u/CoerTheCortisFan

>One year after its debut, boy band CORTIS has shattered records and established itself as one of the most compelling forces in modern K-pop.

>Known affectionately as the "Young Creator Crew" for writing and producing its own music, videos and choreography, the five-member group — consisting of Martin, James, Joohoon, Seonghyun and Keonho — has enjoyed a meteoric rise. Its second EP, "GREENGREEN," spent 13 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart after entering at No. 3, marking the longest run for a boy group debuting in the past five years. Across all platforms, the band's 14-track catalog has amassed more than 1.1 billion Spotify streams.

>Fresh off its sold-out North American tour, which wrapped in San Francisco on Sunday, CORTIS sat down via its agency, BigHit Music, to look back on a landmark year ahead of its "BIRTHDAY PARTY" anniversary concerts at Seoul's Hwajeong Gymnasium on Saturday and Sunday.

>Q: How does it feel to mark your first anniversary?

>Martin: Time has flown by so fast it hardly feels real. It’s been a year of growth both as an artist and as an individual. Navigating all these changes feels like swimming through heavy waves and coming out stronger. I’m deeply grateful to our fans, COER, as well as my bandmates and team.

>James: Everything happened so quickly that the anniversary arrived before I even realized it. I am focused on working hard to repay all the love we’ve received over the past year.

>Joohoon: When we first debuted, so much felt uncertain. Thanks to COER always believing in us, we filled this past year with wonderful memories. As we enter our second year, we’ll work hard to show an even more mature side.

>Seonghyun: We accomplished so much in a year. Without our fans, this milestone wouldn't carry the same meaning. This is only the beginning.

>Keonho: I don't usually track anniversaries closely, but this one means a lot because so many people took care of us and showed us love as we built CORTIS.

>Q: Where have you seen the biggest personal or professional growth since debut?

>Martin: Our stage presence. Performing at Lollapalooza Chicago and during our "PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN" tour made me realize that connecting with a live audience is why I do this.

>James: Lollapalooza was a turning point for me. It was the first performance where I felt I had full control over my state of mind on stage, balancing instinct and focus.

>Seonghyun: Compared to our very first stage, I feel we’ve grown immensely. At first, I didn't even know where the cameras were or what facial expressions to make. Now, I’m learning how to own the space.

>Keonho: With every activity, I keep reflecting on why I stand on stage. On a practical note, I’m still growing physically — my voice and height have subtle changes recorded in our photos and videos over the year.

>Q: Looking ahead, what goals or dreams do you hope to pursue next?

>CORTIS: We want to keep expanding our limits to become better human beings and stronger artists. We hope to continue evolving our sound and eventually hold tours in arenas and stadiums to connect with even more COER around the world.

>CORTIS' (Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon, and Keonho) hit song “REDRED” has achieved its 100th No. 1 on Spotify Korea’s Daily Chart.

>The title track of CORTIS’ second mini album, “REDRED,” reached the top spot for the 100th time on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs – South Korea chart dated August 11. The song previously reached its 70th No. 1 on the chart dated July 12, becoming the K-pop group song with the most No. 1s in the chart’s history. On the latest Weekly Top Songs – South Korea chart (covering July 31–August 6), “REDRED” maintained its No. 1 position for 15 consecutive weeks, while it has also remained on the Weekly Top Songs – Global chart for 15 weeks.

>CORTIS’ monthly Spotify listeners have also surpassed 12.9 million, setting a new personal best for the group. By listener share, the United States, Indonesia, and South Korea are the top three countries/regions. True to a group that has shown rapid growth and exceptional popularity in less than a year since debut, CORTIS is establishing itself as an “emerging powerhouse in music” across various regions.

>The group’s album performance is also showing strong momentum. According to the latest Billboard charts (dated August 15), CORTIS’ second mini album “GREENGREEN” climbed 75 spots in just one week to rank No. 39 on the Billboard 200, the main albums chart. On the detailed charts, it ranked No. 1 on World Albums and No. 2 on Top Album Sales. As of the end of July, cumulative sales according to the Circle Chart reached 3,365,846 copies. This year, only two albums released in South Korea have surpassed 3 million copies in sales: BTS’ fifth full-length album “ARIRANG” and CORTIS’ two new releases.

>The group’s chart-dominating momentum has grown even stronger through its live performances. CORTIS kicked off its first tour, “2026 CORTIS TOUR <PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN>,” in Incheon last month. Their raw, energy-filled performance at the major U.S. music festival Lollapalooza Chicago on August 1 (local time) also captivated the audience. The North American leg of the tour, taking place across six cities in Canada and the United States through August 16, has sold out all seats.

>Meanwhile, CORTIS will celebrate its first debut anniversary on August 18. On August 22–23, they will hold a commemorative concert, “2026 CORTIS TOUR <PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN> BIRTHDAY PARTY,” at Korea University’s Hwajeong Gymnasium in Seoul.

>Channelling the spirit of teen rebellion like none before them, CORTIS are Korea’s most alternative best-selling boy band – breaking K-pop’s rules as they prioritise originality, authenticity and creative self-determination.

