Kim Sunggyu (Korean: 김성규; Chinese: 金聖圭; Japanese: キム・ソンギュ; born April 28,1989) Commonly known as Sunggyu (officially spelt as Sungkyu), is a South Korean idol, singer and dancer. He is the leader and lead vocalist of the Korean boy group Infinite under Woollim Entertainment. He made his debut as a solo artist on November 7, 2012.
Biography[edit]
Kim Sunggyu was born on April 28, 1989 in Jeonju, South Korea. He attended Jeonju National University High School and was in the school rock band called “Beat.” When Sunggyu first told his parents about his dream to become a singer, they rejected it because they wanted him to have a normal life and told him they’d rather he leave the house instead. He continued to practice in secret and came to Seoul alone to pursue his dreams after graduating from high school. In 2007, he auditioned for SM Entertainment but failed to make the cut, and auditioned once more in 2008 only to fail again. Due to his admiration for rock band Nell, he initially auditioned at Woollim Entertainment under the recommendation of Nell’s manager whom he’d met coincidentally at the cafe where he worked at part-time. With a hurting stomach, Sunggyu went to his audition and lightly threatened them by saying, “If you don’t pick me, I’m going to bother you forever.” Afterwards he rushed to the hospital immediately and got an appendectomy. On the day of his release, he received the notification that he had passed his audition. Originally intending to pursue rock music in a band, Sunggyu instead became a trainee for the dance group Infinite, of which he would later assume the positions of Leader and Main Vocalist. Despite being criticized by his school friends, he believed that it was an opportunity nonetheless and persisted. In 2010, Sunggyu finally made his debut with Infinite on June 9.
On February 15, 2013 Sunggyu graduated from Daekyung University’s Practical Music program and received along with members L, Sungyeol, Hoya, and Dongwoo, the ‘Proud Daekyung University Student award’ in hopes that the group would continue to grow and bring prestige to the school. The members had been accepted through a special screened admittance in early 2011.
Sunggyu is currently a student of Practical Music at Hoseo University.
Career[edit]
Infinite[edit]
In 2010, Sunggyu made his debut with Infinite with the single “Come Back Again” as the group’s leader and lead vocalist. In 2010 he was playing the guitar in Epik High’s music video “Run”.
Solo career[edit]
2011 – 2012[edit]
Sunggyu along with Infinite members Sungyeol and Sungjong became the special DJs for Super Junior’s Kiss the Radio while Super Junior’s Leeteuk and Eunhyuk were away. They were in charge of the radio broadcast from October 24 to the 30th.[1]
Sunggyu made his debut as a musical actor, along with band member Woohyun, in the musical “Gwanghwamun Sonata”.[2] Sunggyu plays the role of Jiyong, the son of the female lead. The musical lasted from January 3 to March 11, 2012.
In May 2012, it was announced that Sunggyu would join Immortal Song 2 as a fixed member alongside Super Junior’s Ryeowook.[3] His first performance on the show was aired on June 23. In July, it was announced that he would be leaving the show due to Infinite’s oversea promotions.[4] His final episode aired on August 25.
On an episode of Weekly Idol, Sunggyu and Infinite member Hoya became the special MC for a week.
Sunggyu was the first member out of Infinite to release a solo album, titled Another Me. Nell’s Kim Jongwan composed the single “Shine” and was given to Sunggyu as a gift. The single was pre-released on November 7. On this album, Sunggyu worked with Sweetune to create the modern rock lead single “60 Seconds”. For the MV filming, fellow Infinite member L starred as the main character. Sunggyu also personally participated in writing the lyrics for his single “41 Days”.[5] Despite a short promotion period of three weeks, the album was well received and became the top selling physical album for the month of November with 62,958 copies sold.[6] The album ranked at #22 for Gaon Chart’s yearly physical album chart for 2012.[7] The album sales record 70,552 copies until the end of year 2012. In 2013, almost every months, Another Me managed to be in Monthly Top 100 Gaon album sales and at the end of the year 2013 record 13,283 copies. In total since released, until May 2014 the album has been sold 87,047 copies.
2013[edit]
In January, Sunggyu was confirmed to be a fixed cast on JTBC Lee Soo-geun and Kim Byung-man’s High Society 2 along with Super Junior’s Shindong.[8] The first episode was aired on February 9. It was revealed that the show broadcast on the 16th managed to achieve double the rating from the previous week. The rating for the broadcast on the 16th was 1.6% when it was only 0.7% the week before.[9] The show aired its final episode on June 15.
