EXIT: Will YG Entertainment complete this movement puzzle and give us X, I, and T?

IC Urges YG Ent. to complete WINNER's EXIT MOVEMENT



WINNER is South Korean boy group that formed in 2013 and debuted in 2014 by YG Entertainment. The group consists of five boys named Kang Seungyoon as leader and lead vocalist, Nam Taehyun as vocalist, Kim Jinwoo as vocalist, Song Mino as rapper, and Lee Seunghoon as rapper and choreographer. The group first introduced as Team A in 2013 reality survival program WIN : Who Is Next, which the winner of the show got the chance to debut as “WINNER”, the first YG Entertainment's boy group debut in eight years after BIGBANG.



WINNER made their national debut at YG Family Concert on August 15th, 2014, broadcast debut on Inkigayo on August 17th, 2014 and Japan debut on September 10th, 2014. WINNER debut was one of the best KPOP debut in 2014 among others.

WINNER Deserves Better!

WINNER is the fastest KPOP group who got first win after their debut. YG Entertainment stock hit 15% daily limit after WINNER debut and LVMH interested to invest in YG Entertainment to the tune of 100 billion won.

With WINNER unique style of music and gorgeous visual, their songs were caught Koreans recognition on their debut as fastest winning group in music show and conquered most of national music charts. WINNER also gained world attention by charted at number 1 on Billboard's World Album Chart International section and number 6th on Heatseekers Album Chart. WINNER started to promote in Japan right after, with their 2014 S/S Japan Collection launching while going into several music shows, off air events and other broadcasts. They held Zepp Tour Japan Concert from September 2014 to October 2014.

HIATUS 1.0

Unlike other rookies who debuted around the same time who spent most of their time gaining the public’s approval by releasing albums, doing fan meetings and appearing on TV programs, WINNER disappeared from the Korean music scene as a group after their promotion end. WINNER just had schedule for their fan meeting WWIC in Seoul and other overseas cities from January 2015 until mid February 2015.

During the fourth season of Show Me the Money 4 (SMTM 4), Song Mino appeared as one of the contestant and won 2nd place. His song with Taeyang, "Fear", also slayed the chart and became the “Most Loved Song From Fans” among other SMTM's songs.

Other members also did solo activities during their absence as group started from March 2015. Nam Taehyun acting debut on web drama “Girl of 0 AM”, Kim Jinwoo acting debut on web drama “Magic Cellphone” and YG Stage, also Kang Seungyoon who acted in the web drama “We Broke Up” with Sandara Park.

18 months hiatus are affecting so much on their popularity. WINNER popularity dropped drastically compared to their debut in 2014, many fans left during hiatus period and many fansites closed down due to the lack of WINNER Schedule. Their name was only recognized solely by their brand ambassador contract of NII Korea Fashion Clothing and Song Mino appearance on Show Me The Money 4.

On September 20th, 2015, Yang Hyun Suk (YG Entertainment major shareholder) private Instagram account (@fromyg) posted a teaser about WINNER that said "WINNER, Miss them?". From this baseless media hype, many fans speculated about WINNER comeback at that time.

Without concert tour in their own country and longing date for delayed comeback, Korean Inner Circle (WINNER Fanclub) became frustrated, resulting the boycott of WWIC 2015 IN SEOUL DVD release at the end of October 2015. To redeem the situation, @fromyg drop instagram post that photographed him together with WINNER which hinting the group would have comeback schedule on progress with caption 'deep talk'.

On December 14th, 2015 YG Entertainment posted digital single new release date on January 11th, 2016 and it turned out to be Song Mino and Nam Taehyun duet song, Pricked. Then on January 7th, 2016, yg-life (YG Entertainment Media Promotion Site) posted a teaser about WINNER comeback which are five steps of promotion within 2016 called 'EXIT Movement'.

WINNER FINALLY COMEBACK!

After 1 year and 5 months since the release of 2014 s/s album on August, 2014 WINNER finally made their first entry of comeback on January 11th, 2016 with digital single release of 'Pricked', a duet song of Song Mino and Nam Taehyun, following with an EP, EXIT : E on February 1st, 2016.

The album topped Korea’s major online charts and ranked 4th on the iTunes charts of 11 countries. WINNER title tracks "Baby Baby" and "Sentimental" were immediately well received by fans and the public. "Baby Baby" jumped to the number one spot on Naver, Melon, and Bugs live music charts within seven hours of being released. The songs then became number one on iTunes charts in 11 countries and reached number 17 in U.S. Billboard, also it is announced on February 11th, that WINNER’s “EXIT:E” album ranked 2nd on its World Albums chart and 3rd on the Heatseekers Albums chart.

Less than a month, WINNER halted the promotion of EXIT : E to prepare their first concerts in Korea on March 12th - April 23rd and Japan Tour on June 18th - July 18th. Fans became cautious, yet, WINNER still continuously made appearances on several variety show and off air events in Korea, Japan and China until mid July.

On March 19th, WINNER first variety show in China, Happy Camp, recorded the top viewer rating among shows that aired in the same time slot. WINNER's number of followers on Weibo went up to 500,000 from 460,000 and the group's name went up on the real-time popular searches.

Much anticipation also rising after the producer of “Running Man” talked about the special skills that Nam Taehyun of WINNER possesses during episode that aired on April 10th.

