Kep1er

> Catch your eye, catch your mind! 안녕하세요 케플러입니다!
>  Catch your eye, catch your mind! Annyeonghaseyo, Kep1er imnida!
>  Catch your eye, catch your mind! Hello, we are Kep1er!

Mashiro

Chaehyun

Dayeon

Hikaru

Huening

Bahiyyih

Youngeun

Yeseo

**Kep1er** (pronounced as *Kepler* ; Hangul : 케플러) is a multi-national K-pop girl group. The group was formed through the reality survival show [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Girls\_Planet\_999 Girls Planet 999] and consists of nine members. They made their debut on January 3, 2022 with the mini album *[./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/FIRST\_IMPACT FIRST IMPACT]*.

The group will be active and under contract with [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/WAKEONE WAKEONE] and [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Swing\_Entertainment Swing Entertainment] for two and a half years.[1]

## Etymology

According to the companies managing the group, 'Kep' represents "catching a dream," while the 1 represents that the nine girls will come together as one to become the best.[2]

Their name is also inspired by german astronomer Johannes Kepler, this follows the group concept of planets and the universe that they had since Girls Planet 999.

## History

### 2021 | 1: [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Girls\_Planet\_999 Girls Planet 999], Formation

On January 11, 2021, Mnet released a teaser regarding the upcoming auditions for the future competitive girl group reality show ***Girls Planet 999***.[3] It would later consist of female contestants from or simply representing Korea, China and Japan who all shared the same dream of debut; more specifically in the show's final group.

*Girls Planet 999* premiered on August 6, 2021, while the live finale was broadcasted on October 22, with the girls who ranked in the top nine to debut in the show's product group. Prior to the reveal of the debuting contestants, the group's name and logo were revealed, in which they will go by the planet-related name **Kep1er**. During the finale, nine different contestants were revealed to make their debut; [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Chaehyun Kim Chaehyun] ranked first overall, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Bahiyyih Huening Bahiyyih] ranked second overall, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Yujin Choi Yujin] ranked third, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Dayeon Kim Dayeon] ranked fourth, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Youngeun Seo Youngeun] ranked fifth, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Yeseo Kang Yeseo] ranked sixth, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Hikaru Ezaki Hikaru] ranked seventh, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Mashiro Sakamoto Mashiro] ranked eighth, and finally, [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Xiaoting Shen Xiaoting] ranked ninth overall and was the last contestant revealed to be in the final group's lineup.

The group was teased to be a *"global"* girl group, with members like Huening Bahiyyih who is of Korean-American heritage and Mashiro and Hikaru who are both of Japanese heritage. They will be the first group to debut from a fully Mnet produced survival show since the debut of project boy group X1 and the Mnet vote manipulation controversy.

### 2021 | 2: Pre-Debut Activities, Debut Postponement

On October 22, 2021, following the conclusion of *Girls Planet 999*, the staff and group's Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts were opened and revealed. On the group's social media accounts, a teaser was posted showcasing the group's official logo which had previously been revealed during the final episode of the show.

On October 25, an article was published on Naver, revealing that the group would carry out their activities as a group for roughly two and a half years and were already starting preparations for their debut album.[2]

The group's Fancafé and V LIVE channel officially opened on November 2 and 3, respectively. On November 4, Kep1er held their first V LIVE.[4] On November 9, the group’s first YouTube video was uploaded onto their YouTube channel, which was a dance practice video for "O.O.O", the signal song of *Girls Planet 999*.[5]

On November 21st, it was revealed that Kep1er would debut in December 2021 with the release of the website Hello, Kep1er. It was also confirmed that Kep1er will be releasing their first reality show [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Kep1er\_View Kep1er View], which will start airing on December 2. Multiple Kep1er Zones, used for offline promotion of the group, also began to appear in various regions.[6] On the night of November 24, three concept photos were unveiled that showcased members Yujin, Xiaoting and Mashiro, respectively, and with these teasers the group revealed that they will be debuting on December 14 (6 PM KST). The next day, they unveiled three more concept photos for Chaehyun, Dayeon, and Hikaru, as well as confirmed they would be performing at the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 11th, 2021.[7] Finally, the first concept photos for Huening Bahiyyih, Youngeun, and Yeseo were released. This pattern continued over multiple days leading up to their debut.

On December 5th, 2021, WAKEONE announced that a staff member who had worked with Kep1er tested positive for COVID-19. Due to this, all promotional activities, including their scheduled appearance at the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards, would be postponed. the new debut date was announced to be on January 3, 2022, and that the company would cancel their pre-debut stage at the 2021 Mnet Asia Music Awards (MAMA).[8] In addition, the opening date of Kep1er's planet on the UNIVERSE app, which was originally scheduled to open December 10, 2021, was rescheduled to January 3, 2021.[9]

On December 14, 2021, WAKEONE and SWING ENTERTAINMENT announced through the official fancafe that members, Xiaoting and Mashiro was tested positive for COVID-19, and that the other members were tested negative. They announced that all future activities were cancelled.[10] On December 26, it was announced that Xiaoting and Mashiro had fully recovered from COVID-19.[11]

### 2022: Debut, Fandom Name and Colors

Kep1er officially debuted on January 3, 2022 with their first mini album FIRST IMPACT and its title track "WA DA DA". On the same day, the group revealed its official group and fan colors as well as their fan name - [./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/Kep1ian Kep1ian].[12]

## Discography

### Mini albums

* *[./https://kep1er.fandom.com/wiki/FIRST\_IMPACT FIRST IMPACT]* (2022)