The Boyz to Continue as Nine-Member Group Excluding New Under New Label

The Boyz. Provided by IST Entertainment

The group The Boyz, which has been embroiled in an exclusive contract dispute with their former agency 100, announced on August 6 that they will continue their career under a newly established label system.

The Boyz have decided to pursue group activities as nine members: Sangyeon, Jacob, Younghoon, Hyunjae, Juyeon, Kevin, Q, Sunwoo, and Eric. Group and individual activities will be managed separately. Each member will sign an individual contract with a company that best suits their personal activities, while also participating in The Boyz's activities with the new label at the center.

The members stated, "Our intention that all nine of us must be together has never changed from the beginning," and added, "We wanted to deliver this message first to our fans who have been waiting for and worried about our group activities." They continued, "We will each do our best in our respective fields and continue the time we have built with our fans as The Boyz."

With this decision, The Boyz will be reorganized into a nine-member group, excluding New. The nine members, including Sangyeon, notified 100 in February of the termination of their exclusive contracts, citing contract breaches and a breakdown of mutual trust as independent reasons. 100, however, refused to accept the contract termination. At the time, New chose to maintain an exclusive contract with 100, unlike the other members.

Subsequently, the nine members filed for a provisional injunction to suspend the validity of their exclusive contracts with 100. On April 23, the Seoul Central District Court granted their request. As a result, the nine members have been able to pursue entertainment activities independently of 100 until a final verdict in the main lawsuit is reached.

Cha Gawon, CEO and co-founder of 100, was arrested on August 3 on charges of fraud amounting to approximately 30 billion KRW. The Seoul Central District Court issued the arrest warrant, citing concerns about the destruction of evidence.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.