BEAST fans, your favourite group will now go under another name.
Around US Entertainment has announced that the 5 former BEAST members, Yoon Dujun, Lee Gikwang, Yong Junhyung, Son Dongwoon, Yang Yoseob, will be making their debut once again as Highlight.
They chose the name as it means “the brightest person” and “the most significant”. The members chose to give up their previous name and begin anew as they did not want fans to wait too long for them. Highlight will be making their debut under the new name soon and is currently working on their 1st studio album.
Cube Entertainment and Highlight were at loggerheads over the name “BEAST”, but the members still expressed their gratitude to Cube’s CEO Hong Seung Sung for his help in creating the group.
Around US Entertainment’s full statement read:
“We have decided that the Around US artistes Yoon Dujun, Yong Junhyung, Yang Yoseob, Lee Gikwang and Son Dongwon will all start a new group and promote under the name: Highlight.
‘The brightest person’, ‘The most significant’ – those are the meanings we wanted to instill when we made the choice to name the group: Highlight. We are in the process of making the first studio album under this group name and working hard to show you our new improved selves.
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We want to thank everyone who waited for this news until now. We want to thank everyone who supported us throughout this journey. We were not able to use our past name but thanks to all the hard work and support, we are now here. We want to thank director Hong Seung Sung for bring the members from Cube and creating Highlight with us.
New beginnings are always frightening and one has to be careful. It’s already been 9 years since our collective debut as artists but we’re now starting fresh again. We are here because we refused to give up and wanted to chase what we loved and cherished. We will work hard to stand under public’s eye and meet our fans that have waited for so long.
I hope that those who read this letter we wrote will love the 5 members of Highlight even more, and that fans will be able to continue to once again freely call them by their new group name. We will work harder to become a company that shows off the artist’s passions and abilities. Yoon Dujun, Yong Junhyung, Yang Yoseob, Lee Gikwang, Son Dongwoon, these 5 members of Highlight will still be together, and we would like to ask for even more of your love and attention so Highlight can continue strong.”
“Highlight” is also the name of the boy group’s 3rd Korean studio album. The album, which was released in July 2016 and contained their hit song “Ribbon”, was also the group’s first release after Hyunseung’s departure.
In October 2016, the group decided to not renew their contracts with Cube Entertainment and started looking into the possibility of forming their independent label. However, the company did not allow the group to promote under the name BEAST as it was trademarked under them.
Just earlier this month, Cube Entertainment also announced their plans to debut BEAST again with 3 new members, one of them being Hyunseung.
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