Lee
Jong-hyun (이종현; pronounced [iː dʑoːŋ hjəːn]; born on May
15, 1990) is a South Korean guitarist, musician, singer,
songwriter and actor. He is the lead
guitarist and vocalist of South Korean rock band
CNBLUE.
He made his acting debut in Acoustic followed by television debut in A Gentleman's Dignity in 2012.
Life and career
Early life
Lee Jong-hyun was born on May 15, 1990, in Busan, South Korea.His family consists of his parents and 2 older sisters. He lived in Busan before his family
moved to Japan when he was four years old. His family moved back to Busan and
he finished his middle school and high school there. The talent scouter from FNC
Music (currently known as FNC Entertainment) who visited Busan to see Yonghwa,
came across Jong-hyun in the street, and suggested scouting immediately. On his
way to his audition, he met his current fellow CNBLUE member Jung Yong-hwa
at the Seoul Station. They then met Kang Min-hyuk,
also a current fellow member of CNBLUE, at FNC Music where they auditioned.
Eventually, only the three of them passed the auditions and Lee began training
in bass
technology at FNC Academy.
Before Lee embarked on his musical career, he was a judo
athlete who won a gold medal in a judo championship amongst athletes in his
hometown when he was in high school.
However, he decided to give up on sports upon realizing that this was not the
field that he would excel in after losing in a match in just a few seconds. He
then started to focus on music. At first, he learned singing, then piano. Then,
upon watching an English singer-songwriter and guitarist Eric Clapton
playing the guitar, he was inspired to learn to play the guitar.
Music career
See also: CNBLUE
Lee debuted with CNBLUE in South Korea
on 14 January 2010 with their lead single "I'm a Loner". Before their
Korean debut, they debuted as an indie band, with Lee being the leader, in Japan in August 2009. Jung Yong-hwa
then took over his place following the band's Korean debut. They made their
major debut in Japan in October 2011.
Lee, together with Jung Yong-hwa, has also been making
significant contributions to the band by composing songs which were released in
Japan and Korea. He composed songs such as "Blind Love",
"Lie", "Rain of Blessing", "Kimio", "My
Miracle", "Come On", "No More", "These Days"
etc, which all gained positive feedback. "Come On" ranked number 5 in
Oricon's Weekly singles chart while "Blind Love" ranked number 4.
"Get Away", one of his compositions, was used as ending theme song
for Japanese broadcast of American TV series Gossip Girl.
Jong-hyun revealed that he composed "These Days" when he was a
trainee.
Lee sings "My love" OST for SBS Drama A Gentleman's Dignity which he starred in.
The OST song was Lee's first solo release since debut as singer. The OST
charted high on various korean digital music charts for many weeks and become
one of most popular Korean Drama OST in 2012 and win him OST Award from Seoul Music
Award."My Love" placed No.6 on Billboard K-POP Hot 100 2012 Year End Chart and
placed No. 15 on South Korea's National Gaon Yearly
Single Chart.
Acting career
In 2010, Jong-hyun made his acting debut as Kim Seong Won in
an omnibus
film Acoustic which was released on 28 October 2010. Jong-hyun acted
alongside fellow CNBLUE member Kang Min-hyuk
who played his brother Kim Hae Won in the second part of the movie called
"Bakery Attack". The movie revolves around the story of two brothers
who love music but could not make ends meet with it. The older brother decided
to sell his guitar but his younger brother accidentally lost it. They found the
guitar in a bakery in Hongik University and learned new insights
about music from the bakery owner.
On 26 May 2012, Jong-hyun made his small screen debut in SBS weekend drama A Gentleman's Dignity with Jang Dong-gun,
Kim Ha-neul,
Kim Min-jong,
Kim Soo-ro
and Lee Jong-hyuk.
by : Marsya Rossarzi
by : Marsya Rossarzi
