Info Super Junior
Pre-debut
In 2001, the company held their first overseas casting auditions and discovered Han Geng in Beijing, who was chosen among three thousand applicants. That same year, Yesung was discovered under Seoul's casting system. Sungmin and Donghae were also selected to be trainees after their appearance in an SM-sponsored contest. In 2002, Heechul and Kangin were recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in Los Angeles. Siwon was recruited in 2003 and Ryeowook in 2004, in which the later was discovered through the Chin Chin Youth Festival singing competition. In 2005, Shindong was selected. The last member, Cho Kyuhyun,was then discovered after he won third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005.
Not long after boy band TVXQ's debut in 2003, news about Lee's unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread on the Internet. In early 2005, Lee confirmed the news and announced that an all-boy project group of twelve members would debut near the end of the year, promoting this singing group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia." Lee announced that that most members in this group were chosen because of their performing experiences as actors, MCs, models, and radio hosts prior debut. Heechul and Kibum were already established entertainers, and most of the other members had already made various kinds of appearances on television and media. Highly inspired by the rotational concept of Japan's girl group Morning Musume, this group would also experience line-up changes, with new members replacing some selected members every year to keep the group constantly young and all-rounded. This concept was then newly introduced to the K-pop market.
For a while the group was rumored to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm." However, before the group settled with their current name, SM simply referred to them as Junior, a representation of the members' young ages when they first became SM trainees. After the members' showcased their different talents to the company at a picnic, the company finalized their concept name to Super Junior. The group thereafter became officially Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.
Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005. At the showcase, they performed various styles of hip hop dancing. The group danced to B2K's "Take It To The Floor." Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance away from the group, dancing to Usher's "Caught Up." However, the performance did not air on television until May 16, 2006 as a segment in the Super Junior Show, the group's first television documentary.
2005–2006: The Super Junior project
Super Junior 05 debuted on SBS's music program Popular Song on November 6, 2005, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)." A digital single with "TWINS (Knock Out)", "You are the one", and three additional tracks were released online on November 8. A physical CD single was scheduled to be released the following week but a more complete album, SuperJunior05 (TWINS), was released on December 6, 2005 instead. Their debut album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at #3 in the monthly chart of December 2005. In that same month, they released "Show Me Your Love," a collaboration single with TVXQ. "Show Me Your Love" became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling 49,945 copies that month.
In February 2006, Super Junior 05 began performances for "Miracle", the second promotional single from their debut album. "Miracle" was the group's first single to peak #1 in online music charts of South Korea as well as the music charts of Thailand, drawing interest from international markets. As promotions for "Miracle" came to an end, SM Entertainment began selecting new members for Super Junior's second line-up project, Super Junior 06. The company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate from the group. However, no members were taken out and a thirteenth member was added instead in May 2006. The line-up project has been abandoned since then, and the group became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05".
2006–2007: Don't Don and breakthrough success
On May 23, 2006, SM Entertainment revealed the thirteenth member Kyuhyun, who was discovered through a singing competition in 2005. They released their single "U" online for free download on May 25, 2006 in their official website. "U" had over 400,000 downloads within five hours of release and it ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server. The physical single of "U" with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, 2006, eventually selling over 81,000 units. The single became one of Korea's most popular songs of the year, yielding #1 spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top music programs. By the end of the year, Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies, winning the title as Best New Group of 2006.
Super Junior's first sub-unit, the ballad-singing trio Super Junior-K.R.Y., debuted on November 5, 2006 with a performance of Hyena theme song "The One I Love" on KBS music program Music Bank. A second sub-unit arrived in February 2007 called Super Junior-T. The trot-singing group released their first single "Rokkugo" in February 23, 2007 and made a debut performance on Popular Songs two days later.
Super Junior's second official album was intended for a late 2006 release, but due to several accidental setbacks, Don't Don was not released until September 20, 2007. Within the first three days of release, offline album sales for Don't Don passed the 11,000 unit mark, debuting as #1 in all available offline charts. It finished the September monthly album sales as #1. 60,000 units were shipped by the first week of release and additional copies were printed. Although Don't Don received rather bland reviews from critics, the album sold more than 160,000 copies by the end of the year, becoming the second best-selling record of 2007. The album also found success in Taiwan; it broke the record for being the highest ranked Korean album on the G-music Combo Billboard Chart, surpassing the albums of TVXQ and Shinhwa. Super Junior's album also ranked above Taiwanese boy band K One, whose album debuted at #6.
Supported by the release of Don't Don, Super Junior was nominated in seven separate categories at the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival that was held on November 17, 2007. Super Junior won three of those categories including "Netizen Choice Award" and "Mobile Popularity", being the biggest winner of the night. The group also won "Best Artist of the Year" (Daesang), termed by many as the highest recognition of the ceremony. Super Junior collected two more awards on December 14, 2007 at the 2007 Golden Disk Awards. Although defeated by SG Wannabe in winning the "Daesang", Super Junior won a "Bonsang" and the "TPL Anycall Popularity Award", which were reported as expected wins for the group by the media after the success of Don't Don.
2008–2009: Beyond Korea and Sorry, Sorry
On October 2, 2007, SM Entertainment announced a third Super Junior sub-unit Super Junior-M, a subgroup designated for the Chinese market. While the creation of the subgroup created a brief controversy between the fans and the management, Super Junior-M became a phenomenal success in China, having the opportunity to have two sold-out concerts in Hong Kong, top weekly ratings with their appearance on variety programs, and becoming the idol group with the most endorsement contracts in China. With the absence of almost half of the members in Korea, a fourth Super Junior sub-unit was created that same year to prevent Super Junior from disappearing in the Korean music industry. With five members from Super Junior-T and Yesung, they formed the subgroup, Super Junior-Happy. Super Junior-Happy released the EP Cooking? Cooking! on June 5, 2008, and promotions ended on September 7, lasting for four months. In November 2008, Super Junior-T returned, this time as a singing group in Japan, called SuperJunior-TxMoeyan; this group added Moeyan, a famous two-woman comedy group in Japan. "ROCK&GO", a Japanese-language version of "Rokuko", debuted at #19 on the Oricon Daily Charts and jumped to #2 three days later.
Super Junior's first major tour, Super Show, commenced on February 22, 2008 in Seoul. The tour covered three countries and had shows on six different cities, including Bangkok, Shanghai, and Beijing. From July 8 to July 9, 2008, Super Junior held their first fan meeting in Japan, at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, as a celebration for the grand opening of their official Japanese Homepage, which was launched on April 1, 2008. 12,000 tickets to the fanmeeting were all sold out in several days. The group released a compiled Japan single the following day, entitled "U/TWINS", which includes the Japanese version of "U" in the limited release, to complement the event. The single peaked at #4 on Japan's Oricon Daily Chart in its first day of release, and dropped down to only four places in its second. The single broke a new record for being the first Korean single to have made within top 10 on Japan's Oricon Weekly Chart. On August 2, 2008, Super Junior expanded their routes to Genting Highlands, Malaysia, being one of the top guest performers at the MTV Asia Awards 2008 along with other international performing artists such as OneRepublic and the Jabbawockeez. They are the third SM artist to win Favorite Artist Korea at the MTV Asia Awards after Kangta of H.O.T and BoA, and the second musical group to win the award after JTL in 2008.
Super Junior's third album, Sorry, Sorry, was released on March 12, 2009 with acclaimed reviews. The title single of the album, "Sorry, Sorry" was digitally released on March 9, 2009. In less than a week after preorders were announced, over 150,000 copies were pre-ordered. Sorry, Sorry was their first album to debut at #1 on the Hanteo Charts, and it sold over 29,000 copies the first day, defeating Seo Taiji's record of 25,000. Promotions for the album started March 13 with the performance of "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" on Music Bank. Two weeks later, "Sorry, Sorry" became the number one song of the week on the same program. During the group's performance on music program Popular Songs on March 15, ratings went up to as high as 14%, the highest in recent years. From March to May, "Sorry, Sorry" collected a total of ten #1 awards with consecutive wins in Korea, having the single becoming a national and international success. After only a month of release, the album became South Korea's best-selling album of 2009. Sorry, Sorry was also a critically and commercially successful hit in other Asian countries, opting the group to become the only overseas representative for the second time at Taiwan's annual Golden Melody Awards. "Sorry, Sorry" was also #1 for a record-breaking 33 weeks in Taiwan. Sorry, Sorry was a best-selling Korean-language album in Taiwan, Thailand, China, and the Philippines, in which the latter listed the album to be the first K-pop album to reach #1 in music charts from the country. Super Junior won three awards in the 1st MNET Asian Music Awards - Overseas Viewers Award, Mobile Popularity Award and CGV Popularity Award despite not attending. Super Junior's Sorry, Sorry won Daesang at the 2009 Golden Disk Awards.
