2000–2006: Formation and debut Prior to the group's debut, a few of the members were already exposed to the entertainment industry. G-Dragon and Taeyang were the first ones to receive training under
YG Entertainment at the age of eleven. After G-Dragon was approached by YG Entertainment for possible candidates to start a boy group, G-Dragon contacted T.O.P, his childhood friend, leading to the latter to audition. At the time, T.O.P was an underground rapper under the stage name "Tempo". One of his most popular tracks was "Buckwild" with NBK Gray. Seungri first appeared on the reality television series ''Let's Cokeplay: Mnet Battle Shinhwa'', a show in which idol group
Shinhwa search for members to make up the "second-generation Shinhwa". The original lineup consisted of six members: the aforementioned ones along with Daesung and
Hyun-seung, who were both auditioned in. Their formation was documented on television; prior to their official debut, Hyun-seung was dropped. The Internet broadcast of the documentary exceeded one million views. BigBang held their official debut on August 19, 2006, at
Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul during the YG Family 10th Anniversary Concert, which was broadcast the following month. Their first single "
Bigbang", released shortly thereafter, contained the songs "We Belong Together", featuring label mate
Park Bom; "A Fool's Only Tears" and "This Love", an adaptation of the American rock band
Maroon 5 song, rewritten and performed by G-Dragon. The single went on to sell nearly 40,000 copies. The second single,
BigBang Is V.I.P, was released in September, eventually topping 32,000 copies sold. In December, the group held their first concert, The Real, at Olympic Gymnastics Arena for 12,000 fans. The release of their debut album,
BigBang Vol. 1 – Since 2007 (2006) followed. Debuting at no. 3, the album went on to sell over 110,000 copies.
2007–2008: Mainstream popularity and Japanese debut On February 8, 2007, BigBang released their live concert album,
The First / Real Live Concert, which sold 30,000 copies by the end of the year. They also began the
Want You Tour in support of
Since 2007, visiting five cities:
Incheon,
Daegu,
Changwon,
Jeonju and
Busan. Their first extended play,
Always (2007), marked several changes for the group. Though members had previously involved themselves with writing and composing, the group took more creative control over their music, moving away from their hip-hop roots. G-Dragon composed and wrote most of the tracks, including the lead single "
Lies". The EP also saw the introduction of
electronic music for BigBang. Receptions were fairly positive, most notably in regards to "Lies", which critics described as "through the roof". Released as the lead single, it became their first number one hit and the album sold over 120,000 copies.
Hot Issue followed its predecessor's success: the lead-single, "
Last Farewell", topped various charts, including the
Melon chart for eight consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-running number one hit by a boy group. It also garnered the Song of the Month (Digital Music) Award from Cyworld. "Fool" and "But I Love U", other tracks from the EP, also ranked within the top 10. The digital success led
Hot Issue's sales to be moved over 120,000 copies total in South Korea. They also staged their BigBang is Great concert, with tickets selling out in 10 minutes. Due to over-performing and exhaustion, several members were hospitalized, halting promotional activities. Despite this, their albums and singles were in high demand, causing the record company to reprint and repackage them for re-release. Riding on the success of their EPs, the group collected numerous awards, including Best Male Group and Song of The Year for "Lies" in the
2007 Mnet Asian Music Awards. They later received the Artist of the Year and Digital Record of Year awards from the 17th
Seoul Music Awards. The group earned a total of
₩12 billion (
$11.5 million) by year's end. charted at number 10 on the
Oricon chart with minimal promotion. The group also held a concert at the
JCB Hall in
Tokyo Dome City. BigBang returned to South Korea after their promotions in Japan ended. Although group activities were delayed due to solo projects, their third Korean EP,
Stand Up, was released. Featuring artists such as
Daishi Dance and the Korean rock-band
No Brain,
Stand Up exceeded the 200,000 mark in sales. "
Haru Haru", the lead single, topped several online charts and held the number one position for seven consecutive weeks. During the release of their Korean materials, BigBang released the Japanese song, "Number 1", from their
first Japanese studio album of the same name, performing the song on Japanese radio programs and TV shows; the album peaked at number three on the Japan's Oricon daily album chart. Their second Korean studio album,
Remember (2008), yielded the number one single, "
Sunset Glow", a remake of the song of the same name by
Lee Moon-se, released in 1988. "
Strong Baby", performed solely by Seungri, was released as the second single. The album went on to sell over 200,000 copies. At the end of 2008, it was reported that BigBang earned a total of
₩36 billion (
$34.5 million).
