Known as an angel-like idol, let’s look back at his career and his live as an idol!
1. The rising star
Lead singer of the famous group BTS alongside JungKook, JiMin also takes on the role of secondary dancer, backing vocalist, composer, and lyricist. Before being selected to be part of BTS, he studied at Busan Art High School and then transferred to Korea Art School where he finished his studies with his fellow member V. After graduating, he did a Bachelor of Broadcasting and Entertainment in Global Cyber University alongside his members and is currently pursuing a Masters of Business Administration in Advertising and Media. Before reaching the benches of universities, he was elected delegate nine times and was top of his promotions several times as well, particularly in high school where he distinguished himself in the world of contemporary dance. In 2012, he auditioned for Big Hit Entertainment (now Big Hit Music) and was narrowly selected to be part of BTS. Indeed, Bang SiHyuk, the CEO of the agency, was not sure that the idol career was suitable for a contemporary dancer like JiMin. The group’s members fought for him to change his mind, and JiMin is now the one we know on stage. This passion for dance comes directly from his models; BIG BANG’s TaeYang, Chris Brown and Rain. He practices this activity every time he hears music to relax and escape. Now, his faculties in contemporary dance have allowed him to incorporate special steps in certain choreographies of the group such as ‘Spring Day’ or more recently ‘Black Swan’. Despite everything, he is recognized as being the most clumsy among the members and makes the most mistakes when learning new steps, being mainly linked to his perfectionist side. He also earned a black belt in Taekwondo and practiced Kendo for a while. From now on, it is drawing and reading that animate JiMin apart from dancing during his rest periods and more recently, composition. With a difficult start, having seen many of his proposals refused for “lack of talent”, the young man has recently started and offers his own titles as JiMin from BTS, or simply as JiMin. He was also credited on the songs ‘Outro: circle room cypher’ from the album “2 COOL 4 SKOOL”, ‘Boyz with fun’ from “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE PT.1“, ‘Friends’ from “MAP OF THE SOUL: 7” and more recently ‘Dis-ease’ from the album “BE“.
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) October 24, 2021
2. A popular idol
For more than three years, the young man has topped all the popularity charts in the country, being recognized for his great talent, versatility, and kindness. The members of the group shower him with praise and say that he is a most reliable friend, always listening, that he does always his best, he’s as cute as a little puppy, and that he is very hardworking. However, he is criticized for getting angry easily, and for not knowing how to stop when he is not satisfied with his dancing or his singing. The quote representing him is " Let’s keep trying until we can’t anymore". Full of quality, he surrounds himself with many friends including EXO’s Kai, SHINee’s TaeMin, VIXX’s Ravi, and former HOTSHOT’s Timoteo and Ha SungWoon (also a former member of Wanna One). But it’s his solo songs that touch the hearts of the public, and not just ARMYs, BTS’ fans. JiMin has to his credit three solo titles found in the discography of the group. The first is ‘Lie’, released in 2016 in the album “WINGS”. The following year follows ‘Serendipity’ expressing the curiosity linked to romantic feelings. These two songs have accumulated more than fifty million plays on Spotify, and were part of the TOP20 of the most listened songs in October 2018 in England, and again in April 2019. In addition, ‘Serendipity’ is the first solo song of BTS that reached 100 million views on YouTube. He continued his rise in 2020 by unveiling the title ‘Filter’ addressing the different facets he shows of himself to the public and those close to him. ‘Filter’ also has more than fifty million plays on Spotify and is the group’s solo song with the most listeners on the platform in twenty-four hours with two million two hundred thousand views reached. In addition, it is the only song that is not the title track of a BTS album to have been nominated for the Gaon Chart Music Awards in the " song of the year " category. Finally, it remained for fifty-three weeks on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart. He produced two other songs which he revealed to his fans outside of the group’s activities, ‘Promise’ in 2018 and ‘Christmas love’ in 2020, the latter being about his vacation memories as a child. They were both hugely successful, and hold a special place in the hearts of fans. In addition, JiMin has also made some collaborations with the members of the group, whether with the song ‘95 graduation’ with V or the covers ‘Christmas day’ and ‘We don’t talk anymore’ with JungKook, respectively from Justin Bieber in 2014 and Charlie Puth in 2016. Concerned about ARMYs, he regularly leaves them messages on the Weverse and VLIVE platforms where he confides his concerns or seeks to comfort the fans in difficult times.
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) October 12, 2022
3. A beautiful human being
Trigger Warning : Eating Disorder His delicate voice and his perfectly executed dances are not the only things charming the young man’s audience. JiMin is also very generous since he regularly makes donations to children in need. First, he purchased unisex uniforms for Busan Hodong Elementary School from 2016 to 2018, and donated summer and winter uniforms in addition to autographed albums for students. In 2019 and 2020, scholarships worth a total of nearly $190,000 were distributed in Busan and also in the Jeolla-do region. In addition, he has a great sense of justice, because if he had not become a singer, he would have considered becoming a policeman. The government recognized the young man’s virtues as former President Moon JaeIn awarded him and other BTS members the Hwagwan Cultural Order of Merit, making the group the youngest to receive the award. The following year, JiMin alone earned a plaque of appreciation from the Cultural Preservation Society in honor of his performance of Buchaechum (Fan Dance) at the Melon Music Awards in 2018. The singer attracts the empathy of his fans and people interested in him because he has for many years suffered from severe eating disorders. Indeed, following derogatory comments about his appearance during BTS debuts in 2013, mostly pointing to his cheeks, JiMin fell into dangerous diets and periods of fasting, even going so far as to consume real meals every ten days, in order to get rid of this “baby” image that stuck to his skin. The members, obviously very worried about him, did everything to make him stop those dangerous behaviors and make him recognize his true beauty. From then on, by listening to the members and fans, the young man regained his confidence and is now sure that he looks sexy on stage, and off. His eyes are also the part of his body that he prefers and likes to highlight. Another peculiarity greatly appreciated by his fans is his teeth. Indeed, his incisors were not aligned, and he made comments about it during a live on the VLIVE platform at the end of August 2021. He revealed that it has been increasingly strenuous to perform live as his front tooth keeps hitting the microphone, resulting in it getting chipped multiple times.
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) October 12, 2021 Finally, JiMin has a few tattoos, mainly paying homage to the band’s “THE BEST MOMENT IN LIFE PT.1 & 2” albums. On his ribs, he wrote in black ink the word Nevermind in reference to the eponymous song by Suga, especially since a line of the song speaks precisely of inscribing this word in the flesh of his chest. Above his elbows he has the words Young and Forever, again referring to a BTS title. It was indeed a pivotal period for the group because it was at this time that it won its first prize in a musical program with the song ‘I Need U’, but the themes addressed in these two albums are even more important. Indeed, the titles of these albums address youth, the hardships encountered during this period, and also the joys and dreams that result from it. JungKook also pays homage to this era, because he too has tattoos about it. Finally, he has the number 13 on his wrist, which can represent his birthday as well as the group’s debut on June 13, 2013, several moons on his back that he got this year and the number 7 inked on his finger, he common tattoo shared by all BTS members. To discover JiMin’s current musical interests, you can listen to his Spotify playlist: Spotify — Jimin’s Favorite Tracks.
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