ALPHA DRIVE ONE (ALD1) Confirms January 12, 2026 Debut with First Album ‘EUPHORIA’

Rookie boy group ALPHA DRIVE ONE (shortened to ALD1) under WAKEONE has officially locked in its debut schedule. According to multiple Korean entertainment outlets, the team will debut on January 12, 2026 with its first album ‘EUPHORIA’. In the early hours of December 2, the group’s official social channels revealed a teaser poster featuring the date ‘2026.01.12’ alongside the album title, signaling the start of their countdown. The black, grainy poster shows eight stars connected into a single constellation, symbolizing the eight members forming one complete team and hinting that they aim to shine as a new presence in the K-pop sky. By placing both the debut date and album name front and center, the artwork gives fans clear anchor points for the upcoming launch.

ALPHA DRIVE ONE is composed of eight members—LEO, JUNSEO, ARNO, Gyeonwoo, Sangwon, Xinlong, Anshin and Sanghyun—who were chosen as the final debut lineup on Mnet’s boy-group survival show ‘BOYS II PLANET’ (often stylized as BOYS2PLANET). Framed around selecting a global boy group from K PLANET and C PLANET contestants, the program ended with these eight trainees securing their spots in the project team. Their name breaks down into three key words: ‘ALPHA’, symbolizing an ultimate goal; ‘DRIVE’, referring to burning passion and forward momentum; and ‘ONE’, emphasizing unity as a single team. Together, ALPHA DRIVE ONE points toward a group determined to accelerate toward the top, with both their agency and Korean media describing their aim as delivering intense ‘K-pop catharsis’ on stage.

The ‘EUPHORIA’ teaser poster itself offers several hints about the group’s concept. Eight scattered stars are linked by thin lines into a single constellation, echoing the narrative that eight individuals who once walked separate paths are now connected by one shared ‘formula’ as a team. The bottom of the design features the word ‘EUPHORIA’ and the date ‘2026. 01. 12.’ in slightly retro type, creating a minimalist but striking contrast. Commentators note that the visual language fits within recent K-pop trends of dark palettes and symbolic imagery, while details such as formulas, coordinates and constellations leave room for future expansion in logos, storyline videos and physical album packaging—suggesting that WAKEONE has invested in a fairly comprehensive rookie project.

Even before their official debut, ALPHA DRIVE ONE had a chance to ‘preheat’ on a major stage. All five Korean news pieces mention that the group premiered their pre-release single ‘FORMULA’ on November 28 at the 2025 MAMA AWARDS. JOYNEWS24 described the performance as slightly raw but full of visible potential, while outlets like Xportsnews, Maeil Business Newspaper and The Fact highlighted its powerful impact and ‘worldwide-scale rookie’ energy. Using an internationally broadcast awards show to introduce the team ahead of the main promotional cycle for their debut album fits a broader rookie strategy: build recognition and curiosity through a big-stage appearance, then convert that attention once the official launch begins.

The pre-release single ‘FORMULA’, scheduled for digital release on December 3 and later included on the ‘EUPHORIA’ album, is described across outlets as an electronic dance-pop track built on explosive synths and a roaring bassline. Its arrangement clearly aims to maximize the sense of group performance on stage. Beyond its dictionary meanings of ‘formula’ and ‘rule’, the title is positioned as a metaphor for the journey of the eight members—who once chased their dreams in different ways—finally meeting at the same coordinates to write ALPHA DRIVE ONE’s own debut formula. As such, the song functions not just as a warm-up single but also as a statement piece that turns scattered paths into one shared route.

Newsen and other outlets close their coverage by calling ALPHA DRIVE ONE an ‘extra-large rookie’, pointing to the combination of survival-show attention, early exposure through the MAMA stage and a debut schedule built around a fully conceptualized album. With the ‘EUPHORIA’ teaser now out, fans can expect a steady rollout of concept photos, track lists and music video teasers. For viewers who followed ‘BOYS II PLANET’ from the beginning, as well as K-pop listeners curious about the next wave of boy groups under WAKEONE, this album is shaping up to be a key test of how the label defines its new-generation boy-group ‘formula’.

## KStarLoud Insight: ALPHA DRIVE ONE is turning “Survival Show → Awards Stage → Official Debut” into a playbook-level launch pattern. For many survival-show boy groups, the biggest risk after the finale is that interest fades as quickly as a firework; ALD1’s rollout feels engineered to counter exactly that. First, ‘BOYS II PLANET’ spends months building individual backstories and emotional investment. Then the 2025 MAMA stage for ‘FORMULA’ functions as an early stress test in front of a global TV and YouTube audience, locking in the group name and performance vibe. Only after those two phases does WAKEONE drop the ultra-minimal ‘2026.01.12 × EUPHORIA’ teaser, focusing all that accumulated attention onto a single date. The point of this three-step design isn’t to dump information, but to string fan emotion into a single arc: voting anxiety → first major-stage surprise → calendar-countdown anticipation. From a meta K-pop perspective, ALD1 feels like a live case study in a “WAKEONE-style rookie blueprint”: build awareness through show + award-stage exposure, then shift into long-term worldbuilding with a fully conceptual album. If ‘EUPHORIA’ delivers in both sales and stage reception, this ‘Survival + MAMA Preview + Album Debut’ rhythm could easily become the model answer for the next wave of boy-group launches.