History

F.T. Island (Korean: 에프티 아일랜드), Five Treasure Island, or FTI, is the name of the band . The name F.T. Island stands for 'Five Treasure Island', each of the five members being a treasure.[1] The band's official color is yellow, and their fans carry yellow flags known as "pentasticks." Their debut album, Cheerful Sensibility, was the sixth best-selling album of 2007 in South Korea. The official fanclub is Primadonna (or short: Pris)

D e b u t

FT Island's first album was scheduled to be released commercially in May 2007. However, instead of releasing the album as planned, all of the members appeared on a television program called “Dugeun Dugeun Yeochinmandeulgi” (두근두근 여친만들기) on the Korean television channel Mnet. The program title is officially translated by Mnet as "Wanna Be My Girlfriend?" although "두근두근" refers to the sound a heart makes. The band also performed on stage live at Rolling Hall and held their first official showcase at Live House Melon-AX, Gwangjang-dong in Seoul on May 27, 2007. On June 7, 2007 F.T. Island performed their debut song on the music television program M!Countdown.Not only this but also they amazed people by winning their first best song award on M!Countdown by beating top artists such as dynamic duo and fly to the sky in just 2 weeks after debut.

Cheerful Sensibility

Their first album “Cheerful Sensibility” combined 13 songs that can be divided into 2 parts: “Emotional Chapter” and “FT Island Chapter” respectively according to the style of the song in the album. For the “Emotional Chapter”, the genre is rock ballad oriented which produced by the composers who work for many songs of famous Korean singer such as SG Wannabe. The other part, “FT Island Chapter”, tend to be the upbeat pop- rock oriented style, which was produced by the Japanese famous composers participating with the Japanese band, SMAP. The album sold 79,786 copies in 2007, making it the sixth best-selling album of the year.

The album was re-released on December 3, 2007 and it was named "The Refreshment". In addition to three extra songs, the package also included various extras, including a photobook, a stack of photocards, and a mixing program called Music 2.0 which allows one to adjust the levels of the instruments and vocals accordingly. This edition sold 25,724 copies in December 2007.


2008: Overseas promotions, return to Korea

The group was scheduled to hold their first concert in Malaysia on March 30, 2008, at Sunway Lagoon Amphitheater. On the day before the concert, they held an autograph session at Damansara Cineleisure. A special version of their debut album was released in mid-February. However, the concert was suddenly cancelled, with no explanation given.

On April 12, 2008, the group held their first concert in Thailand, at the Royal Paragon Hall. In addition to playing material from their album, each member of the group had their own solos as well.

F.T. Island's Japanese debut album, entitled Prologue of FT Island, was released on June 7, 2008, with the first single released being "Soyogi". The album consists of 8 songs, 2 of which are newer versions of the original songs "FT Island" and "Primadonna". The last track, "Always Be Mine", is an English version of "First Kiss". However, the lyrics are not translated, but completely original. Music videos were also released for "Soyogi" and "Friendship".

Their second Korean album, Colorful Sensibility, was released on August 27, 2008. A follow-up EP, Colorful Sensibility Part 2, was released on October 17, 2008.

Later that year, on December 17, F.T. Island released "The One", their first Japanese single, which hit #9 on the Oricon daily charts. F&C Music stated that although other Korean bands utilized the assistance of large Japanese record labels to gain popularity, F.T. Island was able to make it onto the charts without any true marketing efforts.

2009: Regrouping

After rumors were going around that member Oh Won Bin would be leaving the group, it was announced on January 28, 2009 that he would be leaving the group and would be replaced. It was announced a day later that F&C trainee Song Seung Hyun would be joining F.T. Island as a guitarist and backup vocalist, and that an album would be released in February.

Other works

Member Lee Jae Jin was a cast member of KBS's sitcom Unstoppable Marriage. The other members made a cameo appearance. In this sitcom Lee Jae Jin plays the role of Wang Sa Baek (Sim Mal Yeon's fourth son), and appears regularly on the show.

Member Lee Hong Ki debuted 6 years ago on a kid's sitcom KBS2's Magic Kid Masuri as the main character, Masuri. This sitcom gained explosive popularity among elementary school students.

Hong Ki has also been on many other shows, such as Becoming a Good Daddy (SBS), Monwonaehangbok (Happy Shares Company) (MBC), Family Outing (SBS), Lee Hong Ki is currently hosting SBS Inkigayo this year and He was also casted in a show that is coming this 2009.

FT Island are also hosting MBC Every 1 Idol Army Season 2. Total of 13 episode.

It was announced, that Choi Minhwan is cast member of the drama "The Road Home" which will be aired on KBS1. According to the latest informations, he will appear in a small role. He attended the press conference on the 7th January, 2008. The drama starts airing on the 12th January this year. It's likely that Lee Hong Ki will also have a very small role in this drama.


source: wikipedia