Jay from iKon: the baby-faced K-pop singer who wears his heart on his sleeve
- The K-pop singer has touched iKon fans with his powerful voice and his emotional fragility
- Despite his youthful looks, Jay is the oldest member of iKon, and he really cares about his band mates
Looks can be deceiving. Despite his youthful appearance and short stature, iKon member Jay is a mature K-pop idol in touch with his emotions. From his deep connection with his fellow band members to the way he becomes emotionally invested in strangers, the powerful vocalist has not only touched fans with his voice but with his affection for others.
Get to know this remarkable star and his career path so far.
His early life
Jay we was born Kim Jin-hwan on a Jeju Island, a popular holiday and tourist destination in South Korea, on February 7, 1994. He grew up learning the martial art of tae kwon do and piano, and had a knack for picking up languages – perhaps because his mother was a linguistics major at Seoul University.
After moving to Seoul to pursue a music career, Jay joined YG Entertainment at the beginning of 2011 as a trainee. He joined on the same day as future band mate B.I, while another future iKon star, Bobby, joined the company a week later.
The three members formed the centre of what was soon known as “Team B” at YG Entertainment, along with trainees and future iKon members June (known as Junhoe at the time), Song (known as Yunhyeong) and DK (Donghyuk).
The six took part in the 2013 YG Entertainment singing competition show Win: Who Is Next, on which they were pitted against five other YG trainees, known as “Team A”, to find a new boy band.
Team B lost to Team A, who became the boy band Winner. However, Jay received a second chance when he joined another boy band competition programme, Mix & Match, alongside fellow Team B members B.I and Bobby.
All three performers – as well as Chan (known then as Chanwoo) – went on to form iKon.
His role in iKon
Since iKon made their debut in 2015, debut, Jay has focused on vocals and dance. His vocal talents were seen as so promising that a former CEO of YG Entertainment, Yang Hyun-suk, once declared him “the next Taeyang”, referring to BigBang’s main vocalist, who helped lead that generation-defining boy band and has had a successful solo career.
Jay may look young and isn’t exactly tall at 165cm, but is the oldest member of iKon. This gives him a leadership role despite not being the official leader, something which has been a cause of some inner tensions for him.
During an episode of reality show iKon TV, the members underwent hypnosis. While sharing his inner feelings, Jay began crying and said he was worried the other members saw him more as a friend than an older brother type they looked up to and respected. Later, iKon member Bobby said “iKon exists because of Jay” and that they did regard him as an older brother.
His image
While his fellow iKon members haven’t had many chances to showcase their skills away from the band, Jay did get an early opportunity to do so when he and B.I joined the cast of Korean television variety show Mari and Me, which saw celebrities take care of pets.
Viewers not only got to see Jay’s sensitive side, as he cared for and played with puppies, but also how much he cared for other members of the cast. On the final episode of the show, Jay began crying as he explained how much the experience meant to him.
Jay has continued to wear his heart on his sleeve. Upon finally meeting K-pop legend BoA in 2018, he wrote to her to say he hoped they could become friends one day, and in 2019, he became an emotionally invested mentor to the different contestants looking to find love on South Korean reality show Love Me Actually.
In his own words
While Jay is known to be emotional, sometimes his own needs take a back seat.
During a radio interview in 2018, a listener asked iKon how they dealt with stress. “I usually have a lot of worries,” Jay said. “Don’t you usually have a lot of worries if you have a lot of things going on inside your mind? I try to live like an empty-headed person. I’m already busy listening to the worries of the other iKon members, so I haven’t given much thought to my own worries.”
Jay has also spoken of his excitement about his future in music. In 2018, he competed on the popular music show King of Mask Singer.
Addressing the audience, he said: “I was worried because I’m not used to standing on stage by myself without the other members, but I felt a sense of catharsis … I hope iKon continue to do well, and I’d like to release a solo album and become more approachable as a solo performer as well.”