On March 21st, JTBC announced WINNER's variety show, “Half-Moon Friend”, will be airing the first episode on April 23rd. WINNER showed their new sides by being teacher of 10 Bandalland Kids. Until July, WINNER's “Half Moon Friends” has surpassed 100 million views on Miaopai, proved their popularity.

WINNER′s “2016 WINNER EXIT TOUR LIVE CD” which released on August 1st, also topped iTunes chart on Philippines and Indonesia. It also ranked 4th on Gaon. In addition, WINNER also won Style Icon Award’s “Awesome K Style Award” on March 15th. MTV Asia Music Gala 2016's “Overseas Popularity Award” on July 28th.

HIATUS 2.0

Inner Circle (WINNER Fanclub) thought YG Entertainment will produce 4 mini album as they are told before about five steps promotion in 2016. So, it will be digital single release (Pricked), EXIT: E, X, I, and T which Inner Circle assumed it would be released once every 3 months long, referred to BIGBANG's single album 'MADE: M, A, D, and E' as they use EXIT:E as WINNER's mini album title. But again, right after their Japan Tour ended, WINNER is back on hiatus mode.

On May 31st, yg-life posted that Kang Seungyoon and Song Mino casted for "The Collaboration", the first joint project of SBS Net Media, YG Entertainment and Tencent Video. But due to Korea - China issue, the episode got cut in fifth episode which last episode aired on August 25th. WINNER's popularity is really big in China despite their lack of promotion there. It is proved by their Baidu fancafe ranking, placed on 9th rank among other senior groups.

On their hiatus, WINNER always tries to keep in touch with their fans by making variety concept's show on their VLIVE which is called “WINWIN TV”. Their last episode even made it into Naver's trending article with a lot of comments said how good their variety skill is. It is disappointing that they can't show their variety skill to the public because of their limited public show appearances and sudden disappearance after 4th episode of “WINWIN TV”.

Not enough of that, YG Entertainment surprised Inner Circle by making MOBB, a special unit of Song Mino with iKON's Bobby. Followed with Song Mino's schedule to guest on all 16 iKON's Japan Tour which bring Inner Circle anger because it is obviously will become the obstacle of EXIT : XIT preparation.

To redeem that, out of the blue, Kang Seungyoon casted on SBS Chuseok's pilot program 'Blue Star' and Lee Seunghoon casted on tVN's 'Eat, Sleep, Eat' Variety Program. Though, those programs gain so much attention. Yet the other two members, Kim Jinwoo and Nam Taehyun are in inactive schedule and nowhere to be found.

Justice for WINNER!

WINNER is one of most talented group in South Korea. Every member has talent. They are even called “Self Made-Idol”. They compose their own songs, make their own choreography, draw their own single cover ('Pricked' song), and they even use self promotion strategy as they optimize SNS and V Live App to promote themselves and gaining new fans.

On August 23rd, Nam Taehyun, WINNER's vocalist posted screenshot of his Sound Cloud account on Instagram and his action became worldwide trending on Twitter. During this second hiatus, for almost a month he gained 8406 followers and still counting with 1st track played 142k times and 2nd track 58.2k times respectively. His tracks GOOD MAN and 'Who Is The Song For' became fresh wind for comforting the fans also gain anticipation for music genre of next album. Fans believed that the artist themselves are somewhat thirst for their comeback and release more songs to the public.

On September 5th, NII Korea Fashion Clothing revealed their 2016 F/W collection collaboration with Lee Seunghoon. The products were sold out within a week. It was not the first time Lee Seunghoon working with clothing line, his collaboration before with FreshFruit last year also got good respond.

Fans also got some hints for next EXIT : X comeback from Haru Hana Magazine Vol. 37 August 2016 WINNER Interview article. Kang Seungyoon as WINNER's Leader said that they had several songs completed with uptempo beat tracks and ready to be released.

But until this mid September, Inner Circle got nothing. EXIT Movement continuity is nowhere to be found as we posted this petition. Why they been held back and did not have a comeback after they finished all EXIT : E promotion? Yang Hyun Suk, YG Entertainment major shareholder even said that WINNER fans would think that he favors WINNER than other artist this year. He said 2016 will be WINNER’s year.

WINNER members said that they have already made so many songs (up to a hundred songs) while they had a hiatus back then and already shoot few Music Videos in Europe in 2015. Why do YG keep them in dungeon? They really want to be on the stage and meet their fans. Why can’t YG keep his words? He said 2016 is WINNER’s year though. Why? Can they give us the reason?

Some media outlets in Korea and China even make cover story of 'monster rookies' artist long hiatus affecting their popularity to downhill and losing opportunity to rise to the next level, including WINNER situation right now. The longer time artist stay away from media or public exposure, the fastest public lost interest.

Inner Circles are all frustrated with the way YG Entertainment treats WINNER. Inner Circle just wants WINNER to show their talents, to release their songs. They are singer after all. With this petition, we urge YG Entertainment to keep their words.

WE URGE YG ENTERTAINMENT TO CONTINUE EXIT MOVEMENT.

WE URGE YG ENTERTAINMENT TO RELEASE EXIT : X SOON, FOLLOWED BY EXIT : I AND T

GIVE WINNER CONTINUITY AND PROPER PROMOTION FOR THEIR ACTIVITY ONWARDS.



Best regards,



World Wide INNER CIRCLE

Provided by : rempongcircle