The future members of the next big K-pop boy band may be slowly introducing themselves to the world under the name “Trainee A”.
Last month, a series of social media accounts using the title began to introduce six male K-pop hopefuls. A number of producers and executives behind the likes of BTS and TXT follow Trainee A’s Instagram account, spurring rumours that they are trainees of Hybe, formerly Big Hit Entertainment – home of BTS – and are set to debut in an upcoming boy band planned by Big Hit Music.
The trainees currently post on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, sharing a variety of content ranging from performance videos to slice-of-life moments. Though the accounts haven’t been formally recognised by Hybe or Big Hit Music, they’ve rapidly gained followers across the various platforms as interest in them grows.
The six trainees named on the Trainee A YouTube account are Leo, Sangwon, James, Jihoon, Junil and Inhyuk. The account leaves space for four more additional names, though it’s unknown whether that means four spots are still open, or whether there are four as-yet-unnamed trainees who will appear on the scene soon.
안녕하세요-!
#traineeA pic.twitter.com/ugnuDnURYc— Trainee A (@trainee_a) May 6, 2021
The earliest video on their YouTube appeared on March 19, and showed trainee Leo recording a day in his life.
“Hello, I’m Leo!” he wrote in the video’s description. “Because of Corona, I kept taking online classes at the dorm and came to work [for the first time] in a month. It was very awkward to shoot the Vlog for the first time, but I filmed the things of the day! As you can see, I’m still lacking a lot, but I’d appreciate it if you could watch my future moves!”
This week, the trainees celebrated Sangwon’s birthday, and took a picture together revealing seven different men, some of whose faces were partially or entirely hidden, either by masks or emojis.
Hybe has plans for several upcoming boy bands, including a Japanese group and a project with Universal Music Group. The company has grown immensely since debuting BTS in 2013, and has been involved in the launch of popular boy bands TXT (also known as Tomorrow X Together) and Enhypen over the past few years.
Hybe, as Big Hit, has a history of introducing artists ahead of their formal debut through social media accounts and various videos.
In related news, Enhypen, BTS and TXT have all been busy with new music recently. Enhypen released their second EP, Border: Carnival, and the single Drunk-Dazed on April 25, and both BTS and TXT have upcoming releases this month. BTS will release their second English-language single Butter on May 21, and TXT will release their second Korean LP The Chaos Chapter: Freeze on May 31.
