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Winner - Sparkling (July) Magazine Interview!

Winner - Sparkling (July) Magazine Interview!

“GOING UP” – Meet WINNER, KPOP’s next big thing.

It’s been eight years since hip-hop royalty BIGBANG debuted, and now YG Entertainement is finally ready to unleash a new boy group into the K-POP scene. Enter WINNER, YG’s five-member boy band, the product of survival program WIN: Who Is Next, which had two groups of trainees battling it out for their chance to debut. At the end of a series of musical challenges that tested the boys’ mettle and pushed their creativity to the limits, Team A emerged victorious and claimed the name WINNER.

Even without an official debut, the boys quickly gained a massive following, especially after showing their quirky sides on reality show WINNER TV. Each member has his own charms. Leader Kang Seungyoon, a former contestant of audition program Superstar K2, allures the audience with his husky rocker voice. Meanwhile, Lee Seunghoon, an early favorite on reality show K-POP Star, leaves fans in awe of his dance moves. Song Minho, WINNER‘s main rapper, is already famous for his work in the underground rap scene, while Kim Jinwoo graduated from BIGBANG‘s Seungri’s music academy. Maknae Nam Taehyun is not someone to scoff at either, with his lethal combination of flower boy looks and unique voice quality. Together, the five boys are ready to take the world by storm. Find out more about them in this Sparkling exclusive.

Please introduce yourselves and your roles in the group.

Seungyoon: Hello, I am Kang Seungyoon, the well-rounded leader of WINNER. I am mostly in charge of lead vocals, producing, lyrics, and nagging our team members,

Seunghoon: Hi, I am Seunghoon, team WINNER’s monkey. I am in charge of rap and choreography.

Jinwoo: Hello. This is Kim Jinwoo. I am the oldest and regarded as the cutest member of WINNER. I am a vocalist.

Minho: Hi, I am WINNER’s rapper, Minho. For our group, I am in charge of not only the rap and hip-hop vibe and style, but I also keep the mood positive amongst our group members.

Taehyun: My name is Name Taehyun. I was born in 1994 and am the youngest member of the team. My position includes songwriting, lyrics, and vocals.

Can you tell us about each member’s background before becoming a trainee at YG Entertainment?

Seungyoon: I was in the Top 4 of Superstar K2, an audition program on the M.net channel.

Seunghoon: I joined YG Entertainment through a survival audition program called K-POP Star, which was produced and televised with YG, SM, and JYP Entertainment companies.

Jinwoo: Before I joined YG, I was a hardworking singer and an aspiring actor.

Minho: I originally started as a trainee group with the K-POP group BLOCK B when I was in my first year in high school. However, after that I started training with yet another group, but things didn’t go so well and that’s when I applied at YG and became part of WINNER.

Taehyun: Since I was a child, I had passion for music and liked to play a lot. I usually spent time with friends and I also had a girlfriend. However, I always wondered what I would do when I grew up. This led me to dream of becoming a singer and I started auditioning. Which company I entered was secondary. When I start something, I always have to see it through. So I auditioned three or four songs for different companies and also filmed a video of myself to send out. Eventually, I ended up at ‘N’ as their first hopeful artist and began my first two years as trainee. After two years, I said my goodbyes to the company and came to be a part of the YG family. Although I auditioned many times in the past, I had never auditioned for YG. I had always thought that YG would be an impossible company to get into.