Seventeen: The K-pop band making Glastonbury history
45 minutes before
By Mark Savage, Music Correspondent
Pledis EntertainmentThe biggest act on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage this year is n’t Coldplay or Dua Lipa. In reality, you might not even have heard of them.
Seventeen, a K-pop boyband with a hefty 13 people and that sold more than 10 million albums, is the act in question.
The single work to sell more? Taylor Swift.
But despite K- music’s international success, the UK has remained icy towards the style.
Although songs like Bk, Blackpink, Stray Kids, and Aespa have all started, their biggest strikes have largely been produced by American artists like Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, and Coldplay.
Seventeen do n’t do collaborations. They even write and produce their own music, unlike the majority of Korean music artists. Then, they’re making background as the first K- roll act on Glastonbury’s major stage.
The scale of the honour is n’t lost on them.
” There’s a tremendous sense of responsibility”, says Choi Seungcheol, aka group leader S Coups.
” We’ll keep coming back to that experience and do our best to prepare, so that we can punch everyone ahead… Not just our viewers, but every other member of the audience”.
Pledis EntertainmentIn a year when Seventeen enjoy, it is more and more aloof from its stone foundations than ever.
Reflecting the listener’s growing hearing habits, they’ll get joined on the Pyramid Stage by Afrobeat icons Burna Boy and Ayra Starr, while music legend Dua Lipa and R&, B experience SZA get headline status.
On Friday evening, 17 students play soon after lunch. S Coups is unfazed despite the fact that it differs from the late-night set they play in Asia.
” The time of day does n’t really matter to us”, he says.
Because the visitors can see us much in the sun, “it’s truly even better that we’ll get performing in the day.”
That enthusiasm may be common to someone who’s listened to Seventeen’s songs.
Songs like Shining Diamond and Extremely Fine serve as a pleasant reminder that music can be fun. They are clean and complete of zing.
Pledis EntertainmentThe North Korean entertainment business Pledis ‘ room is where the singer’s roots are known.
That’s where people were selected, rejected, coached and pruned over a longer and gruelling internship.
” It lasted even four to five years”, says musician Jeon Won- entice, known to supporters as Wonwoo.
He was one of the first applicants up in 2013 and made it through numerous interviews, which Seventeen TV documented.
The show was unscripted and unedited, often running for hours at a time. Fans on the livestream could choose the camera angles, watching as the teenage trainees ate meals, faced evaluations and, on one notorious occasion, were scolded for fooling around.
At one level, the line vanished for eight weeks, leaving supporters wondering if the party had been dropped.
According to S Coups, a three-member replacement without reason during the break helped Seventeen take control of their life.
” We had our bargain pushed back a little, and Woozi, one of our people, believed that if we made our own music, we had album sooner than planned.”
Woozi, true name Lee Ji- ho, turned out to be the singer’s ace card.
A characteristic- trained singer, he has co- written and produced the majority of their output – more than 140 music to time.
” He inspired the additional members to take an interest in making their own songs, so they started to learn track- writing and lyric- making, too”, says S Coups.
” Being fully engaged in our imaginative approach makes our audio more real. but that we can be proud of it.
” That’s the great crossbow we have”, adds Wonwoo.
‘ No fighting’
After four years of molding their fresh recruits, it seems unlikely that Pledis would relinquish creative power, but the group claims that the band’s connection is based on mutual respect.
” Sometimes we’d make something and it would come out differently than the company had planned”, says S Coups,” but I would n’t necessarily call it a fight”.
More accurately put, “it’s more about persuading them to join us and comprehend our eye-sight.”
In May 2016, Seventeen eventually made their music with an hour-long live performance on South Korean television, followed by the discharge of their album EP, 17 Carat.
At that point, the range- up was settled as ( deep breathing ) S Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino.
From that, they’re divided into a vocal group, a shoulder- fly staff and a party team. The singer’s name is derived from bilateral fixed- up: 13 individuals 3 units 1 band = 17.
S Coups, born in 1995, is the oldest member of the group and its standard innovator- a position he approaches with sincerity.
He says,” I listen to what each member has to say to get everyone on the same path.”
” My goal is to make sure we can last as long as possible, so we can create as much music as possible”.
That’s not to suggest the group lacks order: Woozi takes charge of the song and Hoshi leads the dance, but each participant is encouraged to contribute.
US- born Joshua plays guitar, Seungkwan is the strongest vocalist, The8 is the resident fashionista.
As the name suggests, they’re more than the sum of their parts. Each member brings a different flavour, but when they perform together, they move like a pack.
Fans have even observed that Seventeen’s trainer squeak sounds like one shoe, not 26 when they are practicing.
But it’s not always so smooth.
The8 ( real name Xu Minghao ) threw out his back in one rehearsal, Seungkwan has undergone corrective ankle surgery, and S Coups only recently returned to the stage after damaging his anterior cruciate ligament.
” I’m great now”, he smiles, acknowledging that injuries are an accepted part of the job.
” The choreo is so physically exhausting, our bones and ligaments and muscles are tired all the time”, he says.
Getty ImagesAs the band know all too well, hard work does n’t guarantee instant results.
It took ten years for Seventeen’s debut EP to reach a point where they could sell millions of copies on pre-orders alone, and only 1,400 copies were sold in its first week.
Along the way, their sound has progressed from the frothy pop of 2015’s Adore U to the broody, syncopated EDM of 2017’s Do n’t Wanna Cry and the genre- hopping exuberance of 2020 single Left &, Right.
More recently, they’ve experimented with Amapiano, deep house and distorted guitars. And the title track to the mini-album FML from the previous year raised eyebrows.
“I’m getting so numb to this life that it feels like I’m shrinking away,” sang The8 over an old-skool hip-hop groove.
” When we were putting together the album, some of the members were going through a rough time”, explains Wonwoo. The songs reflect our mindset, according to the lyrics.
” But when we honestly, openly talk about our feelings, it really helps to get rid of the negativity”.
As if to prove it, FML’s sister single, Super, was an upbeat celebration of the band’s internal strength: “I love my team, I love my crew“.
Speaking through a translator in Seoul, S Coups, Wonwoo and The8 all pick Super as the perfect primer for any newcomers ( Jeonghan, who also joins the Zoom call, opts for the posse cut Very Nice ).
” It’s such an intense song, it really shows Seventeen’s presence”, says Wongwoo.
Getty ImagesSeventeen reached new heights thanks to the two singles. The FML EP won album of the year at the Asian Music Awards and received more than 6.3 million copies as the record’s top-seller of 2023.
” I expected it to do well, but not this well”, laughs S Coups.
To get new fans up to speed, the band have just released a 33- track compilation, 17 Is Right Here, collecting all of their singles to date– as well as a new track, Maestro, that acts as a manifesto for their freewheeling sound.
“Mix and match, it’s our thing,” raps Vernon. “Crazy is the new normal!”
Wonwoo claims that the song is an expression of pride for the work we’ve put in and the journey we’ve had to take to get where we are right now.
But even the world’s biggest- selling artists have goals.
With a planned world tour coming up at the end of the year, Glastonbury is a part of a campaign to expand their reach even further.
” We’d like to reach fans in as many countries as possible, because we do n’t really get to see them that often in person”, says S Coups.
” We still have a long way to go, and we want to have even greater success,” I still think.
