AB6IX: From Wanna One and MXM to the group they are today.

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The five members of AB6IX and their fans achieve absolute perfection when they are together. At least, that's the meaning behind the boy group's name: "AB6IX" is short for "Absolute Six."

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K-Pop fans have seen four of the members in public for the first time in 2017. Namely, the future AB6IX members fought for victory in the survival show "Produce 101 Season 2."

Produce 101 Season 2

One year after 101 female trainees competed for a spot in the project girl group I.O.I in the first season, this time 101 male trainees competed for the same goal.

The agency "Brand New Music" sent Lim Youngmin, Park Woojin, Kim Donghyun and Lee Daehwi into the race. This alone caused surprise because Brand New Music was known as a hip-hop label and had not produced any idols until then.

Any doubts were immediately dispelled as the four trainees impressed with their audition: a performance of their own song "Hollywood". The song was written and composed by Daehwi. Park Woojin was responsible for the choreography. Their talent was appreciated not only by the jury and the trainees, but also by the fans.

Thanks to their votes, both Daehwi (3rd place) and Woojin (6th place) were among the eleven winners of the show, which debuted in August 2017 as a boy group called "Wanne One." Youngmin (15th place) didn't make it into the group, but still made it to the finals! Donghyun (ranked 28th) was eliminated just one episode earlier.

Wanna One

The eleven winners of Survival Show were active together for a year and a half. From their debut in early August 2017 with "Energetic" to their last concert in late January 2019.

In the short time, the boy group released 5 albums and caused a huge hype. All albums topped the album charts and most singles also made it to the top of the charts! In addition, Wanna One won 12 awards in various award ceremonies such as the "Mnet Asian Music Awards" or the "Seoul Music Awards"! Television shows in which the successful group appeared regularly saw a huge increase in viewer ratings.

So the boy group was undoubtedly one of the most successful idol groups in 2017 and 2018, but although fans have known from the beginning that Wanna One is "just" a project group that will disband after less than two years, the sadness was great when the moment actually came. Even the eyes of the members did not remain dry at their last concert.

They returned to their respective agencies at the end of January. Jinyoung debuted in the five-member boy group "CIX," Lai Kuanlin is active as an actor in China, and Minhyun returned to his group NU'EST. The other six - Yoon Jisung, Ha Sungwoon, Ong Seongwu, Kim Jaehwan, Kang Daniel & Park Jihoon - debuted solo.

It seemed almost like a dream that 10 of them, despite having their own careers, gathered once again in December 2021 to perform their past hits at the MAMA Awards. Lai Kuanlin, unfortunately, could not be there.

While Daehwi and Woojin were active in Wanna One, Youngmin and Donghyun debuted as a duo called "MXM" in 2017.

MXM

The name has two meanings. The first "Mix and Match" is meant to express how well the two harmonize as a group. The other "More and More" symbolizes the desire to keep growing and moving up in the music industry.

The first album "Unmix" was released on September 6. This was followed by the second album "Match Up" in March 2018 and the third album "More Than Ever" in August 2018. Daehwi was even involved in the first and third albums, as he wrote "Good Days" from "Unmix" and two of the 14 songs from "More Than Ever": "Hoping That You'd Love Me" & "Dawn". The third album was also the last, as in 2019 the two debuted together with Daehwi, Woojin and a fifth member as AB6IX.

In 2018, MXM formed the project group YDPP (Youth, Dream, Passion, Purity) together with Jeong Sewoon and Lee Gwanghyun of Starship Entertainment, who were also featured in Produce 101 Season 2. YDPP released the digital single "Love It Live It" on April 5, 2018.

After Wanna One disbanded in January 2019, Daehwi and Woojin returned to their agency Brand New Music to prepare for a debut in a boy group together with Youngmin and Donghyun. Back in April, the first episode of a reality show called "BrandNewBoys" aired, following the boys as they prepared for their debut.

In the same month, "Jeon Woong" was introduced as the fifth member of the boy group!

Jeon Woong was a six-year trainee at various agencies such as JYP, YG, and Woollim Entertainment before finally landing at Brand New Music. He was featured in Infinite H's music video "As Long As You're Not Crazy" and the survival show "Stray Kids," among others. When the show was filmed, Woong was a trainee under YG and competed as part of team YG against the future members of Stray Kids. During his time in Brand New Music, he served as MXM's backup dancer, for example.

AB6IX

On April 26, 2019, AB6IX released a performance video for the song Hollywood, which four of the five members previously performed in Produce 101 in 2017, ahead of their official debut. In the music video, all five members perform the song!

And then the time finally came: on May 22, AB6IX debuted with their first album "B:Complete" including the title track "Breathe". It reached number 2 in the Gaon album charts!

It wasn't too much of a surprise that Daehwi participated in the lyrics and music of almost all of the seven tracks, after all he had proven his talent many times before. Not only in that he wrote songs for his colleagues from MXM. He established himself so far that he even wrote a song for IZ*ONE or later for the solo albums of his former Wanna One members - Yoon Jisung & Park Jihoon.

In fact, in B:Complete, Youngmin and Woojin were also heavily involved in the lyrics. AB6IX is a group full of all-rounders!

The debut album was followed by the first fan meeting as early as July, and in September the boy group worked with American singer "Lizzo" on a remix of their song "Truth Hurts." Then in October it was time for a new album: at the beginning of the month "6ixense" and the music video for the title song "Blind for Love" were released.

On November 9, AB6IX first concert under the same title - "6ixense" - took place.