Born out of Chinese talent show Youth with You 2, nonuple girl group THE9 assembled in May 2020 as the product of an elaborate, televised sifting exercise. A grand total of 109 hopeful singers and rappers had put their hats in the ring for inclusion in the supergroup, with 100 vocalists getting eliminated over the course of the series and finalists XIN Liu, Esther Yu, Kiki Xu, Yu Yan, Shaking, Babymonster An, Zhao Xiaotang, Snow Kong and K Lu making the cut. Many of the band’s members had previously enjoyed minor success in other environments, with XIN Liu and Snow Kong having both belonged to Ladybees and K Lu first rising to prominence as a member of Fanxy Red. Debuting in August 2020 with the two-track EP Sphinx X Mystery, which consisted of the songs “Sphinx” and “NOT ME”, the new group quickly amassed a loyal following thanks to its extensive media coverage, selling over a million copies of the project in China. Stylistically drawing upon influences from pop, EDM and trap music, the band have also worked with numerous western songwriters including Swedish singer and The United member Gabriel Brandes and London-based lyricist SHORELLE, resulting in a hybrid, bilingual sound. They returned on Christmas Day 2020 with a debut album, MatriX, which contained the lead single “Dumb Dumb Bomb” alongside solo tracks from each of their nine members.