Wanna One워너원

Wanna One (워너원) was an 11-member South Korean boy band formed by CJ E&M, now CJ ENM, through the Mnet survival show Produce 101 Season 2 (프로듀스 101 시즌 2).¹ The show aired from April 7 to June 16, 2017, and started with 101 trainees from 54 entertainment companies. Viewers voted online and live to choose the 11 who would debut, and in the live finale Kang Daniel (강다니엘) topped the final vote with 1,578,837.²³ The members were Kang Daniel, Park Ji-hoon, Lee Dae-hwi, Kim Jae-hwan, Ong Seong-wu, Park Woo-jin, Lai Kuan-lin, Yoon Ji-sung, Hwang Min-hyun, Bae Jin-young and Ha Sung-woon; Yoon Ji-sung was the leader.¹

Wanna One was a project group: a team with a fixed end date, after which the members go back to their own agencies. Its contract ran until December 31, 2018.²³ The group debuted on August 7, 2017, at a showcase at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome, with the EP 1×1=1 (To Be One) and its title track "Energetic". YMC Entertainment managed the group first; from June 1, 2018, Swing Entertainment, an agency set up for it, took over. It closed with a final concert, Therefore, at the Gocheok Sky Dome in 2019.¹

With its repackage, 1-1=0 (Nothing Without You), the debut EP made Wanna One the third Korean group to sell a million copies of a debut album, and the first since Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992.¹ Wikipedia's discography puts its South Korean sales at 1,463,978, and all four of the group's 2017–2018 albums and EPs reached No. 1 on the Gaon Album Chart.⁴ Wanna One won the newcomer award at the MAMA, Melon Music, Golden Disc, Seoul Music and Gaon Chart Music Awards, and MAMA's Best Male Group in both 2017 and 2018.¹⁵ In 2018 it won the first Record of the Year at the Melon Music Awards, a daesang (grand prize) added that year, as DabPop's archive of every Melon daesang shows.⁶

The show's vote later went to court. At the appeal in November 2020, the Seoul High Court disclosed that the producers had altered one trainee's ranking to keep him out of Wanna One.²³ Ten of the 11 members reunited on stage at the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 11, 2021, and released "Beautiful (Part 3)" on January 27, 2022. In 2026 the group reunited for the reality series Wanna One Go: Back to Base and performed at KCON LA in August.¹ Kang Daniel, who enlisted for military service on February 9, 2026, appeared only briefly, as DabPop's 2026 military service timeline notes.⁷