IZ*ONE Officially Disbands Today, Japanese Members To Head Home
IZ*ONE is scheduled for disbandment today as its contract with CJ ENM has already ended. The girl group was formed in 2018 after the top 12 contestants of Mnet's audition program Produce 48 were made to debut as a team.
The winners are from different labels, but when they debuted as IZ*ONE, all their activities as a group were handled by CJ ENM. The band is a project group, and everyone knows from the start that it will disband after two and a half years which is the duration of its contract with the said management agency.
Swing Entertainment and Off The Record Entertainment, the agencies that co-manage IZ*ONE's activities, confirmed that promotions of the team are concluding at the end of April as originally planned. This confirmation comes after it was initially reported that the girl group's contract would be extended.
Apparently, the talks for contract extension were not fruitful so today, Allkpop reported that IZ*ONE is scheduled to disband. The members have already completed their final schedule on April 13 and 14 which is an online concert titled One, The Story.
In a touching move, fans of IZ*ONE are trying to save the team by organizing a fundraising drive. They aim to raise $2 million so that the 12 members do not have to go their separate ways and just continue to promote together.
The band's fandom called WIZ*ONE launched the Parallel Universe Project on April 21 after it was affirmed once again that the disbandment plan is proceeding. On the fundraising page, it was indicated that the project was started for the relaunch of IZ*ONE.
The response to the crowdfunding was impressive as fans were able to fulfill 73% of its funding target within minutes of the campaign's launch. They raised ₩737,855,670 or around $700,000 in just 10 minutes, and as of writing, the funds already reached ₩3,089,232,139 or $2,790,873.79 which is 308% of the initial goal. But then again, it is yet to see how the fans will use this money to relaunch IZ*ONE.
Meanwhile, with the group's disbandment taking effect on April 29, it was reported that IZ*ONE's Miyawaki Sakura, Yabuki Nako and Honda Hitomi are scheduled to head home to Japan today. They will be leaving via Incheon International Airport at 11 a.m. KST.
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