40 Fun Facts About Winner (K-pop Group)

Which boy band grew out of the trainee team that Winner beat on the 2013 survival show WIN: Who Is Next?

iKon took shape a year later on Mix & Match, a follow-up contest that pitted the losing trainees against three newcomers for places in the final line-up.

Winner's launch showcase won a Red Dot Design Award for its unusual debut concept; what form did the event take?

A fashion show put the members on a catwalk beside professional models, the first time an artist's debut had borrowed the format of a collection launch.

Winner's Mino finished as runner-up to Basick in 2015 on which Mnet rap competition series?

Show Me the Money made his single Fear, featuring Taeyang, the best-selling song in the series' history. Six years later he was back on the tenth season as a producer rather than a contestant.

After Mino won a wish on a tvN variety show, where were Winner whisked off to film Youth Over Flowers in 2017?

Australia came as a surprise: the production team tricked the members into the trip, and they spent a week on the road there.

Which Korean agency, the label behind Big Bang, put the boy band Winner together in 2013?

YG Entertainment drew the five from widely different routes: two were known from television talent contests, and three came through private auditions, one of them after his first group folded.

For the 2016 JTBC series Half-Moon Friends, Winner halted promotions for 15 days to work as what?

Daycare teachers was the brief: the members looked after children aged four to seven and took cute nicknames so the kids could learn their names.

Winner's Lee Seung-hoon placed fourth on the first season of which SBS audition show before signing with his label?

K-pop Star made him a talking point for renting a tiny room one minute from the agency he dreamed of joining. He signed there alongside fellow finalist Lee Hi.

Winner announced which official name for their fans when they made their debut stage on the SBS programme Inkigayo?

Inner Circle has since joined the band in charity work: after a 2018 fan meeting, the two sent food to shelters for teenagers, single mothers and the elderly.

Winner flew to which US state to film the videos for their 2017 single album Our Twenty For?

Hawaii gave the single album Our Twenty For its sunlit look, and the title nods to the members' average age of 24 at the time.

Kang Seung-yoon, later Winner's leader, finished fourth as a teenager on which 2010 Mnet singing contest?

Superstar K2 drew more than 1.35 million applicants, and his last-stage cover of Instinctively went on to top the charts as a single. He nearly skipped the audition, going only because a friend asked him to.

Before joining Winner, Mino trained for a place in which boy band's original line-up?

Block B slipped away because he was still a minor: his father handled the contract talks and could not reach terms with the agency, so he left to start again elsewhere.

Winner's Kang Seung-yoon won King of Mask Singer six times running under the alias of which Hong Kong film actor?

Chow Yun-fat was the mask name under which he became the first idol to win six times in a row and, at the time, the programme's youngest champion. His run kept its ratings in double digits.

Which main vocalist, the composer of Baby Baby and Sentimental, left Winner in November 2016?

Nam Tae-hyun stepped back that October for the sake of his mental health, and his exit a month later ended a planned series of releases. The group returned as a quartet the next spring.

Which debut single by Winner, co-written by rival trainees B.I and Bobby, entered the Gaon Digital Chart at number one?

Empty came from the camp Winner had just beaten: B.I, who led the losing team, co-composed the music. Bandmate Lee Seung-hoon devised the dance.

Which tropical house single marked Winner's 2017 return as a quartet and passed 100 million streams on Gaon?

Really Really came with a video filmed by the director Dave Meyers, and it ended a 14-month gap between releases, during which a member had left the group.

Winner's debut album 2014 S/S topped the Gaon Album Chart at home and which Billboard chart in the United States?

World Albums had the newcomers at number one with a record they largely made themselves, writing the lyrics and composing most of its ten tracks. A Japanese edition reached number two on Oricon a month later.

Winner's Kang Seung-yoon and Lee Seung-hoon both hail from which city, whose dialect Kang used at acting auditions?

Busan gave both a start in the arts: Kang majored in classical guitar there, while Lee formed a dance trio with friends from the city.

On WIN: Who Is Next, the contest that created Winner, who had the final say over which trainee team debuted?

The voting public was handed the decision because the label's founder said he could not launch two boy groups at once. Around 3,000 fans watched the finale in an Olympic handball arena.

Winner's Mino became a regular on which tvN variety show in 2017, joining alongside Super Junior's Kyuhyun?

New Journey to the West gave him his first fixed spot on a television series and led to the cooking spin-off Kang's Kitchen. Losing a table-tennis match on the programme cost him his hair.

Mino of Winner topped the charts in 2018 with Fiancé, a solo single that fuses hip hop with which older Korean genre?

Trot runs through the song by way of a sample: it borrows from Soyanggang Maiden, a hit from 1969. The single led his self-written first solo album, XX.