2009–2011: Solo endeavors, Japanese activities, and commercial success While the group was on a break in early 2009, members pursued solo activities. They reunited to collaborate with
2NE1, their label's new girl group who had been dubbed as "The Female BigBang" at the time, for "
Lollipop", a song used to promote a cell phone by
LG Cyon. A music video was also filmed for promotion. BigBang also released their third endorsement digital single "So Fresh, So Cool" to promote the beer brand "Hite", although Seungri was not in the commercial due to the fact he was not of drinking age. Their second
self-titled Japanese studio album was released under
Universal Music in August 2009 and was promoted with two singles: "
My Heaven" and "". "My Heaven", a Japanese re-recording of their Korean single "Heaven" from
Stand Up, debuted at number three on the
Oricon Music Chart. "Gara Gara Go!" charted at the fifth spot and the album itself peaked at number three. at Olympics Gymnastics Arena, BigBang flew to Japan to embark on their
Electric Love Tour. Their third Japanese studio album,
Big Bang 2 (2011) was preceded with three singles: , "
Tell Me Goodbye", and "
Beautiful Hangover". "Koe wo Kikasete" was used in the Japanese drama , and peaked at number four on the Oricon Chart. "Tell Me Goodbye" was included in the Japanese re-release of Korean
drama Iris. The song proved to be popular and gained favorable reviews, Two promotional singles were also released in their home country: the number one song "Lollipop Part 2" to once again promote
LG Cyon's Lollipop phone, and "Shout of the Reds" featuring the Korean
rock band Transfixion and
figure skater Kim Yuna in support of the
2010 World Cup. For most of the year, members individually promoted their own work, including the introduction of the sub-unit
GD & TOP with their
collaboration album. BigBang also won several notable awards, including the Best 5 New Artists award from the 24th
Japan Gold Disc Awards as well as the Best New Artist award. Near the end of May, the group received the awards for Best Pop Video and Best New Artist from the
MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2010. After nearly two-year hiatus as a full group, BigBang returned to South Korea with their
2011 Big Show concert, showcasing songs from the upcoming EP
Tonight. The album had a pre-sale order of 10,000 copies in Cyworld, beating the record set by
TVXQ's 6,500 copies back in 2008, and moved 100,000 units in a week. Reception for the album was positive, with Choi Jun of Asiae complimenting the group's new direction in their music, acknowledging that during the two years hiatus, the group's "style and musical sensibility [had] deepened". Seven days after the album's release, it was reported that BigBang had already earned
₩7 billion (
US$6.6 million). Its
lead-single of the same name became a chart-topper on the
Gaon Digital Chart, while four other album tracks peaked within the top 10, including the number-two "Café" and the number four "What is Right?". After promotions for
Tonight was finished, BigBang released a special edition album with two new tracks: the chart-topper "
Love Song" and the top 3 "Stupid Liar". Their third Japanese tour,
Love and Hope, kicked off in May in support of the album. All performances were sold out, and a total of 100,000 fans attended the tour. At the
2011 MTV EMAs, BigBang won the
Best Worldwide Act award as representatives of the Asia-Pacific region with over 58 million votes. "Love Song" also won Best Music Video at the 2011
Mnet Asian Music Awards. At the end of the year, BigBang participated in the YG Family 15th Anniversary concert tour. This was followed by a release of their third Greatest Hits album
The Best of Big Bang (2011) on December 14, which contained a Japanese version of "Haru Haru". The album topped the Oricon Daily chart on its first day of release and went on to sell over 14,000 copies in the first week. It was reported that BigBang earned ₩78 billion (US$69.4 million) in 2011 even though they had just promoted for half a year. The earnings included BigBang's revenue concert for
SBS's BigBang Show, their 2011 Big Show Concert and their Love and Hope Tour in Japan.