In early February, the drummer that featured in Sunggyu’s music videos for “60 Seconds” and “I Need You” committed suicide after going through a long period of depression. He was a friend of Sunggyu’s and of Infinite.[10]
Sunggyu made a cameo appearance in KBS’s new sitcom A Bit of Love alongside four other idols, MBLAQ’s G.O., KARA’s Seungyeon, ZE:A’s Siwan, and SECRET’s Ji Eun. According to representatives, they’ll appear as the younger versions of the five main characters for about three weeks. Sunggyu will be playing the younger version of Lee Hoon.[11]
Sunggyu was confirmed for tvN’s new reality program, The Genius: Rules of the Game, alongside 12 other representative figures from different fields of work such as TV personalities, politicians, gamblers, and more. The premise of the show is that participants must use their brain power to find a winning formula and win the game through betrayal and the elimination of their competitors. The winner is to receive about 100 million KRW (approximately $90,000 USD). The first episode which earned Sunggyu the tile of ‘Icon of Betrayal’ was broadcast on April 26 on tvN. Sunggyu finished in 4th place in a disappointing elimination as he had been considered the player with the strongest game ability.
In September, Sunggyu and fellow Infinite member L made a guest appearance on SBS Running Man’s Idol Special with twelve other idols from groups such as MBLAQ, Sistar, 2PM, A Pink, Girl’s Day, and Beast. In addition, Sunggyu was also featured in KBS2’s new variety show “The Sea I Wanted”, which tells the story of six men’s travel and experience on the open sea. The show is initially planned for a three episode pilot with the first episode airing on September 11.[12]
In October, he featured in rapper Kanto’s debut single “What U Want”. It’s his first time featuring since debut.
In December, he made another guest appearance on SBS Running Man episode 179 with Rainbow Jaekyung, Lee DongWook and many more…
Discography[edit]
Soundtracks[edit]
| Year | Show | Song Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | MBC What is Mom | “She’s a Fantasy” | with Infinite |
Solo Songs[edit]
| Year | Album | Song Title | Lyrics | Music | Arranged By | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Over the Top | “Because” | Lee Junghoon | Lee Junghoon | – | 3:52 |
| 2012 | Another Me | “Another Me (Intro)” | – | Han Boram | Han Boram | 1:07 |
| 60 Seconds | Song Sooyoon | Han Jaeho, Kim Seungsoo, & YUE | Yue & Hong Seunghyun | 3:34 | ||
| I Need You | Lee Junghoon | Lee Junghoon | Lee Junghoon | 3:43 | ||
| Only Tears (Acoustic Ver.) | Song Sooyoon | Han Jaeho & Kim Seungsoo | Han Boram | 3:52 | ||
| Shine | Kim Jongwan | Kim Jongwan | Kim Jongwan | 4:36 | ||
| 41 Days | Lee Junghoon & Kim Sunggyu | Lee Junghoon | Lee Junghoon | 4:11 | ||
| 2014 | Season 2 | “Light” | Kim Sunggyu | Je Yi Yun | 3:37 |
Album[edit]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Gaon Sales | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 (Ongoing) | ||||||||||
| Another Me |
|
1[13] |
|
13,283[14] | 2,679 [15] | ||||||||
| “—” denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. | |||||||||||||
Filmography[edit]
Drama[edit]
| Year | Title | Type | Network | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | The Thousandth Man | Drama | MBC | Himself (Cameo) |
| 2013 | Pure Love | Drama | KBS | Lee Hoon (Young) |
Variety Shows[edit]
| Year | Title | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | You are my oppa | Mnet | Pre-debut reality show |
| 2010 | Scandal | Mnet | – |
| 2011 | Sesame Player | Mnet | – |
| 2011 | Birth of a Family | KBS | – |
| 2012 | Ranking King | Mnet | – |
| 2011 – 2013 | Weekly Idol | MBC | MC for Infinite’s Jeju Island Special and Tasty episode |
| 2012 | Immortal Song 2 | KBS2 | Appeared for 8 episodes |
| 2013 | Happy Together 3 | KBS2 | “Weak Men” episode |
| 2013 | Lee Soo Geun and Kim Byung Man’s High Society | JTBC | episode 45-47 with Infinite – episode 62-79 with Shindong |
| 2013 | Radio Star | MBC | “Interesting People” episode |
| 2013 | The Genius: Rules of the Game | tvN | Reality Program |
| 2013 | Infinity Challenge | MBC | Summer Variety Camp |
| 2013 | Running Man | SBS | Appearance with Infinite’s L |
| 2013 | The Sea I Wanted | KBS2 | Pilot show |
| 2014 | Running Man | SBS | Episode 179, 180 & 201 |
| 2014 | This is INFINITE | Mnet | – |
| 2014 | The Genius 2: Rule Breaker | tvN | Guest |
| 2014 | Happy Together 3 | KBS2 | Guest |
| 2014 | We Got Married | MBC | Guest |
| 2014 | Crime Scene | JTBC | Guest |
| 2014 | The King of Food | KBS2 | Guest |
Musical[edit]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Gwanghamun Sonata | Jiyoung (main role) |
| 2014 | Vampire (previously known as Dracula but changed due to othe musical with the same title) | Count Dracula (main role) |
SOURCE:WIKIPEDIA
MCBNFORC 