Winner became the fastest act to win a music show trophy, days after their debut, on which weekly chart programme?

M Countdown gave the group its first trophy, and two rival chart programmes followed with wins of their own within three days.

Winner's Mino released the 2016 singles Full House and Hit Me as a hip hop duo with which rapper?

Bobby and Mino had been on opposite sides of a trainee contest three years earlier. As MOBB, each added a solo track to the duo's four-song EP.

Winner's Kang Seung-yoon first acted alongside Lee Jong-suk and Krystal Jung in which Korean sitcom franchise?

High Kick had no part for him at first: he auditioned in his hometown dialect with no acting experience, and the writers created a new character for him.

Winner's Kang Seung-yoon took a supporting role in which 2017 tvN drama about a fallen baseball ace?

Prison Playbook came from the director of the Reply series, who cast him after hearing him read in dialect. Kang and bandmate Mino also recorded the song Door for its soundtrack.

Kang Seung-yoon of Winner won a best actor prize for the 2015 web drama We Broke Up, starring opposite which labelmate?

Sandara Park and Kang drew more than 16 million views, and theirs became the first Korean web drama invited to the Geneva International Film Festival.

Winner's eldest member Kim Jin-woo was scouted at an acting academy in his hometown owned by which Big Bang member?

Seungri referred him for a private audition, and he waited six months before being accepted as a trainee. He had enrolled hoping to act, inspired by the late actress Choi Jin-sil.

Kim Jin-woo of Winner became the first K-pop idol cast in a contemporary dance production, playing which title role?

The Little Prince was staged by the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, whose director cast him for his image and passion. He said the part healed him and changed how he thought about dancing.

After leaving Winner in 2016, the group's former main vocalist founded a label and formed which rock band?

South Club made its bow at a surprise 30-minute bar gig that was streamed online, with Beatles covers in the set. Its debut EP was titled 90, partly because every member was born after 1990.

Which label founder made Kang Seung-yoon Winner's permanent leader after an ankle injury sidelined Mino during filming?

Yang Hyun-suk had named Mino leader in the first episode of the group's survival series, then kept the swap after seeing how the team improved under its stand-in.

Soon after Winner's debut, Mino guested on Born Hater, a hit single by which veteran hip hop act on his label?

Epik High packed the track with guest rappers, and it sold almost 1.5 million downloads. Its first stage performance came at that year's Mnet Asian Music Awards.

Before their own debut, Winner appeared as special guests on which girl group's All or Nothing World Tour?

2NE1 kept the rookies on the bill from the opening nights through to Jakarta, months before Winner had released an album of their own.

Which labelmate, half of a sibling duo, starred in the music video for Winner's 2020 pre-release single Hold?

Lee Su-hyun, the singer from AKMU, fronted a clip for a song that went to number one on several streaming services two weeks before the album it previewed.

Which third studio album by Winner arrived in April 2020, the month two members began military service?

Remember looked back to the group's beginnings, with favourites from the debut album re-recorded by the remaining line-up. It earned their best first-week sales since that debut.

Winner replaced the cancelled encore of their Cross Tour in 2020 with a free online concert on which platform?

V Live carried the show on Valentine's Day, after the pandemic had already forced the group to call off a stop in Singapore.

Winner's adverts for the brand Elite made them 2016's most memorable commercial endorsers of which product?

School uniforms sat among a varied set of deals: the group has also fronted campaigns for Fanta, Oreo, Adidas and a pizza chain.

Before turning to music, Winner's Kang Seung-yoon was a regional youth representative in which sport?

Billiards was one of several paths he weighed as a boy, along with politics, science and drawing comics. An older player he met at lessons helped him through a spell of social anxiety.

Winner's Mino made his film debut alongside Yoo Ah-in in which 2022 Netflix action comedy about a crew of drivers?

Seoul Vibe follows a smuggling crew blackmailed by a prosecutor in the days before the 1988 Olympics, and it gave Mino the part of a character called Galchi.

Winner's Mino explored burnout culture in his 2018 exhibition Burning Planet, staged with which brand?

Gentle Monster and Mino kept the show open for a month, and visitors included the actor Lee Dong-hwi. Weeks later Mino's photographs hung in a Leica exhibition too.

Before Winner, Mino debuted in 2011 under the stage name Tagoon as the rapper of which short-lived ballad group?

BoM lasted less than two years, and Mino later said he earned almost nothing there: an executive registered five songs he had written under another person's name.

Winner's 2019 single Ah Yeah was inspired by which Korean film about two bank clerks who have just split up?

Very Ordinary Couple was the debut feature of a director who drew the script from her own love life and those of her friends.