JYP's newest boy band NEXZ to debut on May 20

JYP Entertainment’s newest boy band NEXZ will debut with its single “Ride the Vibe” on May 20, the K-pop agency said Wednesday.

Boy band NEXZ [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

JYP Entertainment’s newest boy band NEXZ will debut with its single “Ride the Vibe” on May 20, the K-pop agency said Wednesday.

The band dropped a pre-release digital single, “Miracle,” simultaneously in Japan and Korea last year in December.

A teaser video featuring the NEXZ members — Tomoya, Yu, Haru, So Geon, Seita, Hyui and Yuki — was uploaded to JYP Entertainment’s social media channels at midnight on Tuesday.

Still from NEXZ's teaser video for the band's debut single ″Ride the Vibe″ [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

The band’s members are the seven winners from the K-pop label’s audition reality show “Nizi Project Season 2,” which aired on YouTube and Hulu Japan from July to December last year. So Geon, who went by the stage name Ken, and Hyui, who went by Yuhi in the show, will go by their current names going forward.

All members of the group are Japanese, apart from So Geon, who is a Korean national who was born in Japan.

Verbs following the phrase “How to” are attached to each member in the seven members’ introductions. For instance, Yu is followed by the description “How to eat” and Tomoya has the phrase “How to sleep deep.” The teaser video ends with the phrase “How to ride the vibe.”

NEXZ is JYP Entertainment’s first boy band in six years after Stray Kids.

Park Jin-young, JYP Entertainment’ chief creative officer, came up with the group’s name, according to the label. NEXZ means “Next Z (Generation)" or “the next generation,” and reflects the band’s aspiration to “open up the future of a new generation."

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]