3 Quick Facts About K-Pop Favorites SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN will perform tonight, December 12, at the Billboard Music Awards, and here are a few quick facts to get everyone up to speed about this K-pop sensation. Fellow South Korean group Stray Kids will join this boy band at the awards, so you won’t want to miss their performances if you’re a U.S. fan.

Videos by American Songwriter

[RELATED: 3 Quick Facts About K-Pop Sensation Stray Kids]

There are 13 Members of SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN debuted as a group in 2015 with the EP 17 Carat and has since garnered international fame. The 13 members are S. Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino. Their debut EP became the longest-charting K-pop album of the year and made Billboard‘s 10 Best K-Pop Albums of 2015 list, the only debut to do so.

All Their Albums are Self-Produced

Similar to the boy band Stray Kids, SEVENTEEN’s music is all self-produced. The group writes, produces, and choreographs their work in-house. While they perform as a group, they are split into different categories—hip-hop, vocal, and performance. Each of the three units is specialized in their category. SEVENTEEN has since become a global phenomenon with many different monikers. They’ve been called “Performance Kings,” “Theater Kids of K-Pop,” and “K-Pop Performance Powerhouse” by fans and outlets around the world.

The Band’s Name is Particularly Interesting

You’re probably wondering, why does a band called SEVENTEEN only have 13 members? That’s all part of the name’s brilliance. SEVENTEEN stands for “13 members, 3 teams, 1 group.” It brings the members together into one unit even though they each have their specializations. However, originally there were supposed to be 17 members; four members left the group before the debut. Additionally, their fan club is called Carat, in reference to their debut EP. Fan clubs are crucial for K-pop groups, and SEVENTEEN’s is one of the most devoted and widely spread.

Featured Image by Anna Barclay/Getty Images