Super Junior's Members
Choi Siwon
Early life
Siwon was born and raised in an affluent, strict Protestant family in Seoul, South Korea. He was scouted by a talent agent when he was 16, who recommended him to audition for the Starlight Casting System to become an entertainer. Siwon's parents disapproved him pursuing in an entertainment career, so he had to secretly audition. He successfully passed auditions, and after consideration, his parents allowed him to sign under the talent agency SM Entertainment. Siwon said that although his father allowed him to sign the contract, he would not give any help to his son.He later moved into dormitories with fellow trainees and he was trained in areas of singing, acting, and dancing. He made his first appearance in a music video of The Grace's Dana when he was still a solo singer in 2003. A year after, he made a brief appearance in the short drama, Precious Family. In 2005, Siwon made a brief appearance in the KBS drama Eighteen, Twenty-Nine as the young Kang Bong-man.
Music career
Not long after Siwon's first television appearance, SM Entertainment released an announcement that he would officially debut as one of the twelve members in a boy band. This band later became officially known as Super Junior 05, the first generation of the rotational music group Super Junior. A few months before the debut of Super Junior 05, Siwon made his first official media appearance with band mate Han Geng as a runway model in a fashion show by Bum Suk.
Super Junior 05 officially debuted on November 6, 2005 on SBS's music program Popular Songs, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)". Their debut performance attracted over 500 fans and also garnered oversea viewers from both China and Japan. A full studio album was released a month later, which debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.
In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
In late 2007, Siwon was put into Super Junior-M, the Chinese subgroup version of Super Junior. Super Junior-M is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent, and brought an influence in the mainland music industry to produce multi-national music groups. Super Junior-M debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards with the release of their first single music video, "U". The subgroup released their first Chinese-language studio album, Me on May 2, 2008 to critical success. The album debuted on Taiwan's G-music combo charts as #2 and #1 on many of China's and Thailand's music charts.
He also appeared in Girl's Generation music video Hoot.
Acting career
After Siwon's appearances in Eighteen, Twenty-Nine and "Precious Family", he was casted in a larger role for the mini-series Spring Waltz, playing the supporting role Park Sang-woo, the teenage cousin of a diligent and working young woman. Not long after Siwon's musical debut, he was casted in a large supporting role in the Hong Kong epic film A Battle of Wits starring opposite Andy Lau. The cast promoted the movie throughout China with a short tour of four cities in November 2006.While the film received mixed reviews, Siwon garnered positive notices for his performance. He also received praises from co-star Lau, stating that Siwon is a wonderful actor and that he sets a good example for young Hong Kong idols.
Personal life
Siwon continued his education after his debut with Super Junior in 2005. He graduated from Gu Jeong High School in February 2006 and later went on to attend Inha University. For continuity of his role in A Battle of Wits, his company arranged him to travel to Beijing, China along with labelmate, Hyoyeon of Girls' Generation, in 2004 to learn about the country's language and history and studied there for three months before his return to Korea to prepare for his debut in Super Junior a year later.
Siwon is a devout Christian. He is also a drummer, having performed with his senior label mates TRAX in September 2006 on SBS's music show Popular Songs due to the fact that their drummer, Rose, had left the band. He is skilled in Taekwondo and became the youngest in Korea holding the fourth rank in the black belt.
On 18 May 2010, Siwon underwent a surgery to remove his inflamed salivary gland. During the filming for SBS drama ‘Oh My Lady’, he has been taking anti-inflammatory medicine for the inflammation. However, his condition worsened and he has to undergo an operation for it.
Half a year after the release of A Battle of Wits, Siwon starred in the high school mystery/comedy film Attack on the Pin-Up Boys with other Super Junior members. He played the lead role as a controlling and severe class president who was one of the popular possible subjects of being attacked by mysterious forces. Despite positive critical ratings, that film did not do well in the box-office, but all four versions of the film's DVD were all sold out and broke chart records. Few months later, Siwon was cast in mini-drama Legend of Hyang Dan as the lead role, Lee Mong-ryong.
In January 2010, Siwon was confirmed to be a lead role in the upcoming SBS drama, Oh My Lady airing starting March 22. It is a romantic comedy about a top star who finds himself living with his manager, a 35 year old woman who is trying to earn money to have custody of her child. This is Siwon's first lead role in about 2 years.
On June 17, 2010, it was confirmed that Choi Si Won would take the role of Kim Joon Ho, a new data analyst in the drama "Athena" a spin-off of just ended drama Iris.
Birth name :
Choi Si-won
Born :
April 7, 1986 (1986-04-07) (age 24) in Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, model, Instruments drums, piano
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-M
Website :
www.choisiwon.com
Lee Donghae
Biography
Donghae was born in Mokpo, Jeollanam on October 15, 1986. Donghae initially wanted to become an athlete, but under the influence of his father, who had a wish to become a singer, Donghae decided to train himself to become a singer. In 2001, Donghae successfully signed a contract with SM Entertainment soon after he jointly won the Best Outward Appearance award with future band mate Sungmin on the company's third annual SM Youth Best Contest. Under SM Entertainment, Donghae was put in singing, dancing, and acting lessons that same year. He was then recruited into a five-member boy band Smile, with future band mate Leeteuk, but the idea was soon dropped. In 2004, Donghae- along with Leeteuk- was put into another boy band and formed Super Junior with ten other trainees. The group later became known as Super Junior 05, the presumed first generation of the rotational music group, Super Junior. Several days before the group debuted, Donghae made a brief appearance in November 2005 at SBS's Shin Dong-yup's There Is There Isn't panel
Super Junior
Super Junior 05 officially debuted on November 6, 2005 on SBS's music program Popular Songs, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)". Their debut performance attracted over 500 fans and also garnered oversea viewers from both China and Japan. A full studio album was released a month later, which debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts. In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009. In late 2007, Donghae was put into Super Junior-M, the Chinese subgroup version of Super Junior. Super Junior-M is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent, and brought an influence in the mainland music industry to produce multi-national music groups. Super Junior-M debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards with the release of their first single music video, "U". The subgroup released their first Chinese-language studio album, Me on May 2, 2008 to critical success. The album debuted #1 on many of China's and Thailand's music charts and Taiwan's G-music combo charts as #2. Donghae composed 여행 (A Short Journey), which is on Super Juniors new 미인아 (Repackage) album.
Film
Donghae made his acting debut in Super Junior's horror documentary Mystery 6, broadcasted in early 2006. The documentary surrounds Donghae and his peculiar ability to see and feel ghosts. In August 2006, Donghae played the role of a human turned cyborg in the Korean version of BoA's music video drama, "Key of Heart," his first lead appearance in a music video. Donghae's official debut as an actor was in July 2007, with the release of Super Junior's debut film, Attack on the Pin-Up Boys. Donghae stars as a class mate and close friend of Kim Kibum, a high school student who investigates on a mysterious attack on boys in various high schools in town.
In late 2007 Donghae featured in Girls' Generation's "Kissing You" music video, and in early 2009, in Ariel Lin's "Firefly" MV along with band mate Siwon.
Also, he and Kyuhyun appeared and sang for facial wash product commercial "Happy Bubble" with actress Han Ji Min. A full music video was released on August 19, 2009.
He played Zhang Li Yin's love interest on her music video, 晴天雨天 (Moving On). A full music video was released on October 19, 2009.
Sponsorship
Currently Donghae is the brand ambassador for Maxim Colours Contact lens worldwide. A press conference appointing him the brand ambassador was held in Thailand, 21 June 2010. http://www.maximcolors.com/
Birth name :
Lee Donghae (이동해)
Born :
October 15, 1986 (1986-10-15) (age 24)Mokpo, Jeollanam, South Korea
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, rapper, songwriter, actor
Instruments :
Piano, guitar
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-M
Eunhyuk
Super Junior
Eunhyuk was born Lee Hyuk-jae in Neunggok, Goyang, Gyeonggi. In 1999 when he turned thirteen, he auditioned for SM Entertainment through the company's Starlight Casting System with childhood friend Xiah. Xiah was selected to sign a contract with the company soon after, but Eunhyuk failed the audition. He auditioned again the following year and was finally selected through showcasing his rapping and dancing abilities. Under SM Entertainment, Eunhyuk was further trained in singing, dancing, acting, and had brief Mandarin Chinese language courses. In 2002 Eunhyuk, Xiah, and another trainee Sungmin were placed in a project R&B group. A year later, the trio along with three future members from TRAX (Jay Kim, No Minwoo, Kang Jungwoo) made a brief appearance in a show called Heejun vs. Kangta, Battle of the Century: Pop vs. Rock, in which Moon Hee-jun and Kangta individually taught them techniques on different types of singing. Later that year, Eunhyuk's trio disbanded, and Xiah debuted as a member of TVXQ in 2003. Eunhyuk and Sungmin were instead placed together in another project group with ten other male trainees. The twelve boys formed the group Super Junior 05, being the first generation of the rotational boy band Super Junior.
With a total of twelve members, Super Junior 05 officially debuted on November 6, 2005 on SBS's music program Popular Songs, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)". Their debut performance attracted over 500 fans and also garnered oversea viewers from both China and Japan. A full studio album was released a month later, which debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.
In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
Eunhyuk is an acclaimed lyricist and wrote rap lyrics for a majority of Super Junior's songs. The rap lyrics to "Show Me Your Love" from the winter single with TVXQ was written by him, along with Heechul and Shindong. The Lyrics to One Love was also one of his works. Along with Donghae, he also choreographs some of Super Junior's dance routines.
