Nine Months Old and Already on Forbes. CORTIS Just Made the 30 Under 30 Asia List.
CORTIS debuted on August 18, 2025. Forbes put them on its 30 Under 30 Asia list less than nine months later.
The five-member group - Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon, and Keonho - landed in the Entertainment and Sports category of the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia roster, making them the youngest Korean act on this year's list and the only K-pop boy group. Also named in the same category were girl groups NMIXX and i-dle, along with choreographer Leejung Lee. The annual list, compiled by Forbes Asia reporters, editors, and expert panelists, vets roughly 4,000 candidates across 10 categories.
Forbes introduced CORTIS as "a five-member K-pop boy group created in 2025 by BIGHIT MUSIC, a label under HYBE - the first boy group launched by the HYBE subsidiary in six years, after BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER." The citation noted that all five members were credited with choreography or production roles on their debut EP Color Outside the Lines, which entered the Billboard 200 at No. 15 and recorded the highest first-week sales among 2025 rookie groups. Forbes called them "a young creator crew" - a label BIGHIT Music has used in its own positioning of the group.
That framing is the thing worth paying attention to. CORTIS launched under the explicit premise that K-pop's next wave would be defined not by idol-system production but by artist-driven creation - members who write, choreograph, and direct rather than execute. Whether that premise is substantive or marketing depends on what the music actually delivers, and the early evidence is mixed in the productive sense: Color Outside the Lines showed range and genuine individual contribution across tracks, while the follow-up mini album GREENGREEN, released May 4, performed strongly on domestic charts - Melon's weekly chart No. 1 for the week of May 18-24, the first boy group track to top it this year - without fully resolving the question of what CORTIS's defining sound actually is.
The Forbes recognition matters for a reason beyond bragging rights. The 30 Under 30 Asia list is one of the few mainstream business-press acknowledgments that K-pop acts receive in a non-entertainment context, which changes the conversation from fanbase size to industry influence. Stray Kids appeared on the list in 2025. BTS received the equivalent recognition years earlier through TIME and Forbes Korea. For CORTIS, appearing at this stage - before a second full year of activity - signals that HYBE's positioning of the group as a creative enterprise, rather than a conventional idol act, is registering with audiences outside the fandom.
The group's next scheduled appearance is KCON LA 2026 in August, their first North American event. No world tour has been announced.
