BTOB's Eunkwang, Minhyuk, Hyunsik, Peniel sign with new agency after leaving CUBE Entertainment
Four members (Eunkwang, Minhyuk, Hyunsik, and Peniel) of South Korean boy group BTOB have signed exclusive contracts with a new company to push through with their activities and commitments as a group.
This comes after CUBE Entertainment announced in a statement sent to local media outlets in early November that its contract with the six-member act has ended. It said that both parties decided to no longer renew their agreement.
"We discussed carefully with the members for a long time ahead of the expiration of our second exclusive contract with BTOB, and we made a mutual agreement to not renew our contract," the statement read.
According to Korean entertainment website Soompi, the name of BTOB's new management as well as their plans for the K-pop idols are yet to be announced.
"We plan to present the members being active in various fields in the future. As the members have a strong will to work as a full group, we will support them so that they can prioritize group activities," a representative of the new agency shared with the media outlet.
Changsub, a fellow BTOB member, inked an exclusive deal with Fantagio in November. Plans for remaining member Yook Sung-jae are yet to be finalized.
BTOB debuted under CUBE Entertainment on March 21, 2012 with seven members: Seo Eun-kwang, Lee Min-hyuk, Lee Chang-sub, Im Hyun-sik, Peniel Shin, Yook Sung-jae, and Jung Il-hoon.
All seven renewed their contracts with the agency in 2018. In December 2020, Il-hoon left the group after being caught smoking marijuana.
BTOB is loved for their vocal skills in ballads and sentimental tunes, unlike most groups in the K-pop scene that focus on dance choreographies. Their former agency described them as "a boy group representing the third generation of K-pop with its outstanding singing skills and music loved by the public."
The group is best known for their hit tracks Missing You (2017), and Only One for Me (2018), as well as Wind and Wish and Higher, which were both released in 2020.