He is one of the lead dancers in his band. He's also known as the dancing machine, which he is known by many people as a great dancer.
During his career with Super Junior, Eunhyuk was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that are branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In February 2007, he was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, he became a member of Super Junior-Happy.
Hosting
Eunhyuk replaced Kang-in's position in hosting for Mnet's music program M!Countdown in late 2006. Hosting with band mates Leeteuk and Shindong, they did not leave their hosting positions until early 2008. Eunhyuk has also been the co-host of Super Junior's Kiss the Radio (SUKIRA) with Leeteuk, a radio show that promotes Korea's music and pop culture. The show was established on August 21, 2006 and has become one of the more frequently tuned in radio channels of Korea.
Hosting
Eunhyuk replaced Kang-in's position in hosting for Mnet's music program M!Countdown in late 2006. Hosting with band mates Leeteuk and Shindong, they did not leave their hosting positions until early 2008. Eunhyuk has also been the co-host of Super Junior's Kiss the Radio (SUKIRA) with Leeteuk, a radio show that promotes Korea's music and pop culture. The show was established on August 21, 2006 and has become one of the more frequently tuned in radio channels of Korea.
Personal life
Eunhyuk has graduated from Pai Chai University.
On April 19, 2007, almost two months after Super Junior-T's release of their first single "Rokkugo", Eunhyuk was hospitalized from a car accident when returning home after a recording of the radio show Super Junior Kiss the Radio. Eunhyuk only suffered minor injuries, and was discharged from the hospital on April 23.
It was announced on Feb 25th 2010 that Eunhyuk was diagnosed with Swine Flu causing him not to attend the encore concert of Girls' Generation's Into the New World. Leeteuk and Heechul replaced him.In March 5th, SM Ent. announced that 4th of March in the evening Eunhyuk went to the hospital and it was confirmed that he is fully recovered from flu. After recovering, Eunhyuk resumed his activities at Shanghai SSII concert on March 6th.
In 2007, he said he was in love with a younger artist on his cyworld to keep his promise to be honest with his fans.
Birth name :
Lee Hyuk-jae
Also known as :
Eunhyuk
Born :
April 4, 1986 (1986-04-04) (age 24) Neunggok, Goyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B, trot
Occupations :
Rapper, dancer, singer, actor, MC, radio host
Instruments :
Piano, singing
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-T, Super Junior-Happy
Kang-in
Musical career
Kang-in was scouted by a talent agent and was recommended to sign up for SM Entertainment's talent competitions. In 2002, Kang-in won first place on the fourth annual SM Youth Best Contest and won the best outward appearance award and signed a contract with SM Entertainment.
Along with Hero, U-Know and future band mate Heechul, SM Entertainment placed them in a small project music group called Four Seasons, with each of the four members representing the four seasons of the year. The prospective group never came through; both Hero and U-Know were chosen to join another all-male singing group TVXQ, which debuted in December 2003. With two members gone, the idea of Four Seasons dropped. Kang-in and Heechul were then placed in Super Junior along with ten other trainees under the same company. This project group managed through well, and they debuted two years later in November 6, 2005 under the name Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.
In early 2006, SM Entertainment was beginning to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation, Super Junior 06, with Kang-in still as an undergraduate member of Super Junior. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit it big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer in 2006, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
During his career with Super Junior, Kang-in was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that is branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In February 2007, he was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, he became a member of Super Junior-Happy.
Television and acting career
Before debuting as a Super Junior member, Kang-in went by his birth name as a stage name. He debuted as a host and an actor before being in Super Junior 05. Active in television appearances and hosting, Kang-in earns the highest salary in Super Junior. Five days after Super Junior 05's debut performance, Kang-in became the MC of Mnet's M!Countdown along with Leeteuk and Shindong. The trio stayed as the hosts throughout the remaining year until Kang-in was replaced by Eunhyuk in mid 2006 due to his busy schedule for hosting Reckless Radio and MBC's music program, Show! Music Core. Kang-in also became the television host for two of MBC's popular entertainment programs, Sunday Sunday Night Dong-An Club and Nothing is Impossible. Holding a strong contract with MBC, Kang-in left Reckless Radio in June 2007 to host MBC's Good Friend Radio with Cho Jungrin. In April 2008, Cho's hosting spot was replaced by Taeyeon. Kang-in's last day of hosting the program was on April 19, 2009. From December 2008 to May 2009, Kang-in and actress Lee Yoon-ji played as a low-income college couple for the popular MBC reality show We Got Married.
Kang-in made a brief cameo appearance in the 2002 SBS drama, A Man and a Woman and in the 2006 MBC sitcom, Rainbow Romance as himself. In 2007, he made a guest appearance in the MBC drama Billie Jean, Look At Me. Kang-in's silver-screen debut was in the Super Junior film Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, premiered in summer 2007. In 2008, Kang-in was chosen to take the role of 'Kang Soo' in the Korean language film, Hello Schoolgirl.
From September 9 to November 9, 2008, Kang-in, along with band mate Heechul, debuted as musical actors through the musical, Xanadu. Xanadu was a 1980's musical film starring Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton John. Xanadu has also been reproduced to a Broadway musical. Heechul and Kang-in, along with Choi Sungwon, performed the same character, Sonny, according to their time slot, and auditions and casting picks will be chosen in a process through reality television.
Kang-in was also casted to take the role of 'Hotae' for MBC's cable comedy drama, Romance Zero. With a total of sixteen episodes, the drama ended in late May 2009 with acceptable reviews and ratings.
Controversies
MBC conflict
A time-slot dispute occurred between SM Entertainment and MBC when SM insisted to have Kang-in stay on SBS's Explorers of the Human Body instead of MBC's Sunday Sunday Night Dong-An Club, in which Kang-in was a regular host. MBC decided to temporarily ban Super Junior from appearing in any future performances on MBC.Kang-in was replaced by T.O.P of Big Bang as the MC of Show! Music Core. Kang-in could also no longer host MBC variety shows Nothing is Impossible and Sunday Sunday Night Dong-An Club until the conflict was resolved. MBC also demanded to receive an apology from SM Entertainment if SM artists should continue to perform on shows hosted by the channel. After Kang-in left Nothing is Impossible and Sunday Sunday Night Dong-An Club, both shows cancelled due to low ratings, though Kang-in's departure had nothing to do with this, as ratings were already low. Kang-in's radio program with MBC, Good Friend Radio, however, continues to air since it was not related to his work conflict. A week later, MBC announced that they invited Super Junior to film an exclusive MBC segment, "Giving Children a New Life" despite their previous decision to ban Super Junior. The entertainment director for MBC claimed that the ban on Super Junior was never official, but just a decision made by the programs' producers.
Assault case
On September 16, 2009, Kang-in was arrested for his involvement in a fight between two men that took place outside of a bar in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. An eye-witness reported that two men entered a room where Kang-in and his friend were present and began arguing heatedly. Kang-in left the bar, but the two men followed him outside and began displaying acts of violence. Another witness reported that Kang-in tried to stop the fight. A nearby surveillance camera caught the brawl, and it was immediately reported to the police. Kang-in was brought into interrogation to aid investigation along with four other suspects. One of the suspects insisted that Kang-in assaulted him, but it was later proven that Kang-in only reacted for self-defense.
Kang-in was dropped from being the main model of Andre Kim's fashion show as a result. After Kang-in's appearance in Super Junior's Super Show 2 concert in Hong Kong, all of Kang-in's future schedules became temporarily postponed.
Awards
(2007)
Korean Movie Awards: Best Actor for Attack on the Pin-Up Boys - nominated
Korean Movie Awards: Best New Actor for Attack on the Pin-Up Boys - nominated
Korean Movie Awards: Best Action Performance for Attack on the Pin-Up Boys - nominated
Birth name :
Kim Young-woon
Also known as :
Kang-in
Born :
January 17, 1985 (age 25) Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B, trot
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, television host, MC, radio host
Instruments :
Singing, piano, guitar, bass guitar
Years active :
2005–2010 (on hiatus)
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-T, Super Junior-Happy
Kim Heechul
Pre-Super Junior
He was discovered at Starlight Casting System October 2002 where he joined the auditions on a whim with his friends. Even though he was late because of unfamiliar places, he still passed the audition because of his dance. Initially, Heechul was placed in a four-member project group called, "Four Seasons." This group included other members Jaejoong, Yunho, and Kang-in. The prospective group never came through though as both Jaejoong and Yunho were chosen to join another all-male singing group, TVXQ, which debuted in December 2003. With two members gone, the idea of Four Seasons dropped. Heechul and Kang-in were then placed in Super Junior along with ten other trainees under the same company. This project group managed through well and debuted two years later on November 6, 2005 under the name Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior. The initial plan for this group is that members would be continuously cycled in and then fazed out into other projects.
Other activities of Heechul before his official debut include modeling, acting, and VJing. He made his first appearance on TV starring in the teen drama “Banolim 2”.
Official Debut: Super Junior
On November 6, 2005, Kim Heechul officially debuted as part of Super Junior 05 on SBS “Inkingayo,” performing the group's first single “TWINS (Knock Out)”. The group was supposed to comprise the first generation of Super Junior. In early 2006, SM Entertainment was beginning to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation, Super Junior 06, where Heechul would still be an undergraduate member. However, plans changed. The company decided to add a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix “05″ and became officially credited as Super Junior.
The re-polished group hit it big after it released the first CD single “U” the following summer in 2006. "U" became Super Junior’s most successful single in the music charts until the release of “Sorry, Sorry” in March 2009. However, setbacks occurred for the promotions of “U” in the later half of the year when Heechul suffered a major injury from a car accident that occurred on August 10, 2006.
Car Accident
On August 10, 2006, Heechul was involved in a car accident while heading back to Seoul from Mokpo after attending the funeral of fellow Super Junior member Lee Donghae’s father. The tires malfunctioned while his car attempted to switch lanes. Heechul fractured his left leg in five places, including his femur, knee, and ankle, requiring him to be in surgery for six hours. He also sustained other injuries, including a tear in his tongue which required stitches.
Heechul was advised to stop all activities for a period of twelve weeks. He was released from the hospital on September 13, 2006 but he continued to receive out-patient care. He returned to the hospital to have a second surgery to remove some of the iron rods in his leg on October 10 and briefly returned to work in late October to film the final three episodes of an MBC youth sitcom while still in a cast and on a wheelchair. He made his comeback on November 25 of the same year during the Mnet KM Music Festival (MKMF) Awards but it was only in late December that Heechul officially returned to individual activities such as variety show appearances and hosting appearances.
In 2007, Heechul started to perform regularly despite still having a few rods that the doctors had attached to his leg. In late April and May 2007, he had recovered enough to be able to take part in Super Junior's strenuous dance routines. The remaining rods in his leg were removed in 2008.
Super Junior-T
Heechul became part of a Super Junior sub-group, Super Junior-T, which debuted on February 23, 2007 with the Trot “teuroteu” single “Rokuko!!!”.
2007 to Present
In 2007, Heechul participated in Super Junior's second album Don't Don, the band's “Super Show” tour, and filmed Super Junior's first movie “Attack on the Pin-Up Boys”.
In 2008, he was active in Super Junior's activities: the visit to Japan, their second photobook “Boys at City Season 2″ (shot in Tokyo) and the “Super Show Encore” concert.
In 2009, Super Junior released their third album Sorry, Sorry, which was released on March 13. Their title song "Sorry Sorry" was immensely popular and claimed #1 positions on all major charts. After the first week of sales, the album topped the Hanteo Chart, with 30,000 copies sold just on its first day of release. As well as this, the song achieved its first #1 on KBS's Music Bank on March 27 - only two weeks after their comeback stage. The song continued to prove it's popularity, winning a total of 5 #1's on Music Bank and a triple crown on SBS's Inkigayo.
The group then released a follow up repackage of their third album called It's You, which was released on May 11. The comeback performance was made on May 17 on SBS's Inkigayo, and on the following week made performances on KBS's Music Bank, where they won their first K-Chart for the song on May 22. The promotions for the song was cut short due to the group's second live concert tour.
On May 13, 2010, Super Junior released their fourth album Bonamana and made a comeback stage on KBS Music Bank on the 14th. The album once again proved the group's popularity, selling over 36,000 copies on its first day of release - more than that of their third album.
On June 28, 2010, Super Junior released their repackaged album with three new tracks - "No Other", "All My Heart", "A Short Journey" - and the remixed version of "Shake It Up!"
Television and Acting career
Like bandmate Kibum, Heechul made his first television appearance as an actor before the debut of Super Junior. He starred in the 2005 teen drama, Sharp 2, in which he acted alongside Kibum. Not long afterwards, Heechul appeared in an episode of Loveholic as a chef trainee. After the debut of Super Junior, Heechul teamed with Kibum again to star in the sixth season of Nonstop, alternatively known as Rainbow Romance. In 2006, Heechul starred as the supporting character Gong Min in Bad Family. In 2007, he starred in the popular family drama Golden Bride as Kim Young-soo.
Heechul began to appear on numerous variety shows such as Vitamin, Sponge, Xman and Love Letter. Kim Heechul can also be seen in advertisements for various Korean brands.
From September 9 to November 9, 2008, Heechul and Kang-in starred in the Korean version of the musical Xanadu, sharing the lead role Sonny. Auditions and casting picks were done via a reality television (To Be Kang-in and Heechul), which also served to promote the musical.
Heechul was also on a TV show called Joahseo or Good Daddy, where he and three other celebrities, including Lee HongKi from FT Island, learned to be good fathers by caring for a "daughter". After Good Daddy show, he become close friend with Lee HongKi and their close relationship enable them to be chosen in Save Energy Campaign in the middle of 2009. Heechul was also in “Band of Brothers” with Super Junior's Kang-in, and Jungmo and Jay from “The TRAX”. In the show, the band paid tribute to famous and different groups during their showcase at the end of the program.
Hosting stints
Heechul began hosting before his music debut. He was a regular MC for the cable music show Show! Music Tank. He was also a substitute MC for Andy of Shinhwa on SBS “Inki Gayo” on numerous occasions. Heechul also became a permanent host for SBS “Inki Gayo” with Korean actor Jang Geun Suk on February 25, 2007.
He hosted his own radio show, SBS Power FM Youngstreet along with Park Heebon, but the program ended in mid-2006. After the 55-episode drama "Loving You Ten Million Times" ended in early 2010, he returned to SBS radio as a DJ to host his own radio program, "HeeChul's Young Street." The show, which started airing on 29 March 2010, is broadcast by Power FM 107.7 MHz from 8:00 to 10:00 pm (Korea Time). The program is his first comeback as a DJ in four years.
In May 2010, he was announced as a regular cast member on Family Outing 2. The show ended two months later due to low ratings.
Internet
Heechul is known to fans as a netizen due to the large amounts of time he spends on the internet.
Most recently, Heechul has been very active on twitter. On October 9, he created a personal facebook, which collected 5,000 friend requests within 5 minutes. He was also a worldwide trending topic on Twitter for four days (from 9 Oct 2010 to 12 Oct 2010).
TV Series
Loveholic: “Young Chef/Cameo” (KBS, 2005)
Sharp 2: “Baek Jin-woo” (KBS2, 2005)
Bad Family: “Gong Min” (SBS, 2006)
Rainbow Romance: “Himself” (MBC 2005-2007)
Golden Bride: “Kim Young-soo” (SBS, 2008)
TaeHee HyeGyo JiHyun: “Himself/Cameo” (MBC, 2009)
I Love You Ten Million Times: “Lee Chul” (SBS, 2009–2010)
Films
Attack on the Pin-Up Boys: “Himself” (2007)
Music Video appearances
"Flight Girl" (비행소녀) – Magolpy [Vitamin Entertainment, Korea] with Kang-in & Shindong
[2010] "가슴이 차가운 남자 (Let You Go)" - TRAX (band) with Victoria Song
[2010] "Shady Girl"- SISTAR
Disc jockey
Young Street Radio (영스트리트) : November 1, 2005–April 30, 2006 (with Park Heebon)
SBS Power FM, HeeChul's Young Street: 29 March 2010 – present
Birth name :
Kim Hee-chul
Also known as :
Heenim
Born :
July 10, 1983 (age 27) Hoengseong, Gangwon, South Korea
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, trot
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, television host, radio host, MC, model
Instruments :
Piano, drums
Years active :
2001 - Present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-T
Website :
www.cyworld.com/yuri9doo
Kim Kibum
Early life
Kibum was born in Seoul, South Korea. He has a younger sister, Kim Sei Hee. He also has cousins in Florida, California, Atlanta and New Jersey. One of his cousins is a famous actor and model, Shin Dongwook. At the age of ten, he moved to Los Angeles, California, United States where he attended his high school years at Santa Monica High School.
In 2002, he was discovered by a talent agent from South Korea and was recommended to audition for the Starlight Casting System, a casting system organized by SM Entertainment, and also the home of top Korean pop acts like BoA and TVXQ. Kibum soon signed a contract with SM Entertainment and became their official trainee, being trained in areas of singing, acting, dancing, and other performing talents such as hosting and modeling. He placed particularly strong efforts in acting, as he explained that he is most interested in that area. Although he resided in Seoul at the time, he constantly returned to Los Angeles to visit his family and to attend short school sessions.
Acting career
Television
Before debut, Kibum was often seen participating in runway modelling and appearing in advertisements for KTF, C&C phone, NF Sonata, OLIVE, My Chew, Ottogi Noddle and Elite Uniform with his SM senior BoA. He was also seen in many other ads with fellow future co-star, Ahyoomee, Go Ara, and future bandmate Kim Heechul.
Kibum debuted on April 21, 2004, the premiere date of the KBS drama, April Kiss. He plays the young role of Han Jungwoo. Kibum's largest role among Korean audiences was in the KBS drama, Sharp 2, starring alongside labelmates Go Ara and Kim Heechul. Soon after the premiere of Sharp 2 in early 2005, Kibum debuted as a member of Super Junior, which tightly interfered with his acting career. He was then given a small role in the MBC drama, Marrying a Millionaire, appearing in only one episode where he plays the young Kim Younghoon. However, he reprised as a lead actor in the MBC daily sitcom, Rainbow Romance, sharing the lead with Kim Heechul for 243 episodes a year later. In the fall of 2006, Kibum's second drama with Go, Snow Flower aired on SBS, attracting more audiences.
In April 2008, it was announced that Kibum would be starring in yet another daily MBC drama, Chunja's Happy Events alongside Wang Bitna after sixteen months of hiatus in the acting industry. The drama's premiere date was on May 19, 2008.
Film
Kibum's first silver-screen appearance was in Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, a 2007 high school Korean film that starred all members of Super Junior except Kyuhyun. He plays the narrator of the story; a student who investigates the mysterious happenings at school. Despite positive critical ratings, the film did not do well in the box-office, but all four versions of the film's DVD were all sold out and broke chart records. 2010, Kibum's new movie (Jumunjin) is set to be release on the 21st of January. The basic premise is about a love story of a ghost man (Kibum) meeting a girl that lives in the country side and they form a relationship. He has also been cast in an upcoming play called A (Middle) Nap (낮잠). very capable person.
Music career
2005–present: Super Junior
In early 2005, Kibum's talent agency released an official announcement that Kibum would make a second debut as a singer. Along with eleven other members, Kibum with Super Junior 05, Super Junior's first generation, debuted on November 6, 2005 on SBS's Popular Songs, performing the group's first single "TWINS (Knock Out)." The group released their full studio album a month later, and the album debuted as #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts. As the group's second promotional single, "Miracle", came to an end, his talent agency was about to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation, Super Junior 06, planning to replace Kibum with a new member. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared that future Super Junior generations were rumors. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially Super Junior. The new group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer in 2006, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts, leading Super Junior to set #1 records in their music career since then.
Kibum placed aside his acting career and was active as a member of Super Junior, especially during promotions for the group's second album Don't Don in the fall of 2007 and Super Junior's first concert tour in early 2008. Don't Don became Super Junior's best-selling album and Korea's second best-selling album of the year,while Super Show's live concert album became a record success in South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan.
Kibum is known for his English rapping ability in the group and remains as one of the lead rappers of Super Junior. Kibum also actively appears on variety shows . Kibum makes frequent appearances on Love Letter and other popular South Korean variety programs, promoting the group's music and product. Even after both debuts Kibum continued to be a popular symbol for endorsements, being an endorser of many items in South Korea. Kibum was picked as the co-presenter of Thailand's 12 Plus Powder along with the primary presenter, bandmate Choi Siwon, in early 2008. However, the co-presenter was switched to bandmate Donghae for another product of 12 Plus - "roll-on".
In 2009 Super Junior released their third LP, "Sorry, Sorry". During promotions for the first single, "Sorry, Sorry", Kibum was absent which led to speculations that he left Super Junior. SM Entertainment, as well as all the band members denied this. When Super Junior released their second single, "It's You", Kibum was noticeably absent again from all promotions. SM finally issued a statement stating that Kibum was busy with solo projects, and re-confirmed he would be absent from promotional activities due to prior engagements, and that he hadn't left Super Junior. It was later confirmed that Kibum would not appear on the Super Junior tour (July 2009), "The Super Show II" due to an injury to his foot, which lead to six weeks of rest from physically straining activities. After the release of "Sorry, Sorry - Answer", Kibum was completely absent from the video and the song. In the group's latest release, "It's You", Kibum had no singing solo. Kibum revealed his upcoming plans in the near future, although they still remain tentative as of now. He stated, “Firstly, I am in the process of preparing for the play and releasing the drama. Whether I will participate in the fourth album, resume solo activities, or continue acting, need to be further discussed with my company."
It is also confirmed that Kibum will not be participating in the 4th album, as he will be focusing on his acting career. as of October 13, 2010 Kibum was spotted going back to the Super Junior dorm. Fans stopped him and asked if he was coming back to SuJu. he said "Hopfully, yes. I wish to return to my activities as part of Super Junior.I will most likely be participating in the making of the 5th album." It is said the 5th album is being released early 2011.
Birth name :
Kim Ki-bum
Born :
August 21, 1987 (age 23) Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance-pop, R&B
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, model
Instruments :
Piano, vocals
Years active :
2004–present (Acting/modeling)
2005-present(Singing)
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior
Website :
www.actorkibum.com
Kyuhyun
Biography
Pre-debut
Cho Kyuhyun' won third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005. He soon signed under SM Entertainment and was featured in the video remake of TVXQ's single "Hi Ya Ya".
Before Kyuhyun's addition to Super Junior, the original twelve members were said[who?] to be separating and "graduating" as the band was still presented as a project group at the time.
Debut
Kyuhyun made his first appearance as a part of Super Junior in a news broadcast on May 23, 2006 when the group was introducing their new single, U. Kyuhyun made his debut performance on May 26, 2006 at SBS's I-Concert performing the new single "U", where it was also the group's first return performance as a permanent group. Towards the end of 2006, Kyuhyun, along with Yesung and Ryeowook, was placed in Super Junior's first subgroup, Super Junior-K.R.Y. The trio debuted on November 5, 2006 on KBS's Music Bank.
April 2007 car accident
In the early morning of April 19, 2007, just one month before Kyuhyun's first anniversary in Super Junior, Kyuhyun with Super Junior members Leeteuk, Shindong, Eunhyuk, and two managers were all hospitalized due to a serious car accident when returning from the Super Junior Kiss the Radio show that night. The driver lost control of the vehicle as the van flipped over on its right side. Kyuhyun, who was sitting behind the driver's seat when the accident occurred, was the most injured and had a fractured hip, pneumothorax from broken ribs, and facial scratches and bruises. He was slipping in and out of consciousness and was mute because of the shock. Kyuhyun spent 6 days in the ICU before he was moved to a regular hospital room. Kyuhyun also did not need the respiratory machine anymore to support his breathing, though it was said that he was only able to walk on his own one month after the accident. Kyuhyun was discharged on July 5, 2007 after 78 days.
Don't Don
In time for the release of Super Junior's 2nd album in September, it was announced that Kyuhyun would return along with the rest of the members, sporting new looks and styles. Kyuhyun gave his first performance after the April car accident on September 21, 2007, performing the new promo-single, "Don't Don" on KBS Music Bank.
Super Junior-M
In early 2008, Kyuhyun was placed in a second Super Junior subgroup, Super Junior-M. The subgroup specializes in singing Mandarin songs, including versions of Super Junior's Korean songs, bringing the K-pop influence over to the Chinese music industry. Super Junior-M is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent. The 7-member group debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards along with the release of their first single music video, "U".
Not long after Super Junior-M's debut, they became one of the most celebrated boy-bands in China. The band's popularity skyrocketed further after their highly anticipated Mini-album, "Super Girl" was released on September 2009.
Solo
In 2009, for the promotions of Super Junior's third studio album Sorry Sorry, Kyuhyun performed as one of the lead vocalists and traveled with the other members to overseas events, including Jackie Chan's Bird Nest Concert on April 8, 2009 with Zhang Liyin. The album brought immense popularity to the group after their long hiatus, allowing Super Junior to appear regularly in several variety shows and endorsements. They also held their second official Asia Tour, Super Show II.
Kyuhyun featured on Yoo Youngsuk's 20th anniversary tribute album, singing his first solo: a remake of Yoo's hit song "7년간의 사랑" ("7 Years of Love"). He first performed the song on July 10, 2009 on Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketch Book, the episode airing 2 days later. The song was released as a digital single, and Yoo Youngsuk's album was available online on June 30, 2009, with all proceeds going to UNICEF.
He and bandmate Donghae performed a special song "Happy Bubble" for a facial wash product commercial "Happy Bath" with actress Han Ji Min. A full music video was released on August 19, 2009.
Kyuhyun, along with the rest of Super Junior-M, returned in September 2009 to China to promote their first mini-album: Super Girl.
On January 6, 2010, Kyuhyun released his solo song "Listen To You", it is the main theme song for Korean drama "Pasta". When the song was first released on the music site monkey3 (www.monkey3.co.kr), it garnered a lot of attention and reached #1 on the real time chart.
On August 5, 2010, Kyuhyun released his third solo song "희망은 잠들지 않는 꿈 (Hope, a dream that never sleeps)" as OST for popular TV drama 제빵왕 김탁구 (Baker King, Kim Tak Goo).
Aside from the official solo releases, Kyuhyun has also performed a variety of other songs such as "Believe", Qi Qin's "Won't Let My Tears Accompany Me Through The Night (不讓我的眼淚陪我過夜)", Nicholas Teo's "Tears of Polaris", Jam Hsiao's "Forgive Me" and "A Goose's Dream" with Jonghyun of SHINee. Kyuhyun also collaborated with The Grace in early 2008 to perform "하루만 (Just For One Day)" for The Grace's first album 한번 더, OK?. During the SMTown Live '10 World Tours he sang the song "Call With My Heart" with Girls' Generation's Seohyun.
Birth name :
Cho Kyuhyun (초규현)
Also known as :
Kyuhyun (규현)
Born :
February 3, 1988 (age 22)
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, model
Instruments :
Piano, clarinet, singing
Years active :
2006–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-K.R.Y, Super Junior-M
Leeteuk
Biography
When Leeteuk and his older sister, Park In-young, traveled to Myeongdong for a holiday in early 2000, he was recommended by a talent scout to audition for SM Entertainment's Starlight Casting System, an audition that selects artists to sign under their label. After several test recordings and performances, he signed into SM Entertainment and became the company's trainee. That same year, he had his first quick television appearance as an extra in the MBC Korean drama All About Eve, and appeared as a brief model for Pepsi in 2002. In 2003, Leeteuk was put into a five-member boyband with future bandmate Donghae, but the project was quickly dropped. They were then put into the large rotational group Super Junior along with ten other boys. Older than the other trainees, Leeteuk became the leader of the group.
On November 6, 2005, Leeteuk officially debuted on SBS's Popular Songs music program as a member of Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior. The group performed their first single "TWINS (Knock Out)" to an audience of about 500 fans. Leeteuk explained that he uses a stage name due to his desire to have a name with the same effects as Kangta (and to also prevent confusion with veteran actress Park Jeong-su). His stage name denotes being "special" as he wants to be a special member in the group. Leeteuk also became known as the "special leader" (특별한리더) of the group.
Around March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next generation of Super Junior, and Leeteuk would still remain as the leader of Super Junior 06. However, plans changed when the company added a thirteenth member to the group, Kyuhyun, and declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
During his career with Super Junior, Leeteuk was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that are branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In February 2007, Leeteuk was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, Leeteuk became a member of Super Junior-Happy. On April 19, 2007, almost two months after Super Junior-T's release of their first single "Rokuko", Leeteuk became seriously injured in a car accident when returning home after a recording of the radio show Super Junior Kiss the Radio. Along with Leeteuk, Shindong, Eunhyuk, Kyuhyun, and two managers were also victims. While Shindong and Eunhyuk suffered minor injuries, Leeteuk and Kyuhyun sustained more serious injuries, which required for both to be hospitalised for several more weeks. Leeteuk had glass shards embedded into his back and above his eyes, requiring over 170 stitches in removing most of them. Leeteuk was discharged from the hospital on April 30, 2007. Due to this injury, Leeteuk's role in Super Junior's first big-screen production, Attack on the Pin-Up Boys (2007) was cancelled. However, it was revealed at the end of the film that he'd taken on the role as the panda mascot, which was later confirmed that it had actually been Ryeowook who'd portrayed the panda in most of the film.
Leeteuk has been co-hosting Super Junior's Kiss the Radio (SUKIRA) with Eunhyuk since 2006. Leeteuk is also praised for his hosting skills. With that, he has become active in SBS Star King (hosted by Kang Ho Dong) & Strong Heart (hosted by Kang Ho Dong & Lee Seung Ki). In Strong Heart, Leeteuk along with bandmates Eunhyuk & Shindong make up "Teukigayo" (Teuk Academy), a hilarious segment in which have gained lots of support from audiences.
Leeteuk recently confessed in an interview that he would like to start his 2-year long mandatory military service either at the start of 2012 or the end of 2011. After he finishes Military he will try his best to reach back to the top again.
Birth name :
Park Jung-su
Also known as :
Leeteuk
Born :
July 1, 1983 (age 27) Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B, trot
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, television host, radio host, MC
Instruments :
Piano, guitar
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-T, Super Junior-Happy
Ryeowook
Biography
Kim Ryeowook was discovered through the CMB Youth ChinChin Festival in 2004 and signed a contract with SM Entertainment soon afterwards after impressing judges with his singing talent. Trained in areas of singing, dancing, and acting, Ryeowook placed particular efforts into his vocal training and music composition as he was most concerned in those areas. He can play the piano, and will play the accompaniment for other members solos every so often during concerts.
Super Junior
Ryeowook was the last to join Super Junior before Kyuhyun, only joining the group several weeks before their official debut in 2005. Having undergone only two months of training under SM Entertainment, Ryeowook's late addition was rumored to be a replacement of a previous SM trainee that was supposed to debut as a member of Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.
On November 6, 2005, Ryeowook along with eleven other members of Super Junior 05, officially debuted on SBS's Popular Songs performing the first single "TWINS (Knock Out)." The group released their full studio album a month later, and the album debuted as #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts. As the group's second single, "Miracle", came to an end, his talent agency was about to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation, Super Junior 06, with Ryeowook staying as an undergraduate member. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared that future Super Junior generations were rumors. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially Super Junior. The new group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer in 2006, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts, leading Super Junior to set #1 records in their music career since then. A year later in the fall of 2007, the group released their second official album, Don't Don, which became Super Junior's best-selling album and Korea's second best-selling album of the year.
In late 2006, Ryeowook became a member of Super Junior's first subgroup, Super Junior-K.R.Y. The trio debuted on November 5, 2006 on KBS's Music Bank. In early 2008, Ryeowook was placed in another Super Junior subgroup, Super Junior-M. The subgroup specializes in singing Mandarin songs, including Mandarin versions of Super Junior's Korean songs, bringing the K-pop influence into the Chinese music industry. Super Junior-M is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent. The seven-member group debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards with the release of their first single music video, "U". The subgroup released their first Chinese-language studio album, Me on May 2, 2008. The album debuted on Taiwan's G-music combo charts as #2 and #1 on many of China's and Thailand's music charts..
Ryeowook is also featured in one of K.Will's song "Teardrops". Ryeowook is the first member of Super Junior to have a solo in a Super Junior album in their fourth album entitled Bonamana in the song One Fine Spring Day.
Acting
Ryeowook made his acting debut in the film, Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, a high-school comedy/mystery film, in which he plays the eccentric vice president of the student council. Ryeowook's acting gained positive feedback from critics and he was nominated Best Supporting Actor and Best Comedic Performance at the Korean Movie Awards.
Composing
Ryeowook successfully composed a song by himself titled "Memories in Breeze"
Ryeowook's first composition to be officially released was "Love U More", found on the repackaged Sorry, Sorry Version C. He co-wrote the lyrics with fellow Super Junior member Sungmin. Ryeowook is also credited for musical arrangement in the liner notes of the album.
Birth name :
Kim Ryeo-wook
Born :
June 21, 1987 (age 23) Incheon, South Korea
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B, trot, k-pop
Occupations :
Singer-songwriter, dancer, occasional actor, Pianist
Instruments :
Piano, singing, keyboard
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-K.R.Y, Super Junior-M
Shindong
Musical career
Shindong was born in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang on September 28, 1985. Having a love for dancing, Shindong signed up for the 2002 Goyangsi Youth Dance contest and won the grand prize. A year later, he joined the contest again and won gold. In 2004, Shindong joined the Mnet Epi Contest and won both the gold prize and popularity award. In 2005, Shindong signed up for the SM Best Youth Contest and won first place for Best Comedian, achieving the grand prize. He signed a contract with SM Entertainment and received lessons to further improve his dancing ability.
Months after joining the company, Shindong was put in the large all-boy rotational group Super Junior as a member of its first generation, Super Junior 05. He decided to use the stage name 'Shindong' due to his birth name sounding similar to band mate Donghae. 'Shindong' (신동) is derived from his surname and the first character of his birth name. It is also the Korean word for "child prodigy."
With a total of twelve members, Super Junior 05 officially debuted on November 6, 2005 on SBS's music program Popular Songs, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)". Their debut performance attracted over 500 fans and also garnered oversea viewers from both China and Japan. A full studio album was released a month later, which debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.
In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
During his career with Super Junior, Shindong was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that are branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In February 2007, he was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, he became a member of Super Junior-Happy
Television and film career
Hosting
Five days after Super Junior 05's debut performance, Shindong became the emcee of Mnet's music program M!Countdown along with Leeteuk and Kang-in. They stayed as the hosts throughout the remaining year until Kang-in was replaced by Eunhyuk in mid 2006. The trio's last day of hosting was on March 27, 2008.
Shindong is popularly known as an active emcee and radio host of MBC's BoBoBo Ai Joa and KMTV's Green Apple Sound, successfully establishing the image, "DJ Shindong." Shindong left Green Apple Sound to host MBC's Stop the Boring Time Radio with Kim Shin-young.
Acting
While Shindong had prior acting experiences as a comedian, his acting debut was in the Super Junior film Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, which premiered in the summer of 2007. In 2008, Shindong played a major supporting role in the mini television series Single Dad in Love and also participated in the drama's original soundtrack. He and radio partner Kim Shin Young appeared in an episode of popular MBC drama Queen of Housewives.
Personal life
Shindong is currently a student at Paekche Institute of the Arts. He enjoys making jokes and frequently attends gag performances. He is recognized as Super Junior's "fat member" and is known for his chubby physique. Wanting to present a healthier image to fans, Shindong went on a diet in 2008 and lost around 19 kg. In early 2009, Shindong lost another 10 kg after Leeteuk broadcasted a comment in "Super Junior's Kiss the Radio" saying that Shindong would lose more weight for the fans.
In May 2010, Shindong proposed to his long time girlfriend using a coded message in the "thank you" column of Super Junior's 4th album. On April 19, 2007, almost two months after Super Junior-T's release of their first single "Rokkugo", Shindong was hospitalized from a car accident when returning home after a recording of the radio show Super Junior Kiss the Radio. Shindong only suffered minor injuries, and was discharged from the hospital on April 23.
Birth name :
Shin Dong-hee
Also known as :
Shindong
Born :
September 28, 1985 (age 25) Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang, South Korea
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B, trot
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor, radio host, MC , Rapper
Instruments :
Piano, guitar
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-T, Super Junior-Happy
Sungmin
Biography
Sungmin was born in the Ilsan district of Goyang, Gyeonggi. He has a younger brother, Lee Sungjin. He entered the 2001 SM Youth Best Contest and jointly won first place for the Best Outward Appearance award with future band mate Donghae. Together, they signed a contract with SM Entertainment and began to receive training in singing, dancing, and acting.
In 2002, Sungmin was briefly placed in a project R&B group with Xiah and future band mate Eunhyuk. Along with Typhoon, Rose, and Attack, the six of them made their first television appearance in a show called Heejun vs. Kangta, Battle of the Century: Pop vs. Rock Moon Hee-jun taught Typhoon, Rose, and Attack on how to properly sing rock while Sungmin, Xiah, and Eunhyuk were taught other singing techniques by Kangta. The six trainees quickly separated a year later, however, when Typhoon, Rose, and Attack debuted as member of rock band TRAX and Xiah debuted as a member of TVXQ. Both Sungmin and Eunhyuk joined ten other trainees and formed the group Super Junior 05, being the first generation of the rotational boy band Super Junior. Right before Super Junior debuted, Sungmin made a brief appearance on the MBC drama Sisters of the Sea, playing young Kang Dong-shin.
Super Junior
Super Junior 05 officially debuted on November 6, 2005 on SBS's music program Popular Songs, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)". Their debut performance attracted over 500 fans and also garnered oversea viewers from both China and Japan. A full studio album was released a month later, which debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.
In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
During his career with Super Junior, Sungmin was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that is branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In February 2007, Sungmin was placed in the trot-singing Super Junior-T. A year later, he became a member of Super Junior-Happy.
Acting
Sungmin played young Kang Dong-shin in the MBC drama Sea of the Sisters in early 2005, right before the debut of Super Junior. A year later, Sungmin guest starred in SBS's Banjun Theatre drama Finding Lost Time and played as Micky's high school friend. Sungmin's first big-scale film was the Super Junior film Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, an SM Pictures production that premiered for the first time in July 2007. He played the role of a pretty school boy who later gets attacked by an unknown criminal. In early 2008, Sungmin participated in a short half-hour drama Super Junior Unbelievable Story with Leeteuk. Sungmin starred as himself, a member of the popular group Super Junior-T who is constantly overshadowed by his members. In 2009, he was cast in the musical "Akilla" starring as the main lead, Ro. In 2010, he was cast in the musical "Hongildong" starring as the main lead, Hongildong, with bandmate Yesung. He is casted in the KBS drama "President" as Jang Sungmin, the son of Jang Il Joon. The drama will air on 8th December and take over "Fugitive: Plan B" time slot.
MC
Sungmin replaced band mate Kang-in as one of the key DJs of Reckless Radio and was hosting it with Sooyoung of Girls' Generation in the later half of 2007. On February 3, 2008, Sooyoung's band mate Sunny replaced her position. The program ended in late July 2008.
Digital single
In early 2007 Sungmin released a digital single with The Grace's Dana and Lina. The single was never released as an official CD.
소중한 열매
Released: March 9, 2007
Format: Digital single
Tracks
소중한 열매
소중한 열매 (Students' Version)
소중한 열매 (Cheerleading Version)
소중한 열매 (Instrumental)
Label: SM Entertainment
Producer: Lee Soo-man
Birth name :
Lee Sung-min
Born :
January 1, 1986 (age 24) Origin Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B, trot
Occupations :
Singer, songwriter, dancer, actor, radio host
Instruments :
Piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-T, Super Junior-Happy
Website :
http://min01.smtown.com/
Career
Super Junior
Yesung was born in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, has a younger brother, Kim Jong-jin. At a young age, he has expressed interest in singing. In 1999, Yesung joined a broadcasted singing competition and won gold at the Chun-an Singing Competition. In 2001, Yesung's mother signed him up to audition for SM Entertainment's Starlight Casting System, a casting audition that selects artists to sign under the label. He impressed the judges with his "artistic voice", and signed under SM Entertainment that same year. In late 2004, Yesung was recruited into the large all-male rotational boy band Super Junior.
On November 6, 2005, Yesung officially debuted on SBS's music program Popular Songs as a member of Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior. The group performed their first single "TWINS (Knock Out)" with an audience of about 500 fans. A full studio album was released a month later, which debuted at #3 on the monthly MIAK K-pop album charts.
In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next Super Junior generation. However, plans changed when the company added in a thirteenth member, Kyuhyun, and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. The group dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior. The re-polished group hit big after they released their first CD single "U" the following summer, which became Super Junior's most successful single in the music charts until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.
During his career with Super Junior, Yesung was put into two subgroups, smaller groups that are branched off of the larger Super Junior group. In November 2006, Yesung was placed in Super Junior's first subgroup, Super Junior-K.R.Y, a group specializing in singing mournful, R&B ballads. Almost two years later, Yesung became a member of Super Junior-Happy. On May 10, 2008, Yesung was sent to the hospital after he collapsed from running 70 kilometers for a charity marathon. On August 8, Yesung was sent to the hospital again after falling from a 1.5m stage while rehearsing a performance for the KBS music program, Music Bank. The injury severed his old injuries from the neck and waist and Yesung was not treated out of the hospital until two days later.
Yesung alone contributed in the drama OST, Tazza, a highly rated drama which started on September 16, 2008. He sang 사랑참아프다 (Love Really Hurts). This ballad song has been consistently used during the drama itself. He has performed the song live several times, including in the 3rd Anniversary Party of Super Junior.
On November 6, 2009, he replaced Jonghyun of Shinee in their Ring Ding Dong performance due to Jonghyun coming down with the swine flu.
On 2010, Yesung contributed in the drama OST "Cinderella's Sister", starring Moon Geun Yeung and Chun Jung Myun and started on March 31, 2010. He sang "너 아니면 안돼"(It Has To Be You). This song is a ballad that tells the story about a man who refuse to look for another girl, except for the one he love. Recently, during the epilogue of Super Junior's 2nd Asia Tour Concert, Super Show 2 Manila, he sang this song live on stage and asked his fans to support his new song. In June 4, 2010, Yesung performed solo for the first time on Music Bank (TV series) with his song, It Has To Be You, a highly rated song on the music chart on Music Bank.
Hosting
From September 2006 to September 2007, Yesung was a host for his own radio program, M.I.R.A.C.L.E for You, where members of Super Junior often appear as guests. However, before the radio show's first anniversary, Yesung had to end the program so he could concentrate on Super Junior's second album, Don't Don. The last air date for the radio show was September 8, 2007.
Acting
Yesung's acting career began in the summer of 2007 with the release of Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, a high school comedy starring the whole of Super Junior. Yesung stars as the school's rock star who gets attacked by a mysterious force, which shoots him toward national stardom. In 2009, Yesung was casted to play Jung Myung-soo in the musical South Korean Mountain Fortress, which will show from October 9 to November 4, 2009. He was also performing in the musical Hong Gil Dong that was running from February 18th to April 18th, alongside group mate Sungmin.
Birth name :
Kim Jong-woon
Born :
August 24, 1984 (age 26) Cheonan, South Chungcheong, South Korea
Origin :
Seoul, South Korea
Genres :
Pop, dance, R&B
Occupations :
Singer, dancer, actor
Instruments :
Piano
Years active :
2005–present
Labels :
SM Entertainment
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-K.R.Y, Super Junior-Happy
Former member:
Han Geng
Early life
Han Geng, an ethnic Nanai from Northeast China, was born in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, China. He attended GuangHua Elementary School from 1990-1996.
At Central University for Nationalities
At the age of 12, he was accepted into Central University for Nationalities and left Mudanjiang for Beijing to perfect his craft in dance. During that time he also learned ballet and martial arts. During this time he performed in many places including the US, Russia, Taiwan and Macao with other talented dances from his school..
In 1999, as a representitive of the young people of Nanai, he participated in the parade in honor of China's 50 year anniversary.
Career
Korea and Super Junior
In December 2001, Han's friend notified him of a talent scouting audition that was going to be held in Beijing, and his friend encouraged Han to sign up with him. Although hesitant at first, Han agreed to audition with his friend. Together they signed up for the H.O.T. CHINA Audition Casting, a casting audition that was hosted by Korean talent agency and label SM Entertainment. The competition rate was 3000 to 1, and Han had no hopes of getting selected after auditions ended.
After the audition, Han began to work briefly as a cameo actor in short low-budget Chinese films to earn a salary before entering college. In late August 2002, Han was notified that he had been accepted into SM Entertainment. After Han's graduation at the Central University for Nationalities, he was sent to South Korea and received private lessons in singing, dancing, and acting, as well as learning the Korean language. Mid 2003, Han moved into dormitories and lived with other trainees who were under the same label. With the other trainees, he was enrolled in training classes. He started out as a Class C dancer (the lowest class for dancing), but later on he went straight to Class A, skipping Class B. At that time, there were only 4 people in Class A, including Han Geng.
On February 6, 2005, Han was officially announced to be part of one of South Korea's all-boy rotational musical groups, Super Junior, as a member of its first generation, Super Junior 05. Being the first group with a Chinese and foreign member to formally debut in South Korea, the media closely followed the group. Three months later after the announcement, Han made his first media appearance as a runway model in a Fashion Show organized by Bum Suk.
Han was one of the few members of Super Junior who actively appears on variety shows, such as being a regular guest in Love Letter and Star Golden Bell. Being active in variety shows, his popularity within Super Junior grew and Han became popular overseas. Aside from South Korea, Han also became well-known in China, where he made guest appearances in different Chinese variety shows, being one of the first K-pop idols to appear in them. Han became a national celebrity in China with the debut of Super Junior's third subgroup Super Junior-M on April 8, 2008 in China. The subgroup released their first Chinese-language studio album, Me on May 2, 2008. The album debuted on Taiwan's G-music combo charts as #2 and #1 on many of China's and Thailand's music charts.
Han Geng ceased activities with Super Junior after filing for contract termination from SM Entertainment on December 21, 2009.
Acting
Han made a cameo appearance with band-mate Eunhyuk as a friend of Heechul in an episode of the MBC drama Rainbow Romance early 2006. In August 2006, Han played the role of a police officer in Zhang Liyin's debut music video "Timeless", starring alongside Lee Yeon-hee and band-mate Siwon. The two-part music video was separately released in September 2006. The music video was ranked #1 for a full four weeks on Melon's Video Chart. In November 2007, Han starred as the lead role in Zhang's debut Chinese music video, "I Will", and "The Left Shore of Happiness" alongside Lee and Siwon. Both music videos were released in February 2008.
Han's first big-scale film was Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, an SM Pictures production that starred all Super Junior members except Kyuhyun. He played the role of a popular basketball player who later got attacked by a mysterious force. Despite positive critical ratings, that film did not do well in the box-office. However, all four versions of the film's DVD were sold out and broke chart records.
Late 2008, Han filmed the CCTV mini drama called Stage of Youth in China. He plays Xia Lei, a young man who has to go through numerous obstacles and challenges in order to achieve his dream to become the new generation's dancing star. The 12-episode drama was a Chinese New Year Special and also a tribute to the Beijing Olympics 2008. It aired on CCTV-Children (少儿频道) from January 19–31, 2009.
2008 Beijing Olympics torch bearer
On March 20, 2008, Han was announced to be one of the torch bearers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the first boy-band member to be chosen in history. Being active in a foreign country, Han has simultaneously promoted Chinese culture to Korea, earning him a spot as torch bearer. His torch relay was in the Beijing route on August 7, 2008. He was runner number 240. Not only was he a torch bearer, he'd also sung in the Beijing Olympic theme song "Beijing Welcomes You (北京欢迎你)".
Charity Work
Han Geng is extremely active in many charities, and constantly tells his fans that instead of buying gifts for him, they should use their resources to help those in need. Han Geng is most noted for donating most of his 2008 income to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He also donated 100,000RMB to the 2010 Yunnan Drought. In 2010, Han Geng became a spokesperson for “I Want To Go To School Kappa 1200 Help the School Children Project," a charity designed to help underprivileged Chinese children go to school. While most celebrities that participated only sponsored one child through the program, Han Geng chose to sponsor ten, and Han Geng's fans, know as Gengfans (庚饭, lit. "Geng Rice"), sponsored another 124. Han Geng also recorded a song with Olivia Ong to promote the charity.
Solo Career
On June 22, 2010, Han Geng officially announced his solo career at a press conference held at The Great Wall Of China, revealing the release of his first solo album titled Geng Xin 庚心, which hit the stores throughout Asia on July 27. The name of the album literally means "Geng's Heart", but it is also a play on words because it has the same pronunciation as "start anew" in Chinese.
On July 6, Han Geng published a complete demo version of his album's title song "My Logo". The song was produced by American producers Tearce "Kizzo" Keaz, Rene Van Verseveld and Craig Williams. My Logo was written by Craig Williams and his team of award-winning United States music producers Tearce "Kizzo" Keaz, Rene Van Verseveld, Craig Williams, and Francesca Richard. Remarkably, Han Geng and Craig Williams invited Travis Payne and Stacey Walker (best known as Michael Jackson's choreographers) along with Michael Jackson's This Is It dancers - Dres Reid, Shannon Holtzapffel, Tyne Stecklin and Daniel Celebre to join the choreography for the MV of this song.
Han Geng also held his first solo concert in Beijing on July 17 and 18. Tickets for the 2 concert days were sold out in a record time of 37 minutes. The album has topped various major music charts in China, Taiwan and Singapore and it had sold more than 350,000 copies in only 2 months after its release. To celebrate such remarkable results, a special celebratory version of the album was released on October 1st with a limited number of 20,000 copies. In addition of the 10 songs in the album, the special version contains 7 MVs and a Karaoke disc.
Controversies
Performance restrictions
Before his debut, Han entered Korea with a vacation visa and had to return to China every three months for a new one. After debuting in 2005, his company obtained an E-6 (Entertainment Industry) passport, allowing him to stay for longer periods. However, the passport strictly limited his promotional activities and appearances in various broadcasting corporations in Korea. By law, a foreigner in Korea is only permitted to perform on three television stations. Han was allowed to perform on KBS and SBS, as stated by Lee Soo Man during a Harvard Korean Wave conference in early 2007. Fellow labelmate, Zhang Liyin, also experienced the same issue. Initially, the company did not know of the procedures, and was fined because of it. Before Han signed contracts with KBS and SBS, he performed on stage with a mask and a hat to hide his face on screen. Many thought Han was a back-up dancer until three months later when a band mate (Heechul) finally revealed him to the media by publicly taking off his mask.
Despite visa restrictions, Han performed with the rest of Super Junior at the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival and the 2007 Golden Disk Awards. Both award ceremonies air on channels that Han was restricted to perform on. With the debut of more foreign artists in Korea, the Korean government lifted its restriction on foreign performers on August 1, 2008.
Lawsuit
On December 21, 2009, Han Geng filed for contract termination from his former company SM Entertainment. The following day, December 22, 2009, Han Geng's lawyer released the reasons for the contract termination: the contract had provisions in SM Entertainment's favour, the 13-year contract length was unlawful, it would take an unfair sum of money to end the contract, he was not allowed to request to revise his contract, he was forced to do things that were not in his contract, he was forced to do things against his will, he was fined if he disobeyed the company, missed any events or was late, and there was unfair profit distribution. Along with this, it was disclosed that because of SM Entertainment's refusal to give him a day off in over two years, he had developed gastritis and kidney disease.
Han Geng's best friend and current manager, Sun Le, also submitted a statement to the Korean courts citing SM Entertainment's violation of Han Geng's rights. This statement was later leaked to the public via the internet. Though many suspected the statement to be fan created, it was later confirmed as legitimate. Sun Le's statement contended that: Han Geng was forced to wear a mask due to SM Entertainment's ill handling of the visa issue, SM Entertainment purposely discriminated against Han Geng and his family, SM Entertainment refused to cooperate or listen to any of Han Geng's suggestions, SM Entertainment purposely turned down individual activities for Han Geng (including Ariel Lin's "Fireflies" music video, which later starred two other Super Junior members,) and SM Entertainment treated Han Geng's potential endorsers poorly.
Albums
2010: Geng Xin(庚心)
Tracklist:
01.飞蛾扑火 (Fire/ Fatal Attraction)
02.Say No
03.撑伞 (Holding Umbrella)
04.给陌生人的情书 (Love Letter to a Stranger)
05.女皇 (Empress)
06.因为梦 (Because of Dream)
07.简单的人(Simple Man)
08.心疼.笔记本 (Hearache.Notebook)
09.爱的翅膀 (Wings of Love)
10.My Logo
Chinese name :
韓庚 (Traditional)
Chinese name :
韩庚 (Simplified)
Pinyin Hán Gēng :
(Mandarin)
Jyutping :
Hon4 Gang1 (Cantonese)
Birth name :
Han Geng
Ancestry :
Nanai
Origin :
Mudanjiang, China
Born :
February 9, 1984 (age 26) Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, China
Other name(s) :
한경 (Hankyung)
Occupation :
Singer, dancer, actor, model
Genre(s) :
Pop, dance, R&B, Folk dance
Instrument(s) :
Piano
Voice type(s) :
Tenor
Years active :
2005–present 2010-present (solo)
Associated acts :
SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-M
Influences :
Andy Lau, Leehom Wang, Jang Dong-gun
Official Website :
http://www.chinahangeng.com/
