Kang Dae-sung (Hangul: 강대성; born April 26, 1989) is a South Korean singer, variety host and occasional actor, best known as being the lead vocalist of popular Korean group Big Bang. Since his debut, he has released a solo album, several singles, performed in musicals, acted in a drama What’s Up, became a fixed member of reality-variety television series Family Outing and talk show Night After Night. He is well known for his witty persona on television.
Early life and career[edit]
Daesung was born in Itaewon and attended high school at KyeongIn High School, but dropped out after a year to focus on his activities with Big Bang. Eventually, he passed his college entrance exams in 2008 and got admitted into Kyunghee University in Seoul.
2006–07: Debut with Big Bang and early works[edit]
Although his parents were strongly against the idea of him becoming a singer, Daesung pursued a singing career and was eventually recruited by YG Entertainment after auditioning. He later appeared on a reality show which documented the formation of Big Bang with five other trainees: G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Seungri and So-1(Hyunseung). Hyunseung was eventually dropped and Big Bang debuted in 2006 with five members.
Their first appearance as a group was on August 19, 2006 at YG Family’s 10th Anniversary concert. On September 23, 2006, they had their debut performance on television broadcast. Daesung’s first solo single is “Useo Bonda” (Korean: “웃어본다”, “Try Smiling”), which included in BIGBANG 03 single and the group’s first album Since 2007, released at the end of 2006. The album was a fair success, but the group only achieved mainstream success with the release of the song “Lies” (Korean: 거짓말; Revised Romanization: Geojitmal) from their 2007 mini-album Always, which topped several charts upon its release. The singles, “Last Farewell” (Korean: 마지막 인사; Revised Romanization: Majimak Insa) from the mini-album Hot Issue and “Day by Day” (Korean: 하루하루; Revised Romanization: Haru Haru) from Stand Up, became chart-toppers as well.[1][2][dead link]
Shortly after the debut of Big Bang, Daesung was diagnosed with voice chord nodules. For nearly a year, he desperately struggled with his voice and developed sociophobia and stage fright. However, he was able to recover with the help of fellow singer and label mate Gummy, who had been diagnosed with the illness previously as well, and the two became close because of this situation. Before the release of Big Bang’s second album, Daesung’s condition improved drastically.[citation needed]
2008–09: Trot solos, Family Outing, Cats, and car accident[edit]
In between various albums and EPs as a group, the members were able to pursue solo activities. Daesung released his debut trot single “Nal Bwa Gwisoon” (Korean: “날 봐, 귀순”, “Look at Me, Gwisun”) in 2008.[3] He stated that although he was worried about dampening the group’s image, he wanted to try something different.[4] He was admitted into the post-modern music department at Kyung Hee University in 2008.[5] The singer also joined the reality-variety show Family Outing as a permanent cast member. He also joined the Korean production of Cats, playing the role of Rum Tum Tugger.[6] Daesung started his hosting activities by acting as a host for MBC’s music program Show! Music Core, alongside fellow member Seungri.
In the midst of Big Bang’s break in early 2009, Daesung released his second trot single in early 2009, titled “Daebakiya” (“대박이야”, “Big Hit”).[4] He was also scheduled to join bandmate Seungri in the autobiographical musical Shouting.[7] However, he was in a car accident in August before the musical’s run.[8][9] The accident happened on his way back home from the site of the filming location of Family Outing. The 20-year-old singer was returning to Seoul after shooting SBS television program Family Outing when the accident happened at the Pyeongtaek Express highway, Gyeonggi Province. The van hit the guardrail as it skidded in the pouring rain, according to YG Entertainment, the group’s agency. Dae-sung, who was in the passenger seat, broke his nose. He also injured his back & had minor bruises on his face and arm. Dae-sung’s manager injured his arm, and his stylist hurt her leg, which required surgery. Daesung eventually made his return in October 2009, joining his group for the Dream Concert.[10]
2010: Additional solo work, What’s Up, Night After Night[edit]
According to his agency, YG Entertainment, he was supposed to release his solo album during 2010 along with bandmate T.O.P, however, neither released an album that year.
Daesung’s new song, “Cotton Candy”, was released at the end of January 2010.[11] It was composed by Jung Ji Chen, though Daesung personally wrote the lyrics to the song.[12] However, no accompanying album was released. In the beginning of 2011, YG Entertainment suggested that Daesung and Seungri would promote it during the year, but no actions have been made on Daesung’s part yet. Seungri, however, did release a mini album in January 2011.
In 2010, Daesung began his shoot for MBC’s pre-production drama What’s Up, written by the famous scriptwriter Song Ji-na. The shooting of the drama finished in Feb 2011. He has also been one of the hosts for the variety-talk show Night After Night since November 2010. That same year, Daesung featured in Lee Hyori‘s new album H-Logic and recorded a duet titled “How Did We Get” with the female singer.
2011-present: Big Bang comeback and D’scover[edit]
Daesung performing on Alive World Tour in September 2012
In April 2011, Daesung released a solo song, “Baby Don’t Cry”, which was included in Big Bang’s 4th mini album special edition. The song was first performed in Big Show 2011 concert in February and charted on various Korean music charts together with the title tracks in the album.
