CORTIS: when did they debut, where are the members from, and are they disbanding?

Debut date: August 18, 2025

CORTIS's official debut date is August 18, 2025. The title track "What You Want" came out at 6 p.m. that day, and a debut event was held the same day at Blue Square in Seoul's Yongsan district. A first-anniversary report likewise dates the official debut to the release of "What You Want" on August 18, 2025. The five-track debut EP, COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES, followed three weeks later on September 8. So if the question is the debut album's release, the answer is September 8; for the debut itself, it is August 18. BigHit Music said holding in-person debut events in two countries — Seoul and Los Angeles — is very unusual for a rookie act.

The pre-debut timeline

• Before debut. The members spent three months in Los Angeles working on the debut album, which The Korea Herald called a rare opportunity even for established K-pop acts.^5,8
• July 14, 2025. BigHit Music announced its first new boy group in six years since TOMORROW X TOGETHER, named the five members and set the August 18 debut. The group was billed from the start as an all-teen "young creator crew."¹
• August 7, 2025. The group's official social accounts opened and the name CORTIS was revealed. The agency said it takes six letters, picked irregularly, from "COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES," and stands for thinking freely beyond the rules others set.²
• August 11, 2025. The first concept photos for the debut album, shot in Los Angeles, were released. The prerelease track "GO!" had its music video reach YouTube trending lists in 11 regions, and the song was later included on the debut EP.^3,5,6

Members' nationalities: what has been reported

In a report the day before the debut, The Korea Herald described leader Martin as Korean Canadian, James as being from Hong Kong, and Juhoon, Seonghyeon and Keonho as Korean. In the same piece BigHit Music said CORTIS is the first HYBE-affiliated group with a foreign passport holder as leader. YTN reported birth years ranging from James (2005) to Seonghyeon and Keonho (2009). This page sticks to what the agency and major outlets have published and leaves out unverified details about members' families or upbringing.

Are they disbanding? What is and isn't known

• No disbandment has been announced. None of the 2025–2026 reports used here mention a breakup, an end of activities or a fixed end date for CORTIS. At the first anniversary (August 18, 2026) the members said through their agency that they would keep growing, and spoke of wanting to tour arenas and stadiums someday.¹⁴
• CORTIS has never been presented as a fixed-term project group. Reports describe the members as BigHit Music trainees, and The Korea Herald called its Billboard 200 entry the highest ever for a debut K-pop group album "aside from project-based teams."^3,8
• The contract length has not been disclosed. No report checked here gives the length of the members' exclusive contracts. As general background, Korea's Fair Trade Commission set a seven-year cap on exclusive terms in its 2009 standard contract.¹³
• The "seven-year jinx." K-pop fans long spoke of a seven-year curse, since breakups, departures and label moves often came near the end of first contracts. The Korea Herald notes, though, that more top groups now renew before expiry. This is an industry-wide pattern, not a forecast about CORTIS.¹³

Major achievements so far

• No. 15 on the Billboard 200. The debut EP entered the U.S. Billboard 200 at No. 15 in September 2025. Citing the label, Yonhap called it the second-highest position for a K-pop debut album and the highest for a group without members from established acts.⁷
• Album sales. The debut EP had the biggest first week of any 2025 rookie, and by November 2025 it passed one million copies on the Circle Chart, the only million-seller among that year's debut acts. The second mini album, GREENGREEN, released May 4, 2026, sold more than 2.3 million copies in its first week. By the first anniversary, the debut album had reached double-million and GREENGREEN triple-million sales, according to the anniversary report.^8,9,12,14
• Streaming. Three debut-era tracks topped Spotify's Daily Viral Songs Global chart, and GREENGREEN's lead single "REDRED" spent five straight weeks on Spotify's Weekly Top Songs Global. As of August 13, 2026, the group's 14 released tracks had passed 1.1 billion combined Spotify streams.^8,12,14
• Rookie awards. CORTIS won Best New Artist at the 2025 MAMA Awards at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium on November 28, 2025, as did Hearts2Hearts, and shared rookie of the year with Allday Project at the 40th Golden Disc Awards at the Taipei Dome in January 2026.^10,11
• Other milestones. In May 2026 CORTIS made Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list as the youngest Korean act and the only K-pop boy group on it. In first-anniversary interviews, the members named their first tour, PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN, and their set at Lollapalooza Chicago as turning points.^12,14

How to read this page

Most sales and streaming figures are label announcements relayed by the press, and are as of each article's date. The disbandment and contract items record that nothing has been reported, not a guarantee about the future; this page will be updated if the agency announces anything new. The group's full history is in the Hallyu Wiki article on CORTIS.