iKON bagged the Best New Artist Award at the "2016 Japan Records Awards," making them the second Korean group to win the award after BIGBANG.
Allkpop reported BIGBANG won the Best New Artist Award at the "Japan Records Awards" back in 2009. Meawhile, iKON was congratulated by the CEO of YG Entertainment, Yang Hyun Suk, who took to his Instagram account to post a video of the awarding ceremony.
iKON made their debut in 2015. The seven-member boy group was first introduced on reality program "WIN: Who Is Next?" under the name "Team B" competing against "Team A," who debuted as WINNER.
Prior to their official debut, iKON members were seen performing several times during concerts of other K-Pop groups. In 2014, they were the opening act of BIGBANG's "Japan Dome Tour 2014-2015 X."
In Sept. 2014, iKON made their official debut with the release of "Welcome Back" album that carries six title tracks. The debut album was divided into two albums. "Debut Half Album" was released in October, while "Debut Full Album" was launched the following month.
After releasing the first part of their debut album, iKON staged their first concert, drawing about 13,000 concertgoers. The concert was also viewed by some 500,000 audience through Naver app.
This year, iKON held their first Asian concert tour in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Aside from that, the boy group also kicked off "iKON Japan Tour 2016, gathering over 170,000 fans.
Meanwhile, a representative of YG Entertainment revealed iKON and WINNER are working for their return in 2017, Soompi noted. "Both WINNER and iKON are preparing new albums with the goal of making a comeback early next year," the source said.
The representative continued, "It'll be after the release of Akdong Musician's 'WINTER' on January 3. Plans for comeback time frames, orders, and broadcasts are still up in the air."
