IOI reunion goes viral
K‑pop nostalgia is buzzing after IOI reunited to dance their hit “Pick Me,” and the reunion clip drew big engagement — about 7.8k likes, 1k reposts, and 162k views on X. (x.com) If you follow festival bookings or solo careers, moments like this often trigger renewed streaming spikes and booking interest for members’ future appearances. (x.com)
A few seconds of an old dance brought back one of K-pop’s shortest-lived hit groups, because the move was “Pick Me,” the song that introduced all 101 trainees on Mnet’s survival show Produce 101 in December 2015. That clip spread fast enough on X to pull IOI back into timelines nearly a decade after the group first debuted. (youtube.com) (x.com) IOI was not a normal long-running group. Mnet built it in 2016 by letting viewers choose 11 winners from 101 trainees, and the group debuted on May 4, 2016 with the extended play Chrysalis before disbanding at the end of January 2017. (wikipedia.org) (kpop.fandom.com) That short run is why the reunion clip lands so hard for fans now. IOI’s entire onstage life as a full group lasted less than a year, with their January 20 to 22, 2017 Time Slip concerts serving as the last group stage before the breakup. (wikipedia.org) “Pick Me” also carries extra weight because it came before the group itself. CJ E&M released the song digitally on December 17, 2015, and Mnet used it as the calling card for Produce 101 before the final 11 members even existed. (wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) Once IOI debuted, the group quickly stacked songs that still function like memory triggers for second-generation survival-show fans. “Very Very Very” arrived on October 17, 2016 as the title track of the mini album Miss Me?, and “Downpour” followed on January 17, 2017 as a farewell single written by Woozi of Seventeen. (wikipedia.org 1) (wikipedia.org 2) The members then scattered into separate careers, which made any shared appearance feel rare instead of routine. Jeon So-mi went solo, Kim Se-jeong split time between music and acting, Kim Chung-ha built a solo catalog, and Jung Chae-yeon, Kim Do-yeon, Choi Yoo-jung, Kang Mi-na, and others moved through acting, solo work, or new groups under different agencies. (wikipedia.org) That agency split is also why IOI reunions have been difficult to turn from nostalgia into schedules. A planned 2019 return with nine members under Studio Blu never really materialized, and the group’s fifth anniversary in 2021 was marked by a livestream instead of a full comeback. (kpop.fandom.com) Now the timing looks different because the calendar is doing part of the work for them. Multiple reports in 2025 and 2026 said IOI members and agencies were coordinating a 10th-anniversary return, with current fan references pointing to a nine-member comeback in May 2026. (allkpop.com) (kpop.fandom.com) That is why a viral “Pick Me” clip is more than a fun throwback. When a group built on public voting, short contracts, and unfinished reunion plans suddenly shows recognizable choreography again, fans do not just watch the clip once; they start replaying the whole era in order. (wikipedia.org 1) (wikipedia.org 2)
