In early 2018, Mnet announced the third installment to their Produce 101 franchise which aimed to bring together 48 Korean trainees from several entertainment companies and 48 Japanese idols from the J-pop idol group AKB48 and their sister groups to form a girl group with 12 members chosen by the viewers. Produce 48 premiered on June 15, 2018 and the live finale was broadcast on August 31, 2018, with the top 12 winners becoming a girl group named IZ*ONE. Of the top 12 winners, Miyawaki Sakura and Yabuki Nako had already debuted in HKT48, Honda Hitomi who debuted in AKB48, while Kwon Eun Bi was previously in girl group Ye-A under the stage name Kazoo but left the group in late 2014, Jo Yuri is a former contestant of another Mnet survival show Idol School which created the girl group fromis 9, while the final winner Lee Chae Yeon was a well-known contestant in another competition show called SIXTEEN which created the girl group TWICE.
The group promoting [[Color*IZ ]] On September 21, 2018, along with Mnet's Idol Schools final group fromis 9, it was announced the group had switch agencies and would now be managed by Off The Record Entertainment in Korea. IZ*ONE was announced to be preparing for a full debut on October 29, 2018 with their debut mini album, COLOR*IZ. On January 20, IZ*ONE held their Japanese debut show-con in Tokyo Dome City Hall to promote their first Japanese single "Suki to Iwasetai".
Five days after the event, the group released the music video for the song and views on YouTube surpassed 5 million within a week. The single was officially released on February 6. On March 9, English DJ and producer Jonas Blue released a new version of his 2018 single "Rise", featuring the vocals of IZ*ONE.
On April 1, the group released their second mini album, HEART*IZ, with "Violeta" as the album's title track. The album sold 132,109 copies in the first week which is a new record for girl groups at the time. On May 2 and 3, IZ*ONE hold their first fanmeeting at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.
From June 7 to 9, the group held their first solo concert titled [Eyes On Me] at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul. After all tickets for the initial two concerts were sold out, Off The Record added one additional concert date on June 7. On June 26, the group released their second Japanese single "Buenos Aires".
The single was certified Platinum by RIAJ in August. Concept photo for "[[Vampire"]] IZ*ONE released their third Japanese single "Vampire" on September 25. The single was certified Gold two weeks later.
Following the conclusion of Produce X 101, vote rigging allegations surfaced after viewers noticed irregularities in the number of votes counted, which series PD Ahn Joon Young later admitted were rigged, as well as the votes for the other Produce 101 seasons, including Produce 48. On October 30, the group released a concept trailer for their upcoming Korean comeback titled "When IZ your BLOOMing moment? ", followed by the members and group concept photos.
Their first full-length album titled BLOOM*IZ, was scheduled to be released on November 11 but has been postponed due to the severity of the events mentioned above, leaving the group on a hiatus. On December 30, CJ ENM's CEO Heo Min Heoi held a press conference to make a formal apology regarding the manipulation controversy surrounding the Produce 101 series. He explained that CJ ENM will be compensating everyone harmed due to the incident.
Regarding IZ*ONE and X1, he shared that they are working on plans for the groups to resume activities, and Mnet will give up all resulting profits towards a fund. On January 20, it was announced that Japanese management agency AKS would change up the company's name and divide up the management of its artists. From now on, the company will be operating under the name "Vernalossom" and will exclusively manage only IZ*ONE's Japanese activities, as well as the activities of any new artists a...
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