SB19 came up through the same kind of trainee system K-pop idols go through, minus the K-pop part — ShowBT Philippines, a subsidiary of a South Korean management company, put Pablo Nase, Josh Santos, Stell Ajero, Ken Susan, and Justin Dios through it before their 2018 debut, TILALUHA, went basically unnoticed.
It was a dance-practice video for "Go Up" going viral in 2019 that actually changed things, and the group has kept building since — "Gento" hit No. 8 on Billboard's World Digital Songs chart, and they became the first Southeast Asian act nominated for a Billboard Music Award. In 2023 they left ShowBT and started their own label, 1Z Entertainment, releasing Pagtatag! as their first fully independent statement — a P-pop act that outgrew the system that trained it.