Nine Percent (Chinese: 百分九少年; commonly stylized in all-caps) was a nine-member Chinese boy group formed by the survival show Idol Producer by iQIYI on April 6, 2018. The group promoted for 18 months since formation.
Nine Percent was one of the most popular boy groups in 2018. Their fans are estimated to have generated 20 million RMB of Idol Producer's revenue, with their debut album To The Nines earning more than 10 million RMB in domestic sales.[1]
History
2018: First public performance and Debut with To the Nines
The group was formed through the Chinese reality survival show Idol Producer where the audience voted for the group's members. This ran from January 19 to April 6, 2018. After the finale of the show, they were sent to train for half a month in Los Angeles under the guidance of Rodney Jerkins and Christopher Scott. In May, the group held their first public performance in Shanghai, performing 8 songs from the survival show.[2]
On May 25, their official Weibo account announced the group's fandom name, "Nine's", and chose to be represented by the colours PANTONE325C and PANTONE7456C .[3]
They released their debut album To the Nines on November 12. They gave their first live performance at M space, a music venue in Beijing, to a group of 500 fans. The show was also live-streamed through the online platforms hosted by the Tencent Music Entertainment Group, including QQ Music, Kuwo and Kugou, which garnered up over 15 million clicks. Within 3 days of the album being released it made almost 8 million yuan ($1.15 million) in sales.[4] The album also accumulated almost a million digital sales and landed at No. 2 on the now defunct Billboard China V chart.[5]
China Merchants Bank partnered with Nine Percent to launch co-branded credit cards in China. From November 8, 2018 to January 2, 2019, the advertisements were placed on Hong Kong's Ding Ding trams as part of their launch campaign. (Chengcheng, Justin and Zhengting, who were all under Yuehua Entertainment at the time, were absent from the shoot for unknown reasons.)
2019: More Than Forever, and disbandment
On September 23, the poster for the group's farewell show, More Than Forever, was released. The documentary showed the group prepare themselves for their final performance with each member having a chance to express their feelings after being together for 18 months.[6] On September 24 the group's new album, also named More Than Forever (限定的记忆), was announced to come out on September 26 and will feature 9 solo tracks from each of the members.
On October 6, the group officially disbanded and on October 12, they held their farewell concert in Guangzhou. The livestream of the concert, which was made available to iQiyi VIP members, garnered 400 million likes and more than 1.2 million views. Approximately 80,000 iQiyi VIP members participated in the concert's while 8 topics related to the concert made it onto Weibo's list of trending topics, which in total gathered an accumulated readership of over 1 billion.[7]
In August and October 2018, many netizens criticized iQIYI for failing to provide more opportunities for the group. The lack of group performances, as well as the members' tendency to work on their own, led fans to suspect that the group Nine Percent might exist in name only. Although they were incredibly popular in China, the total number of days they worked as a group was only about 60. Most fans blamed the company, Idol Century, for the poor management of the group; 55% of the shares of Idol Century are owned by iQIYI, and the company was founded shortly after Idol Producer ended. Fans criticised the company for immediately holding fan meetings and concerts for the group with the same songs from the show without releasing a new album.[8]
Shortly after Nine Percent's debut, Yuehua Entertainment unveiled their latest boy band, NEXT (formerly known as NEX7), with members Zhu Zhengting, Fan Chengcheng and Justin Huang, which resulted in them being more involved in NEXT than Nine Percent. According to an article on one of China's largest social platforms, Weibo, the lack of promotion Nine Percent received made the members more like solo singers or actors than members of a group. Even in their last album, More Than Forever, it was pointed out that there were no songs sung by the members as a group, resulting in more fans who only liked one or a few members of the group than fans who liked the group as a whole.[8]
^娱乐看点 (April 24, 2018). "NINE PERCENT赴美集训照首曝光 知名国际导师公开" [NINE PERCENT goes to the U.S. Training photos revealed well-known international mentors to public]. Sina Weibo (in Chinese). Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
^Nine Percent (May 25, 2018). "应援色、粉丝名公开！" [Support colours and fan names made public!]. Sina Weibo (in Chinese). Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
^Ying, Lei (December 12, 2019). "真人秀《限定的记忆》即将收官 NPC全员告别不舍解散" [Reality TV show "Limited Memories" is coming to an end and all NPC members bid farewell and are reluctant to break up]. news.xiancn.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
^ ab澎湃新闻 (October 15, 2019). "Nine Percent告别演唱会：限定的记忆 限定的团魂" [Nine Percent Farewell Concert: Limited Memory and Limited Spirit of the Group]. Sina Weibo (in Chinese). Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
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