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Cho Kyu-hyun
Kyuhyun at press conference of Super Junior M Breakdown in Bangkok.
Background information
Birth name	Cho Kyu-hyun
Born	(1988-02-03) 3 February 1988 (age 25) [1] Seoul, South Korea
Origin	Seoul, South Korea
Genres	K-pop, dance, R&B
Occupations	Singer, actor, dancer, television host
Instruments	Vocals, clarinet, piano, harmonica
Years active	2006–present
Labels	SM Entertainment
Associated acts	Super Junior Super Junior-K.R.Y Super Junior-M SM The Ballad SM Town
Website	superjunior.smtown.com

Cho Kyu-hyun (Hangul: 조규현; Hanja: 曺圭賢) was born on 3 February 1988,^[1] mononymously credited as Kyuhyun (Hangul: 규현). He is a South Korean Singer, Musical theatre actor, radio DJ and MC. He is best known as a member and maknae, or the youngest member, of K-pop boy band Super Junior and its sub-groups, Super Junior-M and Super Junior-K.R.Y. He is one of the three main vocalists of Super Junior. He is also one of the first four Korean artists to appear on Chinese postage stamps.^[2]

Biography [edit]

Kyuhyun has only one sister, Cho Ara and both his parents. Kyuhyun's father is in the education business and owns a school. Kyuhyun's mother also runs an art academy and a cafe called 'Kona Beans' which is also co-owned by mothers of Leeteuk and Sungmin. Kyuhyun was initially urged to study law and would have been a lawyer if he had not become a singer. His original plans were abandoned once Kyuhyun joined a band in high school, where he became more interested in music and singing. His father was against his dream of singing but allowed him to do so if he did well on his college entrance exams and was accepted into a university. Kyuhyun is currently enrolling Kyunghee University with a major in Post-Modern Music. Kyuhyun won third place at the Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005.

2006: Debut with Super Junior [edit]

Kyuhyun officially debut in May 2006 as part of Super Junior, formerly "Super Junior 05", the first generation of 12-member rotational boy band, who had debut in November 2005 with single, "TWINS (Knock Out)".^[3][4] In March 2006, SM Entertainment began to recruit new members for the next generation. However, plans changed and the company declared a halt in forming future Super Junior generations. Following his addition to the group, they dropped the suffix "05" and became officially credited as Super Junior.^[5]

Kyuhyun made his first appearance as a part-time model of Super Junior in a news broadcast on 23 May 2006 where the group introduced their new single, U. His debut performance was on 27 May at SBS's I-Concert with "U", where it was also the group's first comeback performance as a permanent group. The CD single "U" was released on 7 June 2006, which was their most successful single until the release of "Sorry, Sorry" in March 2009.^[6]

2007-2009: Sub-groups [edit]

In November 2006, Kyuhyun, along with Yesung and Ryeowook, was placed in Super Junior's first subgroup, Super Junior-K.R.Y. The trio specialize in ballads and debuted on 5 November on KBS's Music Bank.^[7] Along with fellow member Ryeowook, Kyuhyun was featured in song "Wish" (소원), in labelmate TVXQ's repackaged edition of Mirotic in 2008.

In April 2008, Kyuhyun was put into seven-member sub-group Super Junior-M, a Mandopop subgroup of Super Junior for the Chinese music industry. They debuted in China at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards, simultaneously with the release of their first music video, "U" on 8 April 2008. This was followed by the release of the debut Chinese-language studio album, Me in selected provinces in China on 23 April and 2 May in Taiwan.^[8] Kyuhyun also collaborated with The Grace in early 2008 to perform "Just For One Day" (하루만) for The Grace's first album Hanbeon Deo, OK?.

In July 2009, Kyuhyun sang his first solo track. He was featured on Yoo Youngsuk's 20th anniversary tribute album, with a remake of Yoo's song "7 Years of Love" (7년간의 사랑). He first performed it on 12 July 2009 on television programme Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketch Book. The song was released as a digital single, and on Yoo's album on 30 June, with all proceeds going to UNICEF. He and bandmate Donghae performed "Happy Bubble", a commercial theme song for facial wash product "Happy Bath" with actress Han Ji Min, with a music video released on 19 August 2009.

2010: Project group and OST [edit]

On 6 January 2010, Kyuhyun's solo track "Listen To You", for Korean drama Pasta was released. It peaked at number one on music portals real time charts. On 5 August, his third solo song "Hope, a dream that never sleeps" (희망은 잠들지 않는 꿈) for television drama Baker King, Kim Tak Goo was released.

Kyuhun from August 2010 and October 2011 participated in sub-group K.R.Y's first concert tour, in Japan, Nanjing, Taipei as well as Seoul.^[9]

In November 2010, Kyuhyun along with label mates TRAX’s Jay, SHINee’s Jonghyun, and new singer Jino formed project group SM The Ballad. It is described as their label's vocal unit group.^[10] They released their debut album, Miss You on 29 November 2010 and debuted on music programme Inkigayo on 28 November. Their debut album includes a solo track, "Love Again" by Kyuhyun.

2011: Musical theatre and television [edit]

Kyuhyun at LG Optimus Super Junior Fan meeting at Chateau de Chine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in November 2011

From the 15 December 2010 to mid-January 2011, he rotated as D'Artagnan with TRAX's Jay "Typhoon" Kim in the The Three Musketeers. Where they co-starred with Yoo Jun Sang, Im Ki Jun, Kim Mu Yul and Dana Hong at Chungmu Art Hall, Seoul.^[11] He was placed first in an on-line poll for the Musical Rising Star Award at the 2010 Golden Ticket Awards, for his performance in the role of D'Artagnan.^[12]

In 2011, Kyuhyun contributed to group mate, Siwon's drama Poseidon with track "The Way to Break Up". It was composed by Yoon Jong Shin and included in his monthly project. Then Kyuhun sang "Late Autumn" for Yoon's November monthly project. Kyuhyun also appeared on KBS's Immortal Song 2 replacing band mate Yesung, winning two rounds.

Kyuhyun was one of four regular MC on Super Junior's Foresight and in September he replaced fellow member Heechul as regular MC on MBC's Radio Star.^[13] He also appeared on We Got Married as part of Fighting Junior supporting fellow member Leeteuk and on-screen wife actress Kang Sora. In February 2012, Kyuhyun appeared in a Valentine's Day special of Chinese version of We Got Married, with Chinese actress Lou Yi Xiao as his on-scene wife. It aired in China on a channel of Shanghai Media Group and on MBC on 25 February.^[14]

2012: Comeback with Super Junior [edit]

On 28 January 2012, Kyuhyun was cast as Frank Abagnale Jr., rotating with Um Ki Joon, Kim Jeong-hoon, Park Kwang-hyun and Key of Shinee in the Korean production of Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can. The musical ran from 28 March to 10 June at the Blue Square, Samsung Card Hall, in Hannam-dong, Seoul.^[15]

In June 2012, Kyuhyun reunited with his Super Junior band mates for their sixth studio album, Sexy, Free & Single for released on 4 July. On 26 June Kyuhyun's teaser photo was released showing him in side profile looking upwards with pale white face.^[16] In November 2012, Japan where they held a concert, Super Junior K.R.Y announced that they would be releasing their first single after 6 years of debuting. "Promise You" is the name of their song, which had its teaser release last November 21, 2012, and is set to be released on 23 January 2013.

2013-present: Comeback with Super Junior-M and Super Junior-K.R.Y. [edit]

On 7 January 2013, Super Junior-M released their second album, Break Down, along with the music video for the lead single of the same name. A press conference took place in Beijing on January 7, and they will promote the album in China.^[17] Super Junior M has held fanmeeting tour in Chengdu, Nanjing, Bangkok, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing.

On 23 January 2013, Super Junior-K.R.Y. released their second album, Promise You and debuted at number two on the Oricon’s daily singles chart.^[18]

From December 2012 to February 2013, he was cast as Frank Abagnale Jr. for the re-run of musical Catch me if you can. From March 2013 to April 2013, he was cast as D'Artagnan for the re-run of musical The three musketeers.

On 11 May 2013, it’s been announced that Kyuhyun will replace labelmate SHINee‘s Minho as the new MC of KBS 2TV‘s ‘Mamma Mia‘.^[19] The first broadcast of him being the main MC is on 19 May 2013.

April 2007 car accident [edit]

On the early morning of April 19, 2007, Kyuhyun with Super Junior members Leeteuk, Shindong, Eunhyuk, and two managers were all hospitalized due to a serious car accident when a front tire burst and the car hit a guard rail while returning from the Super Junior Kiss the Radio show.^[20] Kyuhyun, who was sitting behind the driver's seat when the accident occurred, was the most injured and had a fractured hip, pneumothorax from broken ribs, and facial scratches and bruises.^[21][22]

The doctor told Kyuhyun's parents that to repair his pierced lungs he would have to make a hole in Kyuhyun's neck thus ending his career as a singer; Kyuhyun's father was the first to immediately reject the operation stating that Kyuhyun would rather die than not be able to sing, and pleaded that the doctor find another way to repair his son's lungs.^[23] He was in a coma for four days and were told by doctors that he had about 20 percent or less chance to live.^[24] Kyuhyun spent 6 days in the ICU before he was moved to a regular hospital room.^[25] Kyuhyun no longer needed the respiratory machine to support his breathing, though it was said that he was only able to walk on his own one month after the accident.^[23] Kyuhyun was discharged on July 5, 2007 after 78 days.

Commercial endorsements [edit]

Together with Super Junior/Super Junior-M as a whole group, Kyuhyun has endorsed for various brands such as Pepsi, Yamaha(New Fino), 12Plus, SPAO, Kyochon Chicken, LG phone, Lotte Duty Free, Bonrich. In 2013, Kyuhyun and other SM artists Yoona, Choi Minho, Sulli, Seohyun, Siwon become the main models for SK Telecom. He has endorsed Masita Seaweed for 3 years from 2011-2013.

Discography [edit]

Soundtrack contribution [edit]

Filmography [edit]

Film [edit]

Television [edit]

Musical theatre [edit]

Music video appearance [edit]

Awards and nominations [edit]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Super Junior's official homepage
• Kyuhyun Twitter