On July 12, 2021, JYP Entertainment and Sony Music announced Nizi Project Season 2, a competition series to create a Japanese boy group in the JYP system. However, it wasn’t until July 21, 2023 that the series finally began airing in Japan on Hulu and internationally on YouTube. Nizi Project Season 2 aired in two “Parts” of 10 episodes each — 20 episodes in total — and it concluded on December 15, 2023. The result of many months of training and competition was the seven-member JYP boy group NEXZ, pronounced like “Next G” and meaning “Next Z(G)eneration,” because they would “lead JYP into the future with new generations.” So here is the exact answer as to when Yu, Tomoya, Haru, Sogeon (Ken), Seita, Hyui (Yuhi), and Yuki made their debut as NEXZ at JYP Entertainment.
NEXZ Made Debut on May 20, 2024 with “Ride the Vibe”
NEXZ debuted on May 20, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. KST with their first Korean single, “Ride the Vibe,” on a single album of the same name. It was released with a B-side, “Starlight.” “Ride the Vibe” was composed by 정호현 (e.one), Miles Barker, and Hautboi Rich, with lyrics by Ellie Suh (153/Joombas), 장승민 (라라라스투디오), and Miles Barker, and it was arranged by 정호현 (e.one).
NEXZ had first arrived with the prerelease song “Miracle,” which was released in both Japanese and Korean on December 18, 2023 JST. NEXZ also had its first televised series, MiracleZ, airing in Japan beginning on January 12, 2024.
In discussing NEXZ’s total length of time to debut, it is worth considering two other groups created under extremely similar circumstances to those of NEXZ: NiziU and VCHA. NiziU is a Japanese girl group created by the first season of Nizi Project in 2020, and VCHA is a North American girl group created by the English-language equivalent series, A2K, in 2023. Regarding NiziU, season 1 of Nizi Project concluded on June 26, 2020, and NiziU ultimately debuted on December 2, 2020 — a difference of five months and six days. Meanwhile, A2K concluded on September 21, 2023, and VCHA debuted on January 26, 2024 — a difference of four months and five days. By debuting on May 20, 2024, NEXZ debuted five months and five days after the conclusion of Nizi Project Season 2.
Although, both NiziU and VCHA released a predebut song with a music video almost immediately after the conclusion of their respective competition series. By comparison, three days after the conclusion of Nizi Project Season 2, NEXZ released only a performance video for “Miracle,” but they released both Japanese and Korean versions of the video.
In summary, NEXZ made their debut on May 20, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. KST with “Ride the Vibe,” beginning yet another great chapter in the history of JYP Entertainment.
For more about the group, check out how old the NEXZ members currently are and who their leader is. And for more about their sister groups, check out our conveniently organized archives of all of the NiziU music videos and all of the VCHA music videos.