2012–2014: International breakthrough, first world tour, and hiatus In January 2012, YG Entertainment began releasing teasers for BigBang's fifth Korean EP
Alive, which was released in both digital and physical formats in February. Preorders for
Alive amounted to 260,000 copies in two weeks. Three singles were released to promote the album: "
Blue", the lead single, was released a week prior to the album and reached the number one position on all major domestic charts; the second single "
Bad Boy" peaked at number two and was the only K-Pop song to be included in
Fuse's best songs of 2012 list; The music video for the latter became the band's most popular, having received more than 310 million views on YouTube, the most watched video by a Korean group, until it was surpassed in 2018. Internationally, BigBang obtained five spots out of the top-ten on
Billboard K-pop's Hot 100 and charted at no. 150 on
Billboard 200, making them the first Korean artist with a Korean album to do so. Their popularity also boosted them onto the
Billboard Social 50, entering at number twenty-four. They later received recognition from notable sites such as
Time magazine, and a photo of the group was featured on the
Grammy Awards homepage. The album release coincided with their annual concert, Big Show 2012, held at Seoul Olympic Park Stadium from March 2–4 to a sold-out crowd of 40,000 fans. This marked the official kick off of their first world tour, the
Alive Galaxy Tour, in partnership with
Live Nation. It was directed by renowned choreographer
Laurieann Gibson, with BigBang performing at 21 cities in over 13 countries, with a total attendance of 800,000 people. Concert footage from Big Show was broadcast in 160 countries through MTV World Stage, which pushed the promotion for their world tour. The Alive Galaxy Tour marked the group's first ever concerts in the
United States,
Hong Kong and
Europe. Due to high demand, additional concerts were held in
Los Angeles,
New Jersey and
London. The quintet also performed at three Japanese dome venues for the first time, becoming the first Korean artist to perform at all three of these venues during its tour. The group concluded the tour with concerts in Osaka in mid-January along with a three night stint at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul later that month. It sold over 23,000 copies on its first day of release and peaked at number two on the Oricon charts, eventually selling over 200,000 copies total and certified gold by the
RIAJ. Following the success of their comeback, BigBang released a special edition album titled
Still Alive on June 3. It featured four new tracks including two new Korean tracks of which their lead single was titled "
Monster", as well as Korean remakes of the two additional tracks in the Japanese version of
Alive. The album sold over 100,000 copies in its first month of release. On November 30, 2012, BigBang received a total of three awards at the
14th Mnet Asian Music Awards, including Best Male Group and Artist of the Year. G-Dragon also took home Best Male Solo award at the event. They also received the Best Fan category award at the Italian
TRL Awards. After promotional activities wrapped up, the members pursued individual activities for the majority of 2013 and 2014. BigBang reunited in November 2013 for their
Japan Dome Tour, holding concerts in six different dome arenas in Japan, being the first foreign act to do so. Gathering over 770,000 fans, the tour's total revenue, including tickets sold and merchandising sales, totalled $94 million. In October 2014, the group performed at the closing ceremony of the
2014 Asian Games held in
Incheon, South Korea, wrapping up the Congratulatory Performance. A month later, the quintet embarked on their
second Japanese dome tour, which was the first time that any overseas artist performed in five dome arenas of Japan for two consecutive years. By the end of 2014, BigBang was the Korean artist that attracted the most concertgoers in Japan for the year and the second act overall.
