Treasure is indeed a South Korean boy band created by YG Entertainment in 2019 through their reality show YG Treasure Box (2018). Choi Hyun-suk, Jihoon, Yoshi, Junkyu, Mashiho, Yoon Jae-hyuk, Asahi, Bang Ye-dam, Doyoung, Haruto, Park Jeong-woo, and So Jung-hwan make up the 12-piece band. Their tetralogy sold over one million copies five months after its debut in 2020 with The First Step: Chapter One, their single album. Treasure frequently engages in numerous philanthropic initiatives with Muju YG Foundation outside of music.
Junkyu, Ye-dam, as well as Jung-hwan all worked inside the entertainment industry as children. Junkyu debuted as a kid ad model for renowned Korean businesses. With his parents, Ye-dam recorded tunes for advertisements, cartoon shows, as well as soundtracks.
In 2012, he competed in SBS’ K-pop Star 2 and came in second place behind AKMU. Jung-hwan began acting in minor roles as a youngster and then entered the K-Tigers, including some of the world’s top taekwondo demonstration teams, where he earned a non-combat championship. Mashiho played a barista in label-mate AKMU’s musical short movie “Spring of Winter” in January 2017. Hyun-suk and Junkyu participated on JTBC’s Mix Nine as trainees underneath the label from October 29 to January 26, 2018, finishing 5th and 35th, respectfully. Simultaneously, Jihoon, Ye-dam, and Doyoung, among others, performed on Mnet’s Stray Kids as YG Entertainment’s representing trainees on November 21, 2017.
The creation of YG Entertainment was chronicled through an online broadcast that was concurrently shown on the cable network JTBC2. In November, twenty-nine male trainees were introduced on YG Treasure Box (2018), which included a series of eliminations. The septet—Watanabe Haruto, Bang Ye-dam, So Jung-hwan, Kim Jun-kyu, but also later Park Jeong-woo, Yoon Jae-hyuk, and Choi Hyun-suk—were renamed Treasure after the finale.
Nevertheless, in January 2019, a second lineup was unveiled under the name Magnum, consisting of Ha Yoon-bin, Takata Mashiho, Kim Do-young, Kanemoto Yoshinori, Park Ji-hoon, and Hamada Asahi. Before Yoon-departure bin’s from the label in December 2019 to seek a solo career, the aforementioned teams were to be known as Treasure 13.
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