After S.M Culture and Contents brought Woollim Ent into the family bed in 2013, it was only a matter of time before a cross-band subunit was born. The net buzzed with rumours for months about Infinite’s Woohyun and SHINee’s Key, and finally the kid was named earlier this year: Toheart.
Oh happy day, the delicious Woohkey unit has arrived! Nam Woohyun is the lead vocal and aegyo-overloaded heart machine of Infinite; Kim Ki-bum (Key) is the rapper, lead dancer and most confident English-speaker of SHINee. Their partnership Toheart is said to represent ‘two hearts’, and the MV for Delicious and mini album release this week is already setting (way more than two) fangirl hearts aflutter.
For this is a bromance that has been going on long before any recording deals were signed. The guys met initially on a radio show that Key DJ’d on and hit it off. After all they share a lot in common: both are ’91 liners, both are in K-pop boy bands known for their incredible in-synch dancing, and both have starred in musicals (most recently, Key in The Three Musketeers and Woohyun in Gwanghwamun Sonata) proving both have strong vocals and stage presence.
The boys attended each other’s concerts held in March at Seoul Olympic Park (Infinite’s One Great Step Returns and SHINee’s SHINee World III) and cheekily waved their own band’s lightstick.
This playful bromance is played up in Toheart’s first MV, where we can see the guys sharing a bedroom (fanfic writer frenzy!), snapping out some sharp moves in colourful sharp suits and tussling over a laydee. They’ve clearly got good combined taste though because there’s a map of the British Isles on their wall.
The music is clear, crisp K-pop, nothing too raunchy or unexpected from the duo. The Delicious tune was dually penned too, by Sweetune and Sean Alexander. Sweetune wrote one of Infinite’s recent hits Man in Love, and Sean wrote one of SHINee’s early hits A.Mi.Go. So this really is a cross-band project to the core. The video was directed by Hwang Soo Ah, who directed Gain’s Fxxk U vid.
The 1st mini album according to Toheart’s recent interview on Naver:
Intro/Delicious/Maze – Key describes these as joyous and cheerful tunes
You’re My Lady – Key says this is a song only Toheart can pull off, sexy and masculine
Tell Me Why – Woohyun describes this as ‘sentimental’
Departure – a remake of the song by Some Day
See the upcoming schedule for Toheart here on their official website. Also check out the first MV Delicious here and let us know your thoughts on this cross-band bromance![youtube id=”mdrz_e2mbtE&list=PLA91TLEzZINsOvVuFzd019vY-c3IRLZEF”]
SHINee’s A.Mi.Go, from their first album in 2008
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Infinite’s Man in Love where Woohyun fails to impress small kids with his piano skills
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