Lee Hong-gi
이홍기- Name
- Lee Hong-gi
- Born
- 2 March 1990
The lead singer; played drummer Jeremy in the 2009 drama You're Beautiful.
Their story
Five Treasure Island
FTISLAND came out of FNC in the agency's first years, a band of teenagers named Five Treasure Island. They debuted on M Countdown in June 2007 with "Love Sick", a ballad carried by Lee Hong-gi's high, slightly raw voice. It was a pop debut in rock clothes, and it worked. Two years later guitarist Oh Won-bin left and Song Seung-hyun took his place, the first of several line-up changes.
Big in Japan
Korea knew them for ballads; Japan got to know them as a live band. They signed with Warner Music Japan in 2010, and in May 2011 their first Japanese album, Five Treasure Island, went straight to the top of Oricon's daily chart. The members heard the news on stage in Tokyo. That summer a month of shows across Japan ended at the Nippon Budokan. Back home, "Love Love Love" and "Severely" kept them on the music shows.
Writing their own songs
Over the years the band took over its own songwriting. For the tenth anniversary album Over 10 Years the members wrote twelve of the thirteen songs, and Hong-gi wrote the title track "Wind", a slow-building rock ballad with strings. Later releases like Zapping and Lock Up leaned harder on guitars. Lee Jae-jin, on bass, sings second vocals, and Choi Min-hwan has worked in musical theatre between albums.
Where they are now
Choi Jong-hoon and Song Seung-hyun both left in 2019, and the three who stayed did their military service before returning with Lock Up in December 2021. Min-hwan stepped back from October 2024, and by 2025 he was playing with the band again. FNC renewed the band's contract in January 2026. That year FTISLAND sang the theme song for the Yeosu World Island Expo and went on tour with FaTe.
