40 Fun Facts About SF9

Which name for SF9's fandom, announced on the group's 100th day, also became the title of its 2024 EP?

Fantasy is the fandom's name, and the group's solo concerts carry it too, each one billed as a numbered Live Fantasy show.

The SF in SF9, a boy band that debuted with nine members in 2016, is short for which phrase?

Sensational Feeling is the phrase behind the name, and the group flipped the words for the title of its debut single album, Feeling Sensation.

Which agency, home to rock bands F.T. Island and CNBLUE, launched SF9 in 2016 as its first dance boy group?

FNC Entertainment had built its name on bands, so SF9 was a departure. The initials are said to stand for fish and cake, after the Bible story of the loaves and fishes.

SF9 debuted in October 2016 with which lead single, a song the group later re-recorded for an overseas debut?

Fanfare led a three-track single album that peaked at number six on the Gaon Album Chart. The group made its music show debut with it on M Countdown the day after release.

Which 2020 single gave SF9 a first music show win, on M Countdown, more than three years after debut?

Good Guy earned three trophies that January, and at the end of the year it brought SF9 a first Melon Music Awards nomination, for Best Dance – Male.

Rowoon, who left SF9 in 2023 to focus on acting, played Haru in which 2019 MBC school drama?

Extraordinary You gave him a first male lead, as a nameless extra inside a comic book, and won him Best New Actor at the MBC Drama Awards.

Rowoon starred opposite Park Eun-bin in which 2021 period drama, the first Korean series to win an International Emmy?

The King's Affection cast him as Jung Ji-woon, tutor to a royal heir who is secretly a woman. The role won him Best New Actor at the KBS Drama Awards.

SF9's Chani played student Hwang Woo-joo in which 2018 JTBC hit about families chasing elite university places?

Sky Castle became the highest-rated series in Korean cable history while it aired. Chani was already a veteran, having started out as a child actor years before he joined the group.

SF9 joined BtoB, iKON, Ateez and two more boy groups on which 2021 Mnet competition hosted by TVXQ's Changmin?

Kingdom: Legendary War set six groups against each other over four rounds, the last of them broadcast live. The show is known as the male counterpart of Queendom.

In June 2017, SF9 made an official overseas debut in which country, topping Tower Records' singles chart there?

Japan got its own version of the debut single, which also reached number four on the Oricon chart. The group marked the release with concerts in Tokyo, Nagoya, Kanagawa and Osaka.

Which SF9 rapper, whose 2024 solo fan meeting Bohemian sold out within a minute, is the group's leader?

Youngbin leads the group and has co-written lyrics for it since 2017. He spent March 2022 to September 2023 in the army's 27th Infantry Division.

On a 2021 TV competition, SF9 covered Move, a 2017 solo hit by which member of SHINee?

Taemin made Move famous for choreography that went viral after a Seoul Fashion Week performance. SF9's version came in the contest's no-restrictions third round.

SF9's sixth EP, released in February 2019, takes its title from which figure of Greek myth?

Narcissus matched the EP's self-love concept and was led by the single Enough. Later that year the group took a ten-stop tour across the United States and Europe.

Which single was the title track of SF9's third EP, released in October 2017?

O Sole Mio shares its name with a famous Neapolitan song and fronted the EP Knights of the Sun. Four years later a rival act reworked it on a TV competition, giving it the subtitle The Red Wedding.

Which group won the live final of the 2021 Mnet competition in which SF9 faced five other boy bands?

Stray Kids finished first in the final on June 3, 2021. The prize was a reality show of their own and a special week of programming.

SF9's members won the right to debut on which 2016 Mnet survival show for their agency's trainees?

Dance or Band, styled d.o.b, set nine dancers against a four-piece group of instrumentalists. The dancers won with 51 per cent of the vote and became SF9.

Before debut, the future members of SF9 were introduced in 2015 through which trainee team at their agency?

Neoz School was the agency's pre-debut team. Its first group, NEOZ, performed with eleven members in December 2015 before the line-up settled at nine.

The trainee team SF9 beat to win a debut in 2016 later became which pop rock band, which split in 2019?

Honeyst debuted in 2017 with the single album Like You, under a name that blends honey and artist. The four-piece disbanded two years later over creative differences.

Which 2018 single led SF9's EP Sensuous, a turn towards hip-hop and R&B with a more grown-up image?

Now or Never fronted the group's fifth EP, and later that year SF9 took home the Rising Award at the Asia Artist Awards.

