On March 22, Cube Entertainment published a logo for its third girl group which would debut shortly after PENTAGON's comeback with Positive. The group already counted with a former contestant of the reality shows Produce 101 and Unpretty Rapstar 3, Jeon Soyeon.[1] From April 8 to April 12, the five members of the group were revealed via social medias, starting with Yuqi, followed by Miyeon, Shuhua, Soojin, Soyeon and Minnie respectively.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The group officially debuted on May 2, with the release of the mini album I Am and its title track "Latata", which was wrote by member Soyeon, as well as the full album. On May 22, "Latata" got its first win at The Show, exactly 20 days after the debut.[8] They won a total of three times during their promotion.
Soyeon made her solo debut on November 5, 2017 before joining the group.[11]
In the music video for "Jelly", we can see a girl wearing a white fox mask. We will later know that the girl was Soojin.[citation needed]
In her comeback on February 2018, there is again the same girl in the music video for "Idle Song" and also some clues for (G)I-DLE members (an earth glob with indicators of their birth places and radio fixed on "450" (for April 5, their reveal date).[citation needed]
The group name have some significations:[citation needed]
"(G)" (여자) is for "girl" and "Idle" (아이들) for "children".
The "I" in "I-DLE" is for the individuality and "DLE" the plural, so the girls have the same personality but their are related.
Cube Entertainment was looking for a group name and after Soyeon sent the agency her song for her second digital single "Idle Song" it became the edited group's name "(G)I-DLE".