2015–2016: Made, second world tour and tenth anniversary BigBang was on hiatus for two years while G-Dragon experienced a "career slump" and was unable to find inspiration to write new music for the band, explaining that "In the past, even after coming back from a long, tiring day, I would write at least two songs at the dorm before I slept as if it were my duty. [In 2014], however, things just weren't working out for me so the album kept getting delayed." In 2015, BigBang made their comeback by releasing special project singles for their album
Made:
M,
A,
D, and
E. The first single,
M, released in May, included the two songs "
Loser" and "
Bae Bae", which debuted at number one and number two, respectively, on
Billboard's
World Digital Songs, making the quintet the first K-pop boy band to top the chart and the second Korean artist to occupy the top two slots simultaneously after labelmate
Psy. "Loser" won Song of the Year at the
30th Golden Disk Awards, Both tracks were named by
Billboard as one of the best K-pop songs of 2015, with "Loser" topping the list. The following month saw the release of
A, which included "
Bang Bang Bang" and "
We Like 2 Party", that also went on to occupy the number one and two positions on
Billboard's World Digital Chart. "Bang Bang Bang" won Song of the Year at the
17th Mnet Asian Music Awards,
D was released in July and included "
Sober" () and "
If You". "If You" landed on
Billboard's World Digital Chart at number two and topped the
Gaon Digital Chart, while "Sober" charted at number two in their home country. The consecutive monthly releases concluded with
E in August, with the songs "
Zutter" featuring the sub-unit of
GD & TOP, and "
Let's Not Fall in Love" The latter peaked at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart and on
Billboards World Digital Songs chart. To promote their singles, BigBang embarked on their
second world tour which received positive reviews and was commercially successful. Kicking off with two shows in Seoul on April 25 and 26, the tour gathered 1.5 million fans around the world, making it the largest tour by any Korean act. Despite the commercial success of the singles, the release of the full album was postponed to add new songs to the album and for the group to rest after four months of promotions. BigBang continued touring into 2016 for their
Made V.I.P Tour, visiting China, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States. The group was the highest earning artist of 2016 in mainland China based on concert revenue, by earning US$70.3 million, accounting for 70% of the entire total box office of South Korean artists in China for the year. In April and May, they toured Japan for their
Fantastic Babys Tour, meeting 280,000 fans. Several projects were launched to commemorate the group's 10th anniversary. The first was the documentary film
Big Bang Made, which followed the group through their
Made Tour in 2015, released on June 30, 2016. The band held a 10th anniversary concert tour,
0.TO.10, from July 2016 to January 2017, which included sold-out stadium shows at
Yanmar Stadium Nagai in
Osaka, Japan and at
Seoul World Cup Stadium in
Seoul, South Korea. The tour drew 781,500 attendees from 16 concerts in Japan, and made BigBang the act with the biggest concert mobilization power for the year in Japan, the first time a foreign act has topped the list. Overall, they gathered a 1.1 million attendance for the tour. The band also held an art exhibition, titled
A TO Z, to showcase the history of the group as well as to celebrate a decade with their fans. The exhibition ran from August 5 to October 30 at the S-Factory in Seoul. The exhibition travelled to
Taipei,
Taiwan from June 24 to August 22, 2017. After a year of delay,
Made was released in December 2016. Two singles were announced for the release: "
Fxxk It", and "
Last Dance". The two songs, along with "
Girlfriend", took the three top places on the Gaon Digital Chart, selling over one million digital copies combined in five days. The same songs peaked at number 2, 3 and 4 on the
Billboard World Digital Songs chart, selling 13,000 copies combined. The digital version of
Made sold over 1 million digital copies on
QQ Music,
Kugou, and Kuwo, China's three major music platforms in a day. The album debuted at No. 172 on the
United States Billboard 200 with 6,000 equivalent album units, 4,000 of which were in traditional album sales, earning the band their second entry on the chart. They also debuted at no. 1 on the
World Albums chart and the Heatseekers Albums chart. Two final concerts were held at
Gocheok Sky Dome in January 2017 to wrap up their 10th anniversary tour and