On May 31, Daesung was involved in a car accident in which a motorcyclist died.[13] Investigation cleared the singer of charges,[14] but he had to suspend his public activities with Big Bang for a period of time.[15] During this time, Daesung spent his days working and volunteering at the church he often frequents.
Daesung had his first public appearance after the incident on November 6, 2011 when he attended the MTV EMA awards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In December 2011 and January 2012, he also performed for YG Family concerts which took in South Korea and Japan.[16][17]
The musical drama “What’s Up” started airing on MBN channel on December 3, 2011. “Lunatic”, a track sang by Daesung for the drama’s OST, was also released online on the same day.[18]
Daesung made a comeback with the rest of the Big Bang members in March 2012 with their new mini-album “Alive“. The album includes a solo track sung by Daesung titled, “Wings”. The lyrics of the song are written by Daesung himself.
Daesung released his first solo album, D’scover, on February 27, 2013. The solo album is in Japanese and has a total of 12 tracks with mostly remakes of Japanese originals. It also includes Daesung’s solo tracks, “Wings” and “Baby Don’t Cry.” It was confirmed that Daesung would be holding solo concerts in Japan, starting with Kobe World Memorial Hall on March 23 and 24 and followed by Tokyo Nippon Budokan Centre on March 30 and 31. [19]
D’scover Tour 2013 in Japan[edit]
Initially, it was announced that Daesung would hold a total of four concerts at Kobe and Tokyo to promote the album. However, on February 28, it was announced that due to high demand, Daesung would be holding an additional 21 concerts over 17 cities, bringing the total to 25 concerts over 18 cities. The concert tour kicked off on March 23 at Kobe’s World Memorial Hall and ended on June 18 at Kanagawa’s Yokohama Arena.[20]
2014[edit]
In February 2014, YGEX has announced that Daesung will hold solo Arena Tour in Japan (DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan) in June and July (12 concerts in 7 major cities). On 17 February 2014, YGEX has announced that continuing the success of Daesung’s solo album D’scover in 2013, he will be releasing a new Japanese solo album on 16 July 2014. On 29 March 2014, YGEX announced that Daesung will add another date for his DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan tour, to be held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on 18 July. On 15 April 2014, YGEX announced that Daesung will add 2 more dates for his DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan tour, which is going to be held at Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka on 26 and 27 July 2014, which makes a total of 15 concerts in 8 cities. On 7 May, it was revealed that the title of Daesung’s Arena Tour will be called [ DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan ~D’slove~ ].
Daesung released mini digital album “RAINYRAINY” containing 4 songs on June 11 in celebration of his solo arena “D-LITE DLive Tour 2014 in Japan” which swept across ranking #1 to #4 on Japanese major real-time charts including iTunes and mu-no. [21]
Daesung’s first Japanese original solo album D’slove was released on 16 July and ranked #1 on Oricon Daily Album Chart on the day of release with total of 30,090 copies sold. [22] D’slove was ranked #2 on Oricon Weekly Album Chart.
Daesung’s Arena Tour in Japan [D-LITE DLive Tour 2014 in Japan – D’slove] has been successfully completed on 27 July at Osaka Jo Hall. He went through 8 cities and 15 shows and performed in front of more than 170,000 fans, becoming the first-ever Korean solo artist who attracted more than 100,000 people to Japan tour for two years in a row. [23] [24] [25]
Discography & filmography[edit]
Album[edit]
| Title | Album details | Peak positions |
Sales and Certifications | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR | JPN | |||
| Japanese | ||||
| D’scover |
|
— | 2 |
|
| D’slove |
|
— | 1 |
|
Singles[edit]
| Year | Single | Peak positions |
Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR | JPN | |||
| 2006 | “Try Smiling” (Daesung solo) | 99 | — | Since 2007 |
| 2008 | “Look at Me, Gwisoon” | 41 | — | non-album release |
| 2009 | “Big Hit” | 54 | — | non-album release |
| 2010 | “솜사탕” (Cotton Candy) | 1 | — | non-album release |
| 2011 | “Baby Don’t Cry” | 3 | — | Tonight |
| “Lunatic” | – | — | non-album release | |
| 2012 | “Wings” | 8 | — | Alive |
| 2013 | “I Love You (Yutaka Ozaki cover)“ | — | 4 | I Love You – Single |
Featured & Collaboration singles[edit]
| Year | Title | Peak positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOR [26] |
|||||||||||||
| 2007 | “Now We” (Nemo Ft. Daesung) | — | |||||||||||
| 2008 | “Family Day” (with Family Outing cast) | — | non-album release | ||||||||||
| 2010 | “How Did We Get” (Lee Hyori Ft. Daesung) | — | H-Logic | ||||||||||
| 2013 | ” 親愛なる君 (To You My Beloved) “(GUMMY Ft. D-LITE) | — | Fate(s) | ||||||||||
| “—” denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. | |||||||||||||
Drama[edit]
| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | What’s Up | Ