List of Weki Meki’s Awards and Nominations
Although their status is still being considered as a rookie group, Weki Meki has been nominated frequently in many awards shows just over a span of two years. This certainly shows that the fans and public alike are looking forward to Weki Meki’s growth as a female idol group of the 3rd generation. Here, you can check out the list of awards and nominations that Weki Meki has received since their debut days!
- 2017 – Most Anticipated Female Artist in 2018 at Korean First Brand Awards (Nomination)
- 2017 – Best New Artist at Melon Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2017 – Best New Female Artist at Mnet Asian Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2017 – Qoo10 Artist of the Year at Mnet Asian Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – New Artist of the Year (Album) at Gaon Chart Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – New Artist of the Year at Golden Disc Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – Global Popularity Award at Golden Disc Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – Disc Bonsang at Golden Disc Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – New Artist Award at Seoul Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – Popularity Award at Seoul Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – Hallyu Special Award at Seoul Music Awards (Nomination)
- 2018 – K-POP Singer Award at Korean Culture Entertainment Awards (Winner)
- 2018 – Most Anticipated Rising Star in 2019 at Korean First Brand Awards (Winner)
i-Teen Girls and Debut as Weki Meki
Ahead of their official start as a group, Weki Meki members used to be trainees under Fantagio i-Teen, a development program to train the rookie group which will debut under Fantagio Entertainment. The trainees were known as i-Teen Girls and some of them (Doyeon, Yoojung, Lua, Lucy, and Elly) appeared as the cameos on ASTRO’s pre-debut online web drama To Be Continued.
The youth drama was about school life. Not only once, but i-Teen trainees also made their appearance countless times in the drama. You may watch the premiere episode of To Be Continued below!
Besides appearing in the web drama, some of Weki Meki members (Doyeon, Yoojung, Elly (as Jung Hae-rim) and Sei (as Lee Seo-jeong, then under LOUDers Entertainment) also participated on Mnet’s survival show Produce 101. Doyeon and Yoojung successfully became the top 11 and were involved in activities as members of I.O.I, the final group of the show, for seven months.
i-Teen Girls did a live broadcast on their newly-made official channel on V Live in March 2017. The girls, namely Doyeon, Yoojung, Sei, Lua, Rina, Lucy, Elly, and former trainee Yejin, introduced themselves as the next Fantagio’s girl group. Later in June 2017, the line-up changed as Yejin was no longer included while Ji Suyeon was added to the group.
One month later, i-Teen Girls announced their final group name as Weki Meki. Fantagio stated that in one meaning of the name, “MeKi refers to eight unique girls who each hold keys that identify one another and “WeKi” refers to the girls as a group once they meet and come to possess another key that opens a new world.” The group’s name is also twofold with another meaning for the name taking the “we” and “me” from the two words to form “WEME,” signifying the eight members coming together to form a group.
Weki Meki finally made their debut on August 8th, 2017, with their first mini-album WEME. The group held their debut showcase on the same date at Jangchung Arena at 8 PM. Reportedly, the tickets for Weki Meki’s debut showcase were sold out within a minute, causing the website server to crash while the terms such as “Weki Meki” and “Weki Meki Showcase” became the top trending on Korean search engine charts. Below, you can watch Weki Meki’s girl crush debut with their debut track “I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend!”