>All five members of CORTIS – MARTIN, JAMES, JUHOON, SEONGHYEON and KEONHO – are sitting on a snug sofa in a blank antechamber of a photography studio after their Perfect shoot. They are thinking about what the zeitgeist was when they were growing up. ‘I feel like it was groups like A$AP Mob and Odd Future,’ says MARTIN, the band’s natural leader and bottle blond. CORTIS all look fabulous, of course. They are wearing great clothes, of their own choosing. They have amazing hair. They are among the prettiest boys on the planet. But they are thinkers, too.

>‘For me, Steve Jobs is one of the biggest figures when you talk about the zeitgeist,’ adds JUHOON. ‘He really has changed the world. That idea he started was to make you think different. Now everybody has iPhones or MacBooks. It also kind of applies to us, because we are trying new stuff, crossing the lines and breaking the mould.’ This idea of thinking outside the box – or ‘colouring outside the lines’, the phrase from which letters were plucked to assemble their name – is central to CORTIS.

>The USP for CORTIS in the K-pop cannon is ‘agency’. ‘We can’t be free all the time,’ says SEONGHYEON, ‘but we can in our music, and that’s what we try to express.’ This looseness, with some wildly eclectic influences, appears to be working. On their irresistible second EP, GREENGREEN, there is a song called ‘YOUNGCREATORCREW’, an undulating, explosive groove which uncovers a manifesto, a band identity. With CORTIS, you don’t just get the immaculately manicured package, you get the roughness of unformed ideas, too. They hang together with adolescent humour, the last remnants of teen cool, an identity perched on the precipices of adulthood. An adorable ideas factory to chime with its generation. ‘When we were working on the EP,’ says SEONGHYEON, ‘we knew we needed a refresh. We wanted to reclaim the things we did before our debut. The creative process helps us dive into what we want to do.’

>From the start, their jump-cut videos credited them as co-directors. They are the autonomous loop on the K-pop wheel. ‘All five of us are not just in love with music,’ says KEONHO, ‘we are in love with creating things. That just naturally makes its way onto the album and into the creative process.’ If one were to dream into life the perfect K-pop proposition for 2027 – one guaranteed to appeal across the board, from tweens learning the basic laws and principles of pop adoration through twentysomethings weeping through the last episode of Euphoria – well, CORTIS are your boys.

>Given some eccentric influences and cool styling references, I’d wondered aloud if the boys had thought about changing their genre from K-pop to maybe K-hop or K-rock. Sometimes a CORTIS tune feels like it’s found its way out of a trap mixtape or the campus of a college rock radio station. Wasn’t K-pop supposed to be all about the rules? MARTIN interjects to correct me. ‘I’ve listened to a lot of Korean music recently, checking out the charts and stuff, random playlists, and there are so many K rappers and K rock bands, alternative rock bands too. I’m a big fan of this artist called Meaningful Stone, in Korean, she’s amazing. I love her voice. There are amazing alternative bands out there. If you dig deep into it, there are so many great artists and I feel like there will be an explosion of it one day.’

>For K-pop to future-proof itself, it has to learn to defy the algorithm. ‘It’s very easy to try and match the algorithm,’ says JAMES. ‘To try and get more views, get more likes on certain things. “This got a lot of views? Let’s recreate it and make a similar thing.” That’s not us. Just recreating things, it wouldn’t be the same as the original, it wouldn’t be as good as the original. We try to stop that and we try to create new things.’

>The smart money says CORTIS are the next K-pop sensation to experience BTS levels of exponential fame. If so, the boys are keeping their humility intact on the journey there. They also want to touch something outside of the usual metrics of success. This summer, they were the only Korean boy band to play the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago. Their hometown dates have included unusual bookings. ‘Recently we’ve been performing a lot of college festivals here in Seoul,’ says KEONHO. ‘It’s our first time performing in front of the populace, not just our fans. They’re roaring and cheering us on and we feed off that energy.’

>‘For me,’ says JAMES, ‘there are three elements that are important when we talk about the zeitgeist.’ First, he begins, there is the matter of how something affects you personally. Then there is the question of the environment, how it influences the culture around you. Third, ‘There is evolution.’ Allow him to expand. ‘Because I was born around the 2000s, there is this mindset of breaking the mould, breaking the rules.’

>From their opening offering, an irresistible call to arms, ‘What You Want’ (sample lyric: ‘smelling like a teen like we Nirvana’), there was a distinct flavour of low-key insurrection about CORTIS. Just because they’re the prettiest boys on the block, it doesn’t mean they didn’t come to shake things up. ‘You think of movies like The Matrix or Fight Club,’ JAMES continues. ‘Those movies usually talk about breaking the system, they talk about the pressure you get from the system. Those movies, and people like Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves, they really had a big impact on me.’

>Has K-pop just found its cool? ‘I always wanted to be cool, to be honest,’ laughs MARTIN. ‘It’s been a forever thing. I still want to be cooler and cooler, to sound better and better, even to smell nicer and nicer. It’s a whole thing. Everything comes together to make the word cool. It’s also about being yourself. Cool should not look like you’re acting. It’s got to be a whole lifestyle. You’ve got to be yourself.’