CROWN JEWELS 왕관 보석
CJ-Crown in their promotional posters for 'GUESS WHO' Left to right: Kai, Baekhyun, Yibo, Romeo, Jake, Kun
Background information
Origin	Seoul, South Korea
Genres	K-pop
Years active	2021–present
Labels	Diamond Soul Factory
Associated acts	24CARAT, CARAT XY
Korean name	왕관 보석
Romanization	wang-gwan boseog

This article contains Korean text.Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul and hanja.

Crown Jewels (Korean: 왕관 보석, RR: wang-gwan boseog) is a South Korean co-ed group, represented by the label Diamond Soul Factory. They became well known after competing on the survival show "24CARAT", and it was announced that the top 10 finalists of the show will form the first ever co-ed group under DSF, and their first group overall. They are set to promote for one full album and its repackage, and then to be set on an indefinite hiatus. The group is comprised of ten members: Baekhyun, Kai, Nene, Yibo, Kun, Romeo, Ryujin, Meiqi, Jake and Yuna. Their official debut was on May 30, 2021 with the reselase of their first full album "REGALIA", with title songs 'Too Late' and 'Side Kick'. Their official fandom name is yet to be announced and their official colors are royal purple and sterling silver.

You can find their official profiles here. 

Pre-debut

Prior to debuting with Crown Jewels, all members had already been active in the entertainment industry. Aside from 24CARAT, all members participated in the pre-debut project of DSF, called "CARAT XY" - it promotes two groups, a boy and a girl group, comprised of all trainees currently under the label, for a single EP release. Baekhyun, Kai, Yibo, Kun, Romeo and Jake were part of CARAT Y, promoting with the song "Black on Black", while Nene, Ryujin, Meiqi and Yuna were part of CARAT X, promoting the song "Secret Story of the Swan". Both songs were hits, with 'Black on Black' scoring a win on 4 music shows, and 'SSOTS' scoring 2 wins.

Career

May 2021: debut with REGALIA

On May 20, 2021, DSF started teasing Crown Jewels' comeback over social media. Multiple photo teasers, plus one video teaser, were released - one photo for each member - as well as a tracklist at the end. It was confirmed via social media, that the whole team of DSF is working on this release. The released tracklist proved that many of the songs, used on 24CARAT were going to be released officially, and many trainees and members took part in the creation of the songs. 

On May 30, 2021, the album was released on all streaming platforms.

Too Late is a dance electronic track, depicting a couple, portrayed by the male and female members respectively, who are trying to get over a cheating - the male members claim that it's not the end and want to be given a second chance, while the female members ask them to go away and claim their heart is broken upon no revival. As is common, there are worries when debuting a co-ed group. Their debut stages were met with much success despite their worries. The catchy “watch dance” and “ dance” are the key points in the choreography.

Side Kick is a highly demanding dance track, including MMA tricks and jumps in its choreography. 

July 2021: Repackage album and indefinite hiatus

On July 1st, 2021, DSF released the repackaged album 'Guess Who'. It added three more songs to the REGALIA track list - Skydive, Easy and Last of Us. Both Skydive and Easy have gangster concepts, and we see [SPOILER] Ryujin in the Skydive MV as Baekhyun's character's sister and eventual victim of the people who blackmailed him, with the help of Kai, who was a sleeper cell in the group. Baekhyun is the main character in the MV, portrayed as a criminal with a penchant for fooling around with ladies in bars, but then torn between his loyalty to the gang and the life of his sister. The rest of the members all have a part in the gang as well, with Kun being the arsonist, Romeo - the seeming leader or at least representative of the group, who takes the tasks;  Jake - the marksman, who also seems to steal some of the loot for himself; Kai - the knife-handler and also traitor, and Yibo as the sniper, who catches Jake in the act of stealing.

In the Easy MV, Ryujin and Meiqi are being interrogated by detectives Nene and Yuna, which leads to believe that Ryujin, and subsequently Meiqi, were also part of or knew of the existence of Baekhyun's gang.
Throughout the MV, though, we see that Nene has been closing her eyes for some of the clues and by the end of it we see all of them have converted to the criminal life.

Skydive and Easy were created by well known household names in DSF - rapper, producer and soloist ONE for Skydive, and producing team Kwon Eunbi and Chaewon for Easy.

The last song released and last in the tracklist is a ballad, called Last of Us, where the members again perform together as a mixed group. It was penned and produced by member Ryujin. It's a farewell song, with an aesthetic peaceful vibe for the MV, but it still leaves the door open for a reunion, as the group goes on an indefinite hiatus, but has not been disbanded officially. 

CJ-Jewel in a still from the MV for 'Easy'
Left to right: Nene, Ryujin, Meiqi, Yuna

Members

Discography

On May 30th the full album was released on all streaming platforms. 

It consists of 12 tracks, created by different songwriters in DSF and the idols as well. Some tracks feature trainees of DSF, who are not part of the final lineup, but are the original performers of the songs.
Such an example is 'The Truth Untold', which features trainee Park Jimin - eliminated early from 24CARAT and known for his participation in CARAT XY. He was also credited for lyrics creation of the song.
Solar and Wonyoung also make an appearance in "To Reach You", the former originally being part of the line-up, and the latter added afterwards. Both of them reached the end of 24CARAT, but ultimately did not rank high enough to make it into the group. Wonyoung has been confirmed to take part in the Season 2 promotions of CARAT XY. She is also featured in the song "Get It", despite not being part of the original line-up, along with Nene.
MJ and Chaewon are featured in Ryujin's song "Full Moon". They were not competitors on the show, but are known from their participation in CARAT XY.
As a special feature, Romeo's past band - The Vipers - makes an appearance for the track "Shoot Me", which is also credited to them.
The album wraps up with three solo songs from the top four contenders (Yuna performed a dance cover for the final). The solos are completely created by their respective performer - Yibo, Baekhyun and Nene. "No Sense" and "Press No. 5 for Cute in Input Method" by Yibo and Nene respectively, are written and released in Chinese.
Aside from the two title tracks, Diamond Soul Factory has also confirmed that the songs Get It and New Rules will also be promoted on music shows. Later on both songs were released as singles.

The repackaged album 'Guess Who' was released shortly after the first and the boys and girls were divided for their respective promotions. The boys, under the name 'CJ-Crown' promoted the song "SKYDIVE", while the girls - as 'CJ-Jewel' promoted the song "Easy". "Last of Us" was not promoted. All three songs were subsequently released as singles from the album.