Trivia / FT Island

• Breakthrough Hit: Their debut song "Lovesick" in 2007 which made them power rookies.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Well-known Korean media website Soompi once tweeted a banner for Jaejin's birthday... except they initially used a photo of Seunghyun◊ instead. They later tweeted another banner with the photo of the correct member.
• Creator Backlash: Hongki has admitted to not being fond of "Cheerful Sensibility" album track "Reo Reo" at all.
• Development Hell: Their Korean comeback after their November 2013 one as well as the intended album, full of their self-produced songs, to go with it. The members mentioned back then that they had plans to work on their own album for their next comeback, and said album was shown to be in the works in early 2014 when Jonghun posted a photo of him working on it in a Japanese recording studio. Their Korean "comeback" however was not until September 2014 - and it was for another album entirely^note a remake album that translated their Japanese songs to Korean and not even promoted, hence not a proper comeback. Eventually their actual comeback came in March 2015, and for the full album thankfully (unlike initial comments/rumours that it would only be a mini-album).
• Dye Hard: All the members often dye their hair, but the biggest offender is Hongki who rarely sports black hair and chooses to dye his hair nearly all the time with all kinds of colours, having been blonde a few times (and a very long time too at one point), orange, red, silver, purple...
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Hongki went blonde to play the Korean-English Jeremy in You Are Beautiful (of course it was only to signify his English blood, and not to actually convince viewers he's a natural blonde). He hilariously also very briefly dyed it back to black - to film a tiny scene of a freshly-debuted Anjell on a variety show, when Jeremy still had black hair.
  • Minhwan had to lose a considerable amount of weight because he had a topless scene in his Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat musical.
  • Jaejin was made to go through intense workout routines for a week to get a toned body for a photoshoot on an episode of Fashion Killa... but it didn't really work. Photoshop was hence used to tone him up even more.
  • Seunghyun dyed his hair blue/silver solely for Two Song Place's "Age-Height" MV to parody B2ST's Hyunseung in the Troublemaker scenes, especially the The Joker scenes.
• Executive Meddling: Their November 2013 comeback was originally meant to have a song made by Jaejin as the promoted track. However for unknown reasons FNC changed their minds and made them promote a different song from another FNC producer, to the chagrin of the band (and fans).
• Fake Nationality: Hongki's You Are Beautiful character Jeremy is part Korean and part English. He only spoke Korean throughout the drama though, to fans' relief.
• Fan Community Nicknames: Primadonna, named after one of their songs from their debut album.
• God Never Said That: Mistranslations and misreporting had many (and still have some) thinking Hongki admitted to beating up and cheating on his girlfriend in the past. Subbers and fans have confirmed numerous times that this came from a mix-up over a show appearance FTI made; Hongki early on mentioned his ex-girlfriend being a noona but not much else, and then later in an unrelated discussion addressed another guy who admitted to hitting and cheating on his ex-girlfriend. The mistranslation/mix-up came from Hongki asking the guy, "Suppose that you and your ex go to the same club, and you meet again [...] are you going to hit her again?"
• I Am Not Spock: For a few years after the popular You Are Beautiful aired, non-fans and casual fans constantly only referred to Hongki as Jeremy, his Star-Making Role, much to the irritation of fans.
• The Pete Best: Casual and non-fans barely know Wonbin's existence as he was a member for less than 2 years. Slightly different as he was present for their debut "Lovesick" which is considered the peak of the group's career, and also downplayed amongst Primadonnas, old and new, as many are aware of him and do try to follow him. Nevertheless, Seunghyun is more well-known than Wonbin, both within the fandom and casual kpop fans.
• Prop Recycling: Their guitars/basses (some which are probably under FNC's ownership by default) are often shared with each other and their labelmates.
• Recycled Set: The setting of the band scenes in "I Wish" MV is the same as AOA's "Elvis" MV.
• Star-Making Role: Hongki as Jeremy in You Are Beautiful which gained him many new fans and also lots of exposure to the band.
• Typecasting: Most of Hongki's acting roles are typically trouble-making man children with an obnoxious and Hot-Blooded yet humorous personality. They're also nearly all musicians in some way. Fans joke that they are basically more annoying versions of himself.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Seunghyun was meant to debut with CN Blue, but after Wonbin left FT Island he was put in as the replacement guitarist.
  • Seunghyun came close to joining SM when he was asked to audition, but backed out due to the squickness of the contract at the time^note it said he would have to give up rights to his body. Super Junior's Shindong suggested that had he done so, he would had been put in SHINee.
  • Hongki was temporarily cut from FT Island because he was considered too short. They changed their mind and called him back though.
  • Some other name suggestions for the band were Green Peas and SF Heroes. The latter would eventually make their "debut" at one of their Zepp Tours and make another appearance at a Summer Tour.^note It's just the members with alternate egos; the Zepp Tour they swapped their instruments around, Summer Tour they were a dance group
  • Former MBLAQ member Lee Joon was once an FNC trainee, and the CEO revealed on a talkshow that he came close to joining FT Island.