Five T. Island

F.T. Island (Korean: 에프티 아일랜드), Five Treasure Island, or FTI, is the name of the band . The name F.T. Island stands for 'Five Treasure Island', each of the five members being a treasure. The band's official color is yellow, and their fans carry yellow flags known as "pentasticks." Their debut album, Cheerful Sensibility, made the sixth best-selling album of 2007 in South Korea. Their official fanclub is "Primadonna".

2007
Debut

F.T. Island's first album was scheduled to be released commercially in May 2007. However, instead of releasing the album as planned, all of the members appeared on a television program called “Dugeun Dugeun Yeochinmandeulgi” (Korean: 두근두근 여친만들기) on the Korean television channel MNet. The program title is officially translated by MNet as "Wanna Be My Girlfriend?" although "두근두근" refers to the sound a heart makes. The band also performed on stage live at Rolling Hall and held their first official showcase at Live House Melon-AX, Gwangjang-dong in Seoul on May 27, 2007. On June 7, 2007 F.T. Island performed their debut song on the music television program M!Countdown. They received their first #1 M!Countdown and beat other top artists such as Dynamic Duo and Fly To The Sky just 2 weeks after debuting.

Cheerful Sensibility

Their first album Cheerful Sensibility combined 13 songs that can be divided into 2 parts: “Emotional Chapter” and “FT Island Chapter” respectively according to the style of the song in the album. For the “Emotional Chapter”, the genre is rock ballad oriented which produced by the composers who work for many songs of famous Korean singer such as SG Wannabe. The other part, “FT Island Chapter”, tend to be the upbeat pop-rock oriented style, which was produced by the Japanese famous composers participating with the Japanese band, SMAP.The album sold 79,786 copies in 2007, making it the sixth best-selling album of the year.

The album was re-released on December 3, 2007 and it was named "The Refreshment". In addition to three extra songs, the package also included various extras, including a photobook, a stack of photocards, and a mixing program called Music 2.0 which allows one to adjust the levels of the instruments and vocals accordingly. This edition sold 25,724 copies in December 2007.


2008
Overseas promotions

The group was scheduled to hold their first concert in Malaysia on March 30, 2008, at Sunway Lagoon Amphitheater. On the day before the concert, they held an autograph session at Damansara Cineleisure. A special version of their debut album was released in mid-February. However, the concert was suddenly cancelled, with no explanation given.

On April 12, 2008, the group held their first concert in Thailand, at the Royal Paragon Hall.In addition to playing material from their album, each member of the group had their own solos as well.

F.T. Island's Japanese debut album, entitled Prologue of FT Island, was released on June 7, 2008, with the first single released being "Soyogi". The album consists of 8 songs, 2 of which are newer versions of the original songs "FT Island" and "Primadonna". The last track, "Always Be Mine", is an English version of "First Kiss". However, the lyrics are not translated, but completely original. Music videos were also released for "Soyogi" and "Friendship".

Return to Korea

Their second Korean album, Colorful Sensibility, was released on August 27, 2008. A follow-up EP, Colorful Sensibility Part 2, was released on October 17, 2008.

Japanese Single Release

Later that year, on December 17, F.T. Island released "The One", their first Japanese single, which hit #9 on the Oricon daily charts. F&C Music stated that although other Korean bands utilized the assistance of large Japanese record labels to gain popularity, F.T. Island was able to make it onto the charts without any true marketing efforts. It was the last official released CD with Oh Won Bin, as a member of FT Island.


2009
Regrouping, Jump Up

After rumours were going around, that member Oh Won Bin would be leaving the group, it was officially announced on January 28, 2009 that he would be leaving the group and would be replaced.It was announced a day later that F&C trainee Song Seung Hyun will joining F.T. Island as a guitarist and backup vocalist, and that an album would be released in February.In the weekend of the 6th week, the Music Video of their Mini-Album title song "Bad Woman" was revealed online. Following up, they performed on the 15th issue of SBS Inkigayo. Two days later was the official release date of the Mini-Album Jump Up.

Return to Japan

On the 22nd April, F.T. Island released their 2nd Japanese Single. For the first time, members participated with lyrics and production. Member Lee Jae Jin co-wrote the 2nd song "Moonlight Angel" and leader Choi Jong Hoon co-produced this song. I Believe Myself is the 1st Japanese Single with member Song Seung Hyun. They will have several perfomances in Japan in this summer.


Other works

2002 – 2005

Member Lee Hong Gi debuted 6 years ago on a kid's sitcom KBS2's Magic Kid Masuri as the main character, Masuri. This sitcom gained explosive popularity among elementary school students. He also participated into "Neh Sontob Kkeuteh Bichi Nama Issuh". Also in Kangsooni, where he played a role named Kang Soo Bong. He also sang the OST of this children sitcom.


2007

Member Lee Jae Jin was a castmember of KBS's sitcom Unstoppable Marriage. The other members made a cameo appearance. In this sitcom Lee Jae Jin plays the role of Wang Sa Baek (Sim Mal Yeon's fourth son), and appeared regularly on the show.


2008

FT Island also hosted the second MBCEvery1's Idol Show. In total there are 13 episodes. Hong Ki has also been on many other shows, such as Becoming a Good Daddy (SBS) (2008 - 2009), Monwonaehangbok (Happy Shares Company)(2007) (MBC), Family Outing (SBS).


2009

Lee Hong Ki is currently hosting SBS's music show Inkigayo . Hong Ki will also star in a new drama "God of Study" coming out soon.

It was announced, that Choi Min Hwan is a cast member of the drama The Road Home with a minor role, which is airing on KBS1. He attended the press conference on the January 7, 2009. The drama started airing on January 12.

On March 11, 2009, it was announced that Lee Jae Jin will participate into the musical Sonagi. He will get the role as a young boy. He was cast because he "showed a great passion for the piece, had the image of a sincere young boy, and had the qualifications to be considered a musical actor". He follows the footsteps of Big Bang's SeungRi, who already participated in the musical in summer 2008.[12] His first appearance in "Sonagi" was on the show for the 1st May with an agitation from the press. In contrast to Hong Ki, the other members attended the musical on that day, because he had schedule to follow.