are newer versions of the original songs "FT Island" and "Primadonna". The last track, "Always Be Mine", is an English version of "First Kiss". However, the lyrics are not translated, but completely original. Music videos were also released for "Soyogi" and "Friendship".

Return to Korea

Their second Korean album, Colorful Sensibility, was released on August 27, 2008. A follow-up EP, Colorful Sensibility Part 2, was released on October 17, 2008.

Japanese Single Release

Later that year, on December 17, F.T. Island released "The One", their first Japanese single, which hit #9 on the Oricon daily charts. F&C Music stated that although other Korean bands utilized the assistance of large Japanese record labels to gain popularity, F.T. Island was able to make it onto the charts without any true marketing efforts.  It was the last official released CD with Oh Won Bin, as a member of FT Island.

2009

Regrouping, Jump Up

Rumors had been circulating that speculated that member Oh Won Bin would be leaving the group. On January 28, 2009, the rumors were confirmed as it was announced that he would indeed be leaving the group and would soon be replaced.  It was announced a day later that F&C trainee Song Seung Hyun would be joining F.T. Island as a guitarist and backup vocalist, and that an album would be released in February.

                              (Oh wonbin left and Song seung hyun right)  

 In the weekend of the 6th week, the Music Video of their Mini-Album title song "Bad Woman" was revealed online. They performed on SBS Inkigayo. Two days later was the official release date of the Mini-Album Jump Up.

Return to Japan

On 22 April, F.T. Island released their 2nd Japanese Single. For the first time, members participated with lyrics and production. Member Lee Jae Jin co-wrote the 2nd song "Moonlight Angel" and leader Choi Jong Hoon co-produced this song. I Believe Myself is the 1st Japanese Single with member Song Seung Hyun. They will have several performances in Japan in this summer.

Asia Tour

F.T. Island will be touring parts of Asia which include Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and so on to promote themselves in the summer of 2009. The showcases kicked off in Singapore during 25th June 2009 to 27th June 2009.

2nd Comeback - 3rd Album - "Cross & Change"

Already in end-May the members revealed in interviews their plans for a 3rd album around July-August and tighten it during the Singapore showcase. So on the 9th July, F&C Music released a jacket photo for the upcoming 3rd album called “Cross & Change”. On the following day, a MV teaser was released online featuring kids watching ”their” idols (played by the members it selves) on TV. The title song is called “I hope”. Release date is the 16th July.

According to the information on the jacket photo, FT Island will try out new music styles in “Cross & Change”, which are different from the past pieces of music. Furthermore, it includes in total 12 songs with a wide range of types of songs – From moving ballads to addictive songs with a bright melody. In case of fashion styles, FT Island carried out a 360° turn. This time they’re using a “retro style”, using so-called “Bokgo”, which is inspired during the “jeans jeans look”-time from the 80’s

                                                        FT ISLAND