Jun. K

Kim Min-jun (Hangul: 김민준; Hanja: 金閔俊; born January 15, 1988), better known by his stage name Jun. K, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer, rapper and actor. He is the main vocalist of 2PM.
Formerly known as Junsu, he revealed on October 17, 2012, that due to family reasons he would be changing his name to Minjun, though his stage name would remain the same. Aside from his group activities, Jun. K has released two digital singles, one extended play in South Korea and two extended plays in Japan, both of which peaked at number two on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. His 2nd Japanese solo album "Love Letter" ranked 1st on both Billboard Japan "Top" and "Hot" album sales charts. His first Korean solo album "Mr. NO♡" debuted at No. 09 on Billboard World Albums chart. His 3rd Japanese solo album "No Shadow" ranked 2nd on Billboard Japan "Top" and "Hot" album sales charts.

Kim Minjun was born in Daegu, South Korea and attended DongA School For The Arts with a major in the broadcasting/entertainment department. Prior to singing, he had entered and won various poem and songwriting contests. He is currently attending Kyunghee University's Media Information Graduate School.

He originally auditioned for YG Entertainment, where he befriended G-Dragon and Taeyang of Big Bang. He was accepted into both YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, and ended up signing with the latter. He remains close friends with both members of Big Bang.

2008–10: Debut with 2PM and solo activities

Jun. K was chosen as main vocalist of 2PM. The group official debuted on September 4, 2008.

During a 2PM fanmeeting in 2009, he performed his composition "Hot" for the first time for his solo. "Hot" was later recorded by all six members and included on their second studio album Hands Up (2011). In 2010, he collaborated with composer Jung Woo on the track "Tok Tok Tok" released in August, provided guest vocals for then-labelmate San E's song "B.U.B.U." (an acronym for "Break Up Back Up"), released in September as part of his first extended play, and teamed up with other idols and singers for the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit campaign song "Let's Go," released in October.

2011–13: Solo debut and musical role

On October 7, 2011, Jun. K released his debut single "Alive". The accompanying music video was uploaded to 2PM's official YouTube channel three days later. The song quickly climbed the charts and became number one on Cyworld. On March 14, 2012, it was released as a ringtone on Japan's Recochoku ahead of 2PM's greatest hits album 2PM Best: 2008–2011 in Korea, where it could also be found as a bonus track in Limited Edition B. "Alive" managed to quickly rank in at number one on the daily chart. Following this, JYP Entertainment stated that the song "shows a deeper look into Jun. K's unique musical world. It has a smooth beat that reveals a new charm to the singer." He also recorded "Love... Goodbye" for the soundtrack of the Korean drama I Love Lee Tae-ri. It served as the male lead's theme. He began his acting career in 2012 with played in musical theatre The Three Musketeers. Jun. K played as D'Artagnan. He was played as Daniel in musical, Jack the Ripper in early 2013.

In December 2013, He participated again on musical The Three Musketeers to performed in Tokyo, Japan.

2014–present: Solo activities

In an interview with The Star in 2014, Jun. K revealed that Oricon's editor-in-chief had said Love & Hate was the number one album released in Japan that year and expressed his gratitude: "When I heard this I felt even better. I have really worked hard without any rest since December last year. I tried my best preparing it, but I'm really thankful to everyone who helped me achieve this good result, and everyone who congratulated me."

Jun. K's Love & Hate concert tour ranked in the top 10 best concerts in Japan by Ranking Box, for having one of the most impressive live concerts of 2014, making him the only K-pop artist on the list. The editor-in-chief stated, "The album I personally listened to the most this year is Jun.K's solo album, 'Love & Hate', which was released in May. He's an artist who has an outstanding ability as a singer-songwriter, impressive voice tone, and musical talent. His solo live concert was rich with not only lyrical music but expressiveness as well."

On June 11, 2014, Jun.K released the Korean version of "No Love". Another song from the Japanese EP, titled "Mr. Doctor", was featured on HOT 97's DJ LEAD's Mix Album twice, in 2014 and 2015.

Jun.K’s 2nd Japanese solo album, Love Letter, was released on November 25, 2015 and quickly reached 1st on the Oricon daily album charts and on Japan’s Billboard charts for top album sales. On December 30, 2015, the Korean version of Love Letter was released.

In July 2016, Jun.K announced the release of his first Korean studio album, Mr. NO♡, digitally on August 9 and physically on August 11. He held a showcase on August 8 before releasing his album and the showcase also aired on Naver's V app.

Jun.K’s 3rd Japanese solo album, No Shadow, was released on December 14, 2016, and reached 1st on the Oricon daily album charts and 2nd on the Oricon weekly album charts and Japan’s Billboard charts for top and hot album sales.

On January 4, 2017, Jun.K released a surprise music video for his song "Your Wedding", for his return as a solo artist in Korea. The music video stars 2PM's Nichkhun and TWICE's Nayeon. "Your Wedding" is a pre-release for Jun.K's self composed album titled 77-1X3-00. On January 12, 2017, Jun.K released the Korean album 77-1X3-00, as well as the music video for its title track, "No Shadow".

Jun. K's 2nd concert tour "Love Letter" and 3rd concert tour "No Shadow" ranked in each year's top 10+1 best concerts in Japan by Yahoo in a row, for having the most impressive two live concert tours of 2015 and 2016 making him the only K-pop artist on the lists.

Jun. K speaks Korean, English, and conversational Japanese. His hobbies include composing, fashion, collecting accessories and shoes. His specialties are singing and writing themes.

He revealed that he had received over 70 awards from elementary to high school related to writing such as essays and book reports. "When I was young, I read a lot of books. My mother liked writing. She helped me all the way from writing book reports."

He is a Buddhist. On February 24, 2011, he was admitted into the bachelor program for Performing Arts at the Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts, starting his new semester as a fourth year student.

On October 17, 2012, he announced that he would be legally changing his name from Kim Junsu to Kim Minjun due to family reasons. In a 2014 interview with Starcast, he discussed the change: "There are still hateful comments about me changing my name. It is a name which my father gave it to me in advance before he passed away after thinking when to give it to me. I talked about it for 8 months with my mother. I thought about it for a long time since changing name didn't feel good to me."

In early 2016, JYP Entertainment announced that Jun. K and fellow 2PM member Ok Taec-yeon would be enlisting to begin their two year mandatory military service in January 2017.

Extended plays

Singles

Soundtrack appearances and collaborations

Songwriting and composing credits

Reality shows

Television

Musical theatre

Music videos