2PM as seen at the press conference of Wonder Girls The First Wonder Live In Bangkok in February 2009 (Sry85 / Wikimedia / CC BY 3.0)
2PM is a South Korean boy band that is formed by the JYP Entertainment. The band currently consists of 6 members. Although it started as a 7 member band, 1 member left in 2009. As of 2019, 2PM has released 11 studio albums and some of their famous songs include Again & Again, Heartbeat, Without U, Hands Up, Come Back When You Hear This Song and many more.
2PM has hosted a number of tours since its formation in 2008. Some of them are –
1st Concert: Don’t Stop Can’t Stop (July 31, 2010, to September 5, 2010)
First Japan Tour: Take Off (May 6, 2011, to May 13, 2011)
Japan Arena Tour: REPUBLIC OF 2PM (December 5, 2011, to December 21, 2011)
2nd Concert: HANDS UP ASIA TOUR (September 2, 2011, to March 10, 2012)
What Time Is It? – Asia Tour (November 17, 2012, to June 22, 2013)
Japan Arena Tour: LEGEND OF 2PM (January 11, 2013, to February 24, 2013)
Singing Portfolio
2PM released their first studio album 01:59PM in November 2009. The album peaked at number 1 on The Gaon Music Chart. Their first extended play titled Still 02:00PM came out in October 2010 and was also a top ranker on The Gaon Music Chart. As of 2019, the band has released a total of 11 studio albums including Hands Up, Republic of 2PM, Legend of 2PM, Grown, Genesis of 2PM and more.
2PM Facts
All the members of the band auditioned to become a trainee under the JYP Entertainment except for Nichkhun. Nichkhun was the one to be scouted.
Some of the members were already indulged in the entertainment industry like Jun. K had already won several singing competitions, Taecyeon, Junho, and Chansung were the contestants in the reality show SuperStar Survival.
All the members and including some more trainees took part in a reality show Hot Blood Men that captured the extreme training given to them in order to become a boy group One Day.
By the end of the show, only 11 members survived to form One Day that later gave birth to a ballad group 2AM with 4 members and a hip-hop group 2PM with 7 members.
In the show, Hot Blood Men, group’s former member Jaebeom got the most fan votes and was placed first.
2PM was different from the rest of the k-pop bands on the basis of their image. While the rest tried to maintain a pretty boy image, 2PM portrayed more of a masculine and beastly image.
Jaebeom was selected as the group’s leader, for being the oldest member and also was well-acknowledged by all the other members as being the most talented member of the group.
The group made their official debut on September 4, 2008, with the release of their single 10 Out of 10 (10점 만점에 10점).
Their 2nd mini-album titled 2:00PM Time For Change was released in April 2009.
In May 2009, 2PM won its first Mutizen Song award on M!Countdown. It also went on to win a Music Bank award.
In July 2009, the group was placed first on the M!Countdown and Music Bank charts for its single Niga Mipda and also won the ‘Only One Song’ award on M!Countdown on July 30, 2009.
In late 2009, 2PM indulged in a controversy as some disputed comments from 2005 were discovered on group leader Jaebeom’s MySpace account. These were directed towards Korea. Although the comments were written in English, they were translated to their native language by Korean media and there were many negative articles floating around about him for which he later issued an official apology and expressed shame and regret over his forgotten words, and explained the unhappiness and loneliness he felt in his early training days in an alien land. These posts were said to have been leaked by a netizen who hacked his Myspace account.
After the controversy, Jaebeom published an apology but still, many protesters suggested that he should be forced out of 2PM but on September 7, 2009, JYP Entertainment‘s president announced that Jay would be continuing his career as part of 2PM.
However on September 8, 2009, following his controversy, Jaebeom revealed on his official Fancafe that he would be leaving the boy band and return to his hometown in the United States and it was decided that the group would continue as a 6 member group.
After the departure of Jaebeom, 2PM released their first studio album titled 01:59PM on November 10, 2009. The album was a huge success in Korea and peaked at number 1 spot on the Gaon Music Chart and so did their2nd studio album titled Hands Up that came out on June 20, 2011.
On December 30, 2009, their yet another single Again & Again won the “Song of the Year” title at Korean Broadcasting System (KBS)’s end of the year Music Festival, by garnering 57,060 votes.
In July 2010, Taecyeon and Wooyoung who were also MCs at SBS Inkigayo, left their position in order to fully concentrate on 2PM.
The group’s 1st concert took place on July 31, 2010, and August 1, 2010, in Seoul and August 7 and 8 in Busan.
The band’s concerts were a huge success and more than 12,000 fans attended in Seoul. They performed all their hit-songs since the beginning of the band including a solo performance by each member.
After this, the band also held 2 encore concerts in Seoul in September in order to celebrate their 2 years anniversary.
2PM won the “Most Popular Asian Singer” award at the 10th Mandarin Music Honors 2010 in China on October 18, 2010, at Wukesong Arena. It was the first time that a Korean band was given this award.
2PM made their official Japanese debut in December 2010 with their first live event in Japan at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Gymnasium.
