Why BIGBANG Came Back as Three Members, Not Five

BIGBANG marked the 20th anniversary of its 2006 debut with a new single, "BiiiG," released August 19, 2026 at 6 p.m. KST. The track hit No. 1 on Melon within an hour and topped Genie, Bugs and VIBE the same day.

Two days later, the group opened its "XX : Cosmos" world tour with three shows at Goyang Stadium, the first stop on a run of 33 concerts across 19 cities continuing into 2027. Every credit on the release — vocals, production, visual direction — belongs to three people: G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung.

The lyrics of "BiiiG" namecheck V.I.P, the group's official fandom name, and Bang Bong, its signature light stick — tying the anniversary directly to the fans who stayed through every lineup change rather than to the members who left it.

A single called BiiiG, and no fourth or fifth name on it

BIGBANG debuted in 2006 with five members: G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri. "BiiiG" is the group's first release since 2022's "Still Life," and the first full comeback — a K-pop term for a new single or album era, complete with promotion — built around a trio from the start.

International coverage has mostly treated the reduced lineup as background noise, the group everyone already knows "isn't five anymore." Korean fans read it differently: each missing member left for a specific, documented reason, and knowing those reasons is what separates a reunion from an amputation.

G-Dragon: "We're not a three-member group by choice"

The leader addressed the lineup directly on MBC's Good Day, a February 2026 broadcast gathering celebrities born in 1988. When fellow guest, comedian Kwanghee, joked he'd want to debut in a three-member group if reborn, G-Dragon replied: "We're not a three-member group by choice."

He returned to the subject on the YouTube show Pinggyego on August 22, this time about the music itself: "The number of members changed from five to three, so we had the challenge of creating a new sound." Neither comment frames the trio as a preference.

Why Seungri's name doesn't come up at all

Seungri left BIGBANG on March 11, 2019, as the Burning Sun scandal broke — a case centered on a Gangnam nightclub he co-owned, involving allegations of procuring sex workers for investors, embezzlement and illegal gambling.

He was serving mandatory military service (conscription that nearly all able-bodied Korean men complete, typically in their twenties) at the time, so his case went through a military court rather than a civilian one. That detail matters: it means the verdict came with military due process, not a quiet agency settlement.

He was convicted on nine charges and sentenced to three years, reduced to 18 months on appeal after he admitted guilt. Seungri was released from Yeoju Prison in February 2023 and has not returned to entertainment. His exit is a closed legal case, not an open question.

Why T.O.P's absence is a contract story, not a scandal replay

T.O.P's departure gets folded into the same sentence as Seungri's, but the mechanics differ. He was convicted in 2017 for marijuana use during his own military service and given a 10-month sentence with two years' probation — a case that predates this comeback by close to a decade.

What actually ended his time in BIGBANG was administrative: his exclusive contract with YG Entertainment expired in 2022 and was not renewed. He confirmed leaving the group on Instagram in May 2023, later telling a reporter, "I'm the one who caused so much damage to the team called BIGBANG." He has since worked as an actor under his legal name, Choi Seung-hyun.

Same group, three different employers

The detail most coverage skips: G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung no longer share a company. South Korea's idol system runs on the exclusive contract (전속계약) — an agency trains, funds and promotes an artist for a fixed term in exchange for a cut of their output, historically capped at seven years by a Korea Fair Trade Commission standard contract introduced after "slave contract" lawsuits in the 2000s.

Those caps are why a group's lineup and a group's business affiliation can now split. G-Dragon left YG in 2023 after roughly 20 years with the label and founded his own company, Galaxy Corporation. Taeyang stayed inside the YG orbit at its subsidiary The Black Label. Daesung signed with D-LABEL, under RND Company.

Why a group chat now needs three companies to sign off

G-Dragon described the practical cost of that split on Pinggyego: "We were originally under one company. Since this was our 20th anniversary, we had been working internally on the concept for a year or two, but then our agencies became different."

He continued: "Even when we decide something in our group chat by saying, 'Let's do it this way,' we have to relay it to each person's agency and collect the feedback. That made the process take a long time." A decision that once needed one company's approval now needs three.

The reunion actually started two years before the anniversary

Fans didn't wait until 2026 for the first sign of a trio. In September 2024, G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung reunited on stage during Taeyang's solo concert to perform BIGBANG's 2016 song "We Like 2 Party." Two months later, G-Dragon released "Home Sweet Home," featuring Taeyang and Daesung, from his album Übermensch.

The song topped Melon's daily chart 76 times and led the weekly chart for 11 straight weeks. It finished No. 2 on Melon's 2025 year-end chart and later won Song of the Year at the Melon Music Awards.

It functioned as a trio comeback in everything but billing — clear proof the three remaining members could still work together at scale before any anniversary was on the calendar.

What's confirmed, and what's still open

YG founder Yang Hyun-suk announced the anniversary plans in a March 2026 company video, and G-Dragon confirmed the comeback himself at a February 2026 fan meeting in Seoul.

The trio tested the reunion live before committing to a full release: on April 19, 2026, G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung played the Outdoor Theatre at Coachella, their first major festival appearance in close to a decade. "BiiiG" and the Goyang tour opener followed four months later.

From Goyang, "XX : Cosmos" moves through Asia, North America, Europe and Oceania, with stops including Tokyo, Bangkok, Paris, London and Oakland before closing in Kaohsiung, Taiwan around February 2027. It is the group's first tour of any kind since 2017.

• Whether T.O.P performs with the group again has no confirmed answer; YG's 2022 statement left the door open "as long as the conditions are right," and nothing since has moved on that.
• How long three separately contracted members can keep operating as one touring act is untested — this tour is the first real stress test of the arrangement.
• Seungri has not commented on the anniversary and remains outside the group under his own 2019 retirement, a status this reunion does not revisit.

What is settled is simpler. BIGBANG's three-person comeback isn't a placeholder for a fuller reunion still being negotiated — it's what the group's legal and contractual reality now allows, run by three people who, in G-Dragon's own words, didn't choose to be three.

Current agencies of BIGBANG's three active members

Frequently asked

Why is BIGBANG only 3 members now?

Seungri left in 2019 after the Burning Sun scandal and was convicted on nine charges, while T.O.P's YG contract expired in 2022 and wasn't renewed, leaving G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung as the group.

Will T.O.P ever rejoin BIGBANG?

There's no confirmed answer — YG's 2022 statement said he could return "as long as the conditions are right," but nothing has changed since.

What is BIGBANG's new song BiiiG about?

Released August 19, 2026, "BiiiG" is the trio's first full comeback since 2022's "Still Life," and its lyrics namecheck the V.I.P fandom and the Bang Bong light stick.