The South Korean band Winner was formed in 2014 in Seoul by YG Entertainment., Initially, the lineup included five vocalists, Jinwoo, Mino, Seunghoon, Seungyoon, and Taehyun. The latter left the band in November 2016 due to personal reasons. Since that time, the musicians perform as a quartet, which doesn’t hinder their popularity.
The label began looking for band members back in 2010. The group’s leader Kang Seungyoon made it into quarterfinals of the talent show Superstar K2. After that, he was offered a contract with YG Entertainment. Initially, he tried to pursue a solo career but didn’t achieve the desired results. Lee Seunghoon participated in the reality show K-Pop Star 1 in 2012. Song Min-ho, better known as Mino, worked for several boy bands, including Block B and Y2Y. He also appeared on the TV show Strongest K-POP on Channel A. After that, YG Entertainment offered him a contract. Kim Jinwoo performed in Joy Dance Plug In Music Academy project and started working with the label in 2010. Nam Taehyun passed the audition in 2011.
The band was called Team A when they first showed off their skills at the music show WIN: Who Is Next on Mnet. In October 2013, they conquered Team B. That’s when the label decided to call the group Winner. After the band’s debut during the show, they were invited to perform at Big Bang’s Japanese tour. A little later, they appeared on a reality project, Winner TV, which was filmed by the label to promote the group.