Made's promotional activities. The remaining members continued promotions without him, holding their fifth annual Japanese dome tour, the
Last Dance Tour, in November with 14 concerts in four cities with an attendance of 696,000 fans. The two final shows of the tour were also held at
Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on December 30 and 31. In 2017, YG Entertainment released a reality program starring the group named
Run, Big Bang Scout! through
YouTube Red, which was the service's first original content to be produced in a country outside of the United States. The first episode of the program was free-released and has gathered over 12.7 million views on
YouTube. The following year, the remaining members began their enlistment: G-Dragon on February 27, Taeyang on March 12, and Daesung on March 13, 2018. Seungri was initially announced to enlist on March 25, 2019. The single, "
Flower Road", was released on March 13, 2018, as a goodbye to their fans. "Flower Road" set a record in China, reaching over a million sales in 3 days and 14 hours, the shortest amount of time for a Korean artist. The song also topped
Billboard's World Digital Songs Chart, and the Gaon Digital Chart, where the song recorded the highest digital index of the year thus far. On March 11, 2019, Seungri announced his retirement from the entertainment industry due to
scandals surrounding the Burning Sun nightclub, resulting in his departure from BigBang. On July 6, 2019, T.O.P was the first member to be discharged from the military. He was followed by G-Dragon on October 25, 2019. Taeyang and Daesung were discharged on November 10. On January 3, 2020, it was announced that BigBang would be performing at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which would have marked their first performance as a group in three years if it weren't for the
COVID-19 pandemic. In March, despite reports suggesting otherwise, all four members renewed their contracts with YG Entertainment and were preparing for a comeback that was eventually delayed.
2022–present: Return from hiatus, "Still Life", members' label changes and T.O.P's withdrawal On February 7, 2022, YG Entertainment announced BigBang would return with a digital single in spring. They also announced that T.O.P had ended his exclusive contract with YG Entertainment, although he will still participate in group activities. The group released a new single titled "
Still Life" on April 5, their first comeback in four years, and first as a quartet. "Still Life" debuted at number one on South Korea's
Gaon Digital Chart, making it BigBang 11th number-one song, a record for any group in history of the chart. From only three and a half days of tracking, the single also reached top 10 on
Billboard's
Global 200 and
Global Excluding US charts, becoming the third Korean act to do so. The single debuted at number one on the Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore,
Vietnam Singles Charts, and number three on Taiwan Singles Chart and
Australia Hitseekers Singles, becoming the group's first entry in these countries. The single also debuted in the top 100 in multiple countries including Indonesia,
New Zealand,
Netherlands,
Hungary,
Japan,
UK and
Canada. On December 27, 2022, it was confirmed by YG that
Daesung had terminated his contract and was looking for a new start. On May 31, 2023, T.O.P revealed that he had "already withdrawn" from the group. In January 2025, T.O.P. ruled out a return to the group and stated that his departure was due to his scandal and feeling ashamed of facing the other members. In June 2023, G-Dragon's official contract with YG expired, making him the last member of BigBang to leave the label. In January 2024, the group's artist profile was removed from YG, signifying that the group is no longer under the label. On November 23, 2024, the group made a surprise reunion performance during
G-Dragon's solo stage at the
2024 MAMA Awards in Osaka, marking their first live performance since 2017. They performed G-Dragon's song "
Home Sweet Home", "Bang Bang Bang" and "Fantastic Baby". On September 16, 2025, it was announced that BigBang would be performing at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2026, 6 years after they were originally supposed to perform at Coachella. The performance will mark the 20th anniversary of BigBang's debut as a group. On March 4, 2026, YG Entertainment announced its 2026 roadmap on the 4th through its official blog that BigBang agreed with YG Entertainment to hold a world tour to mark their 20th debut anniversary this year.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kukinews.com/article/view/kuk202603040031|title=빅뱅 20주년 글로벌 투어 확정…양현석 “완벽한 공연 만들겠다” ==Artistry==