A day after SF9's first M Countdown trophy in January 2020, which programme delivered a first win on a major network?

Music Bank, on KBS, handed over its trophy on January 17, 2020. The group won there again in December 2021 with the single Trauma.

Which lead single of the 2020 EP 9loryUS brought SF9 a first trophy on SBS MTV's The Show?

Summer Breeze won on July 14, 2020, eight days after release. Its EP belonged to a storyline series the group called 9lory.

Which single led Turn Over, the 2021 EP SF9 released weeks after finishing a televised group competition?

Tear Drop fronted the ninth EP, and the epilogue video that followed it brought the group's 9lory storyline to a close.

Rowoon voiced the character Branch in the Korean dub of which 2020 animated musical film?

Trolls World Tour gave him the part that Justin Timberlake voices in the English original. The casting came months after his breakthrough as a drama lead.

SF9's Dawon played the heroine's younger brother in which 2021 tvN drama starring Park Bo-young and Seo In-guk?

Doom at Your Service cast him as Tak Sun-kyung, brother of an editor who learns she has three months to live. He later appeared in the drama Curtain Call.

Chani of SF9 spent more than two years from February 2019 as a host of which weekly MBC programme?

Show! Music Core kept him as a host from February 16, 2019, to July 17, 2021, and the job earned him a rookie nomination at the 2020 MBC Entertainment Awards.

Which SF9 rapper signed with a second agency, Haewadal, in 2024 to manage an acting career alongside group work?

Zuho, the main rapper since debut, thanked both companies when the deal was announced. He then sat out the group's next two EPs.

Which SF9 rapper went solo in 2023 with the digital single Drive5, then released the single album Traveling Fish?

Hwiyoung had a hand in writing and composing all three tracks on the single album. He has also acted, with a supporting part in the period drama The Matchmakers.

Chani played an idol who vanishes mid-concert in which 2021 KBS drama about K-pop groups, adapted from a webtoon?

Imitation cast him as Lee Eun-jo of the fictional boy band Shax, whose disappearance still haunts the group's most popular member three years on.

Chani played Prince Uiseong in which 2022 tvN period drama, a ratings hit starring Kim Hye-soo?

Under the Queen's Umbrella follows the schooling of troublemaking royal sons, and it spent eight weeks in Netflix's global top ten for non-English series.

Rowoon, Chani and other future SF9 members acted in which web drama released months before the group's 2016 debut?

Click Your Heart doubled as an introduction to the group, and its soundtrack song So Beautiful came out as a special digital single that December.

In a song-swap round of a 2021 Mnet contest, SF9 performed The Stealer, a hit by which group?

The Boyz took on an SF9 single in return, in a round where all six acts exchanged songs and rearranged them in a new style.

SF9 closed a 2021 Mnet competition with which new song, performed live in the final and co-written by four members?

Believer was SF9's entry among six newly produced songs, one from each competing group, performed live in the finale.

SF9's three-stop solo tour of the United States in November 2017 visited Seattle, Boston and which Texas city?

Dallas was one of three stops on a run that followed the group's third EP, Knights of the Sun.

SF9's August 2018 fan meetings in Latin America were held in Mexico City and which Brazilian city?

São Paulo hosted two nights at the Tropical Butantã, days after a date at Mexico City's Auditorio Blackberry.

Rowoon joined the cast of which OnStyle show in December 2016, two months after SF9's debut?

Lipstick Prince had male idols learn makeup and apply it to a female guest, its Princess, who could not see the look until the end. Rowoon stayed for both seasons.

Which January 2024 EP, led by the single Bibora, was SF9's first release after Rowoon left the group?

Sequence, the thirteenth EP, also marked the return of two members who had just completed their military service.

SF9 vocalist Jaeyoon, also a musical theatre lead, was the February 2021 cover star of which magazine's Korean edition?

Men's Health ran an interview about his fitness routine in that issue. On stage he has played leads in the musicals Seopyeonje and Dorian Gray.

Which song won SF9's members their pre-debut TV contest in 2016 and became a B-side on the first single album?

K.O. was the first song the nine performed as a team, and the group went back to promote it once the debut single had run its course.

SF9's first concert in South Korea, at Seoul's Yes24 Live Hall in October 2018, carried which one-word title?

Dreamer came two years into the group's career, after SF9 had already played solo shows in the United States.

Rowoon played a young job seeker hired by a team of grim reapers in which 2022 MBC drama?

Tomorrow was adapted from a Naver webtoon and cast him as Choi Joon-woong, the youngest contract worker on an underworld crisis team.