BGYO (formerly Star Hunt Academy Boys or SHA Boys) is a five-member Filipino boy band formed in 2018 by ABS-CBN Star Hunt Academy. The group debuted in 2021 under ABS-CBN's talent management arm, Star Magic. Dubbed as the Aces of P-pop, composed of Akira, Gelo, JL, Mikki, and Nate, the quintet co-writes several of their output and considers their Filipino roots as one of their assets, as evident in their music, songwriting and style. Their lyrics often focus on social issues relevant to the young generation, hope, youth empowerment and self-love.
After debuting in 2021 with their single The Light, BGYO released the original soundtrack He's Into Her which led to the group's first major recognition for the "Best Theme Song or Title Theme" at the 2021 Asian Academy Creative Awards; also made them the fifth Filipino artist to appear on the weekly Billboard Next Big Sound chart, debuted at number 2 and went straight to number 1 for two consecutive weeks upon the released of their sophomore single The Baddest; the first Filipino act to do so. The group's multi-lingual studio album The Light has achieved the sought after feat of being the longest consecutive charting album by a Filipino act to stay at number one on iTunes Philippines of all time. In 2022, upon the release of their second album Be Us, the group delivered an extraordinary feat of having 2 albums and 32 tracks on iTunes Philippines Charts at the same time.
In 2023, the group landed on Grammys' "Many Sounds of Asian Pop List".
Name
The group's name is an acronym for "Becoming the change, Going further, You and I, Originally Filipino". Contrary to the belief of many, the group's name is not the shortened form of the Filipino word "bagyo", which means storm particularly a tropical cyclone. Their fandom name is collectively called ACEs chosen unanimously by the members among entries from fans; with red and gold as their fandom color demonstrated on the group's official light stick called "The Light", named after BGYO's debut album "The Light".
History
2018–2020: Formation and introduction
In 2018, ABS-CBN launched the Star Hunt Academy program, a project led by entertainment head Laurenti Dyogi for the purpose of introducing Filipino talent in the international market. 250 auditionees ranging from ages 16–19 from different places in the Philippines were evaluated, from which the first set of male trainees were selected. It was initially planned to debut a 7-member idol boy group but was minimized to five. The final lineup ended with Akira, Gelo, JL, Mikki, and Nate. They were trained for two years under Filipino and South Korean mentors from MU Doctor Academy. Vocal coach Kitchy Molina and Austrian-native dance coach Mickey Perz were some of the notable Filipino mentors.
On August 3, 2019, the five members were officially introduced as the Star Hunt trainees in the online pre-show of the PBB Otso Big Night through a performance. They had their first outdoor performance with live audience in their first-ever mall show in Taguig. They have also attended the 2019 Southeast Asian Games thanksgiving celebration.
In May 2020, Dyogi released a dance practice video of Akira, Gelo, Mikki, and Nate dancing to Seventeen's "Let Me Hear You Say" to show their training progress. In the subsequent months, the academy has released vlogs of the trainees on YouTube and performance videos on Twitter. The group was also invited to perform on the "Happy Hallyu Day 4" which lasted from August 22 and 29. On October 18, BGYO as "SHA Boys" became part of the ASAP Natin 'To and performed BTS' hit song "On". On October 31, they also performed on the "2020 Philippines-Korea Cultural Exchange Festival".
On December 4, 2020, the official debut month of the group in January 2021 was announced, together with the contract signing with Star Magic and record label Star Music. On December 6, the group performed on the opening of Pinoy Big Brother: Connect. On December 12, the group went viral with their It's Showtime's performance of Sarah Geronimo hit songs "Tala"/"Kilometro.
2021-present: Debut and early years
The Light Era
Ahead of their debut, Star Hunt Academy released a series of teasers for the group. On January 13, they revealed the group's official name accompanied with its official logo. MU Doctor collaborated with South Korean producers Rogan & Ddank for BGYO's debut single "The Light" released on January 29. The English lyrics were written by Korean-American composer and songwriter Distract, and the Tagalog lyrics written by the members themselves to "reflect their own story in the song". The single was choreographed by Lay Back, known to have worked with SuperM, Hyolyn, and Zico.