YG Entertainment’s BabyMonster was almost certainly the most anticipated K-pop girl group debut of 2023, but SM Entertainment’s RIIZE exploded onto the scene to potentially become 2023’s most anticipated boy group debut. (Of course, fans of Boynextdoor and Zerobaseone might disagree!) With Eunseok and Seunghan having risen up as SM Rookies and Shotaro and Sungchan being former NCT members, there was already an established fanbase for many in the group. Plus, this was the first completely new boy group from SM Entertainment since NCT itself, which debuted in 2016. So here then is the full answer as to when Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee, and Anton made their debut as RIIZE, with the single album Get a Guitar.
RIIZE Debuted on September 4, 2023 with Get a Guitar
RIIZE made their debut on September 4, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. KST with Get a Guitar – The 1st Single Album. The album contains two songs in total: “Get a Guitar” and “Memories.” However, RIIZE released a “Siren” performance video on August 7, 2023 in South Korea, and on August 21, 2023, a “Memories” music video was released as a “prologue” song. The music video for lead single “Get a Guitar” arrived on the day of debut, with a teaser arriving earlier on September 1, 2023. Music video filming occurred in Los Angeles in the United States back in July 2023, similar to how Boynextdoor filmed their debut music videos in Los Angeles.
Prior to debut, RIIZE performed for the first time in a special showcase at KCON LA 2023, with “Siren” and “Memories.” On the day of their debut, in addition to a press showcase, the group also held a showcase for the fans, called “RIIZING DAY.” It was there that Sungchan revealed that SM had held a contest within the company to name the group, and it was actually Sungchan who had suggested the name “RIIZE,” which SM ultimately selected.
The name RIIZE combines the words “rise” and “realize” in the sense of a team that grows to realize their dreams, and between the inherent talent of the members and the legions of fans that are already cheering them on, it sounds like their dreams are in reach. At the very least, SM fans were just excited to see a new boy group that does not fall under the NCT banner.
Get a Guitar was initially reported to have sold more than one million copies in its first week of availability, but it was subsequently determined that SM may have engaged in some degree of “sajaegi” to achieve and report this number. This essentially means that first-week album sales incorporated advance orders from album distributors for events such as fan signings that would be held in the future, which is normal, but in this case, the album sales that occurred at those events apparently did not ultimately hit the sales quota that had been projected in the beginning and reported in that one-million sales figure — resulting in a shrinking total sales figure. It is not easy to say without further data if Get a Guitar genuinely sold one million albums within a week. Regardless, RIIZE’s early success was unarguable.
So to summarize, RIIZE made their debut on September 4, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. KST with Get a Guitar – The 1st Single Album.
For more SM Entertainment group debuts, perhaps you would like to take a look back at when Red Velvet and Aespa made their debuts. Or for more about RIIZE, check out how old the members currently are, what each member’s MBTI is, who speaks English or other languages, or our archive of predebut photos of the members.
