IZONE's fandom WIZONE hereby declares the official launch of the "Parallel Universe Project" on April 15, 2021.
The project's name, "Parallel Universe" originates from the fan song that was first released at IZONE's online concert, "One, the Story". The song "Parallel Universe", written by IZONE's leader Kwon Eunbi, is a song about IZONE and WIZONE's time which will last forever in a parallel universe, and her wish that IZONE and WIZONE will always think of and look at each other.
The Parallel Universe project is the first fandom-led relaunching project, unprecedented among domestic idol fandoms. It aims to relaunch a group with the 12 members of IZ*ONE, the global girl group whose promotion is supposed to end in late April 2021.
IZONE has received a lot of love from both Korean and International fans during its 2-and-a-half years of promotions, achieving great results on the music charts and recording high album sales. This performance resulted from the fans’ desire to leave unforgettable memories for the IZONE members (rather than good records) and continue seeing 12 members more, beyond the initially decided project group promotional period.
However, important news such as the end of the project, which should have been announced through the official fan cafe before the last album promotion and the online concert reservation, was announced through media reports 3 days before the concert without any prior notice. At which point it became impossible to refund the concert tickets.
This is an outcome where the will and right of the fandom, who is the main consumer of Idol groups and wanted the extension of promotion, were definitely not reflected. Moreover, in a situation where all the events have been done remotely for more than a year due to the pandemic so that direct communication between artists and fans was extremely restricted, such a decision is that much more difficult to understand for the fans.
Hence, WIZONE announces that it will engage in raising funds for the relaunching of a group with the 12 members of IZONE. Actually, a total of 9846 fans participated in the preliminary demand survey for funding, which was conducted only in Korea from March 19 to 25 with phone verifications to prevent duplicate submissions. Considering the number of participants, we estimate that the desire of the fandom to relaunch IZ*ONE is very huge.
Based on the results of this demand survey, WIZ*ONE established an unincorporated association "Parallel Universe Project Investment Association" (henceforth referred to as the Parallel Universe Project) on behalf of the entire fandom to negotiate with the agencies for group relaunching and to make the fundraising as open and transparent as possible.
The Parallel Universe Project calls for communication with CJ ENM and Starship, Yuehua, Woolim, WM, Urban Works, 8D, Stone Music, and Vernalossom. This is not a place for assigning blame to the agency(ies) responsible for the ending of IZONE's promotion. We acknowledge the termination of IZONE as a project group, so our purpose of the dialogue is in negotiations for the relaunching of the group. We sincerely ask officials of the agencies to engage in consultations for the relaunching of the group.
Going forward, the Parallel Universe Project will make every effort to relaunch the group. We ask for your interest and participation in the Parallel Universe Project. Thank you.
2021. 04. 15
Parallel Universe Project Investment Association