Kang Seung-yoon

Kang Seung-yoon was born in Busan, South Korea, on January 21, 1994. Among his family, he is an only child raised solely by his single mother.[3] Kang learned to play the guitar in the eighth grade.[4] While in his last year of junior high, he took lessons in both classic guitar and billiards, soon going on to become the regional representative for billiards.[5]

Seungyoon attending Samsung's Galaxy Tab showcase on January 7, 2011

In 2010, Seungyoon was a contestant on Mnet's singing contest Superstar K2. He finished the show in fourth place, while having released two singles, "I'll Write You a Letter" and "Instinctively".[6] "I'll Write You a Letter" peaked at number 24[7] on the Gaon Music Chart after its release on the Superstar K2: Top 6 (My Story) album, while "Instinctively" became a number-one hit single in South Korea, selling almost 2 million digital copies[8][9] and was listed as one of the top 100 songs in the year-end charts.[10] It was released on its own as a digital single later in the Superstar K2 compilation album, Superstar K2 Up to 11.[1] The single went on to earning him the "Rookie of the Year" award at the Gaon Chart Awards in addition to the "Rookie of the Month (October)" at the Cyworld Digital Music Awards.[11] He also released the promotional single, "Life is Tab" alongside three other contestants to promote the Samsung Galaxy Tab.[12] On November 28, Seungyoon performed at the Mnet Asian Music Awards held in Macau, China alongside other Superstar K2 contestants.[13]

After initial success with Superstar K2, Yang Hyun-suk signed Seungyoon to YG Entertainment as a trainee on January 12, 2011.[2] When asked the reasons for his decision to sign with the company, he answered: "Since Superstar K2 ended, there were a lot of offers. Some said they would make me the star of Asia, and some offered a great amount of money for signing the contract. I chose YG Entertainment because this agency evaluated me objectively, unlike other ones. They looked at me as an actual trainee."[14] He also released a single, "You Are Heaven", for the soundtrack of the Korean drama Midas.[15] Seungyoon graduated from Busan High School of Arts with a major in classic guitar in 2012.[16] That same year, he appeared on MBC's sitcom High Kick: Revenge of the Short Legged. He plays as a young man with a heavy southern-Korean accent who arrives in Seoul dreaming to become the President. The series aired from September 19, 2011 to March 29, 2012.[17]

Seungyoon attending the Melon Music Awards on November 13, 2014

On June 20, 2013, Yang Hyun-suk announced Seungyoon would be debuting as a solo artist with the single "Wild and Young" composed by Teddy Park.[18] On July 15, it was announced Seungyoon's debut would be postponed. However, the following day another single titled "It Rains" was released instead.[19][20] "It Rains" achieved an all-kill by placing at number one on all nine major real-time charts in Korea.[21][22][23] On July 31, "Wild and Young" was released[24][25] with two more title tracks set to be promoted in August and September. Live promotions of the single commenced on August 4 on Inkigayo.[26][27] On August 14, Seungyoon's second single "Stealer" (Korean: 맘도둑) was released.[28] The music video, starring rookie actress Yoon Jin-yi, was "filmed secretly" and released without promotions so as not to disrupt the promotions for "Wild and Young".[29]

Seungyoon then participated in the survival reality program WIN: Who Is Next.[30] The program would involve two teams of YG trainees (A and B) that would compete against each other for the chance to debut at the end of the series.[31] In the seventh episode of WIN: Who Is Next, Seungyoon replaced bandmate Song Min-ho as the leader of "Team A". On October 25, it was announced that Team A had won the series and would debut as Winner. The group performed as the opening act of Big Bang's Japan Dome Tour which started on November 15, and made their own official debut on August 12, 2014.[32] The same year, Seungyoon and fellow member Song Min-ho participated in Yoon Jong-shin's Monthly project and released the song "Wild Boy".[33]

In 2015, Seungyoon starred as the male lead in the web drama We Broke Up, alongside label-mate Sandara Park. The 10-episode drama was aired from June 29 to July 17 via Naver TV Cast.[34] In December 2016, Seungyoon starred in the web drama Love for a Thousand More alongside fellow member Kim Jin-woo. The web drama is a joint production of CJ E&M, YG Entertainment, and YGKPlus.[35] He released a soundtrack for the drama, titled "You".[36] The same month, he joined the cast of SBS' variety show Flower Crew as a regular host.[37]

In 2017, Seungyoon starred in tvN's black-comedy series Prison Playbook.[38] Seungyoon and fellow member Song Min-ho released a soundtrack for the drama titled "Door".[39] In 2018, Seungyoon sung the OST for the Korean movie, Golden Slumber. The song was originally performed by The Beatles.[40] In 2019, Seungyoon participated on MBC's “Show that Rewrites the Charts, What is No. 1 Right Now?” and performed Haebaragi's song “With Love”.[41] Seungyoon claimed first place and the song was digitally released on April 12.

In 2020, Seungyoon participated in a singing competition program, MBC's King of Mask Singer, for the second time and won the title. He appeared as Chow Yun-Fat and defeated So Chan-whee.[42] He was able to impress the panel of judges, pulling off six consecutive wins and was named as “The First 6-Time Idol Champion.”[43] On May 20, 2020 it was confirmed that Seungyoon would make his comeback as an actor after three years and join MBC's upcoming drama Kairos, set to air in the second half of 2020.[44] [45]

In October 2010, Seungyoon was scouted by LG U+ and appeared as a CF model for their International Call 002 range.[47]

In November 2010, CJ Group advertised their first new corporate campaign since six years with the message: Different ideas that change the world. The South Korean conglomerate wished to choose well-known figures within the country for this thus collaborating Superstar K2 and YG Family artists. In result Seungyoon was chosen as a model alongside fellow Superstar K2 contestants Huh Gak, John Park, Jang Jae-in and artists Big Bang, 2NE1 and Psy.[48]

With the release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in December 2010, Seungyoon was selected to endorse the product by Samsung.[49]

Through the MMORPG, Grand Chase developed by South Korean game developing company KOG Studios, in January 2011 Seungyoon exclusively became the endorsement model for the game.[50]

In December 2018, Jinusean's Sean reported that Seungyoon quietly donated 30 Million Won in addition to his donation earlier in the year to the Seungil Hope Foundation.[51]

Following the cancellation of contemporary casual clothing brand PLAC's 'by YOU' collection in collaboration with Seungyoon and bandmate Mino showcase event, scheduled on February 28, 2020 due to safety issues in relations to the recent coronavirus pandemic, the funds they raised towards the showcase was used to donate 10,000 masks for low-income children.[52]

All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise noted.[64]