After a year of upheaval that would have ended lesser groups, fromis_9 are stepping back into the summer spotlight on their own terms. The five-piece has locked in July 21 for the release of Glow ME, a comeback that doubles as a statement about who they are now and who gets to decide their future.
What Happened
fromis_9 will release their second full-length album, Glow ME, on July 21 at 6 p.m. KST, with the bright, effervescent track Vitamin ME serving as the lead single. Their agency, ASND, confirmed the date in early July after first teasing a polished studio project back in May, and the group has since rolled out a full tracklist to build anticipation ahead of the drop.
The record runs ten tracks deep, including ETERNAL, Pocket Treat, Blue Heart, Screen Time, and a closer titled Wonderland. Two of the songs are unit cuts that split the members into smaller groupings — Cold Blood pairs Chaeyoung, Nagyung, and Jiheon, while Why do I cry? features Hayoung and Jiwon. It is the group's first full-length album in roughly three years, following Unlock My World in June 2023, and the packaging leans hard into a sunny, vitamin-charged summer concept.
Why It Matters
The comeback carries weight far beyond a normal summer release, because Glow ME is the first full album fromis_9 have made since leaving HYBE. All members ended their exclusive contracts with Pledis, HYBE's label, at the close of 2024, and the departure was not a quiet one. There were public questions about whether the group could even keep its name, and the transition left fans bracing for a possible disbandment rather than a fresh start.
Instead of folding, five of the members — Song Ha-young, Park Ji-won, Lee Chae-young, Lee Na-gyung, and Baek Ji-heon — signed with the new agency ASND in January 2025 and chose to carry the fromis_9 name forward. Three former members, Lee Saerom, Lee Seoyeon, and Roh Jisun, opted not to continue. That makes Glow ME the first real test of the reconstituted lineup at full album scale, and a chance to prove that the group's identity lives in the music and the members rather than in the corporate machinery that once housed it. For a K-pop act, keeping a hard-won name and rebuilding under a smaller company is rarely a smooth path.
The Reaction
The rollout has landed exactly the way a summer comeback is supposed to. Concept photos and teaser trailers built around the Vitamin ME theme have leaned into playful, citrus-bright visuals, and the tracklist reveal — complete with two unit songs — gave longtime listeners plenty to dissect before a single note dropped.
For many fans, the anticipation is tangled up with relief. A comeback that once looked uncertain is now a concrete date on the calendar, and the quintet's decision to keep going has been read as a show of loyalty to both the group and the people who followed them through the HYBE exit. The unit songs in particular have drawn attention, since they hand individual members more room to shape the album's personality.
What Comes Next
Once Glow ME arrives on July 21, the focus shifts to the promotional cycle that traditionally follows a K-pop full album: music show stages, variety appearances, and content built around Vitamin ME and the deeper cuts. A ten-track full-length gives the group far more material to perform and sustain than a typical mini album, which sets up a longer runway through the back half of summer.
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The real question is longevity rather than opening-week noise. First-week sales for an established group can be front-loaded by core fans, so the more telling signals will be domestic streaming staying power for Vitamin ME and how the unit songs and B-sides settle into fans' rotations over the following weeks. If the album has legs, it validates the bet that fromis_9 made when they walked away and started over.
Closing Thoughts
There is a neat symbolism to a group that spent a year in limbo returning with a record called Glow ME and a single named after a vitamin. The concept is deliberately bright, but the subtext is resilience: this is a comeback shaped by the members' own choices, released through a company they picked, under a name they fought to keep.
Whether Glow ME becomes a career-defining reset or simply a solid summer entry, July 21 marks the moment fromis_9 stop being a story about leaving and start being a story about what they build next. For a group that easily could have ended in 2024, that alone makes this one of the more quietly meaningful K-pop returns of the season.
한글 요약
그룹 프로미스나인이 두 번째 정규앨범 Glow ME를 7월 21일 오후 6시에 발매합니다. 타이틀곡은 상큼하고 밝은 여름 콘셉트의 Vitamin ME이며, 소속사 ASND가 7월 초 발매일을 확정한 뒤 트랙리스트를 공개하며 컴백 분위기를 끌어올렸습니다. 앨범은 총 10곡으로, 채영·나경·지헌의 유닛곡 Cold Blood와 하영·지원의 Why do I cry?가 포함됐습니다. 2023년 6월 Unlock My World 이후 약 3년 만의 정규앨범입니다.
이번 컴백이 특별한 이유는 Glow ME가 프로미스나인이 하이브를 떠난 뒤 처음 내놓는 정규앨범이기 때문입니다. 멤버 전원은 2024년 말 하이브 산하 플레디스와의 전속계약을 종료했고, 이후 송하영·박지원·이채영·이나경·백지헌 다섯 명이 2025년 1월 신생 기획사 ASND와 계약하며 팀명을 지켜 활동을 이어가기로 했습니다. 이서연·이새롬·노지선은 합류하지 않았습니다. 이번 앨범은 재편된 5인 체제의 첫 정규 도전이라는 점에서 의미가 큽니다.
팬들의 반응은 기대와 안도가 뒤섞여 있습니다. 한때 불투명했던 컴백이 구체적인 날짜로 확정됐고, 유닛곡을 통해 멤버 개개인의 색이 더 드러날 것이라는 점이 주목받고 있습니다. 관건은 초동 성적보다 Vitamin ME의 국내 스트리밍 지속력과 수록곡의 저력이 될 전망입니다. 참고: allkpop, The Korea Herald, Wikipedia.