Jung Joon-young - Singer-songwriter, Birthday and Facts

Jung was born on 21st February, 1989 in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is nicknamed ‘Raccoon’ by his friends and family.

His English name is Andrew, which also happens to be the English name of his elder brother, Joon Ha. He is referred to as ‘Little Andrew’ to avoid confusion.

His father is an international businessman and hence their family had to travel a lot when he was young. He has lived in Indonesia, China, Japan, France and Philippines. As a result, he can converse in five different languages – English, Korean, Mandarin, Japanese and Tagalog.

He couldn’t study in a regular school because of constant shifting and that made his childhood very lonely. He took private lessons at home which also included lessons pertaining to piano and violin.

He is also a fourth-degree black belt holder in Taekwondo. At 17, he went to the Philippines to do missionary work. He also started teaching Taekwondo and music to local children there. He went to South Korea without informing his family at the age of 19, to realize his dream.

His musical journey began in 2008 when he was signed by ‘Led Apple’ as a vocalist. He was trained by the company, which was set to release his debut album but unfortunately the idea was dropped due to some unresolved issues with his previous company.

In 2010, he started his own band, ‘Flower Mist’. He also started to work as a model for advertising agencies and played music in clubs.

His first major TV show was ‘Ulzzang Generation Season 5’, which he now says was a good opportunity to make money.

He auditioned for Mnet’s reality TV show, ‘Superstar K4’ as a solo artist. His voice and character impressed the judges and the audience alike. He was thus selected for the show.

His musical collaboration with Roy Kim turned out to be the best duet audition song ever. The song dominated all the music charts and won Mnet 20's Choice Hot Cover. It also won 2013's Most Popular Karaoke Song of the Year at the 3rd Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards.

He became one of the top three finalists but got eliminated in the sixth stage. He says that this show was the turning point in his music career.

He then went back to earning money through modelling and singing. He worked as a DJ and also appeared in other reality shows like ‘Happy Together’, ‘Radio Star’, ‘2 Days & 1 Night’ and ‘We Got Married: Season 4’.

He signed a music contract with CJ E&M, and released his first single ‘Spotless Mind’. His debut single managed to reach top spots on Mnet, Bugs and Soribada within hours of its release.

On October 10th 2013, he released his first music album, ‘1st Mini Album’ which had six tracks. The album remained among the top ten for weeks, with singles like ‘The Sense of an Ending’ and ‘Spotless Mind’ reaching second and third spot respectively on MBC’s show, ‘Music Core’.

On January 2nd 2014, he released an OST titled ‘I’M nobody’ for ‘Pretty Man’ and it topped the Mnet and Bugs’ chart within a week of its release.

On March 12th 2014, he released a song titled ‘Always Reds’ after collaborating with Soul Dive, a hip hop group.

On March 29th2014, he released a motivational song titled ‘Just the way you are’ which once again toppedthe charts of Mnet, Bugs and Olleh Music.

On June 26th 2014, he released his second album, ‘Teenager’ which was all about encouraging adults to dream again. It reached the third place on Gaon Album Chart within a few days of its release.

He also held a music concert called ‘2014 Demo Live Tour with Jung Joon-young’ in China. Meanwhile, he also performed at KCON Los Angeles, California and did a drama concert in Japan.

In 2015, he debuted as the lead vocalist for the rock band, ‘Jung Joon Young Band’ (JJYB) which consisted of three other musicians. They released their first album, ‘Escape to Hangover’ which received positive reviews.

He also made his movie debut with romantic comedy, ‘Love Forecast’. He starred in a drama series, ‘The Lover’ which was about a musician who dates a woman 12 years older to him.

In 2016, he released his solo album, ‘Sympathy’ after collaborating with C9 Entertainment. The album was released under their music label ‘REALIVE’. JJY band was now called ‘Drug Restaurant’, and they released their second album, ‘Mistake’.

In 2017, he announced that he will release his first full album called ‘The First Person’. The album was released digitally on February 7th 2017, with its first single named, ‘Me and You’.

On July 22nd, his comeback album with his band was officially announced. The album was called ‘Pomade’.

It was released digitally on August 4th, 2017. First track was called ‘Drink O2 in The Water’. The band kick started its first Europe tour in September.

He also made many appearances on variety shows like ‘Tent in the City’ (2010), ‘M! Countdown’ (2014), ‘Fashion King Korea 2’ (2014), ’Two Young’ (2015), ‘Laws of the Jungle’ (2015), ‘Old House New House’ (2015), ‘Mr. Baek The Homemade Food Master 2’ (2015), ‘Celebrity Bromance’ (2016), Male Friend X Female Friend’(2017), Trip of the Beer Lovers’ and ‘My Sweet Town’(2017).

In 2013, he won the Best New Male Solo Artist award and his song ‘Becoming Dust’ became the Popular Karaoke Song of the Year at the 3rd Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards. He also won the HOT Cover Music Award along with Roy Kim at Mnet’s 20 Choice.

In 2014, he earned Star of the Year Award at the MBC Entertainment Awards. He won the Best Entertainer Award for multiple variety shows at the KBS Entertainment Awards in the same year.

He won Style in Music Award at the 16th Mnet Asian Music Awards. He also won the Best Entertainer Award (Variety) at 2014 KBS Awards.

He was rumored to be dating his ‘We Got Married’ partner Jeong Yoo-mi, but he confessed that he isn’t good at relationships and that he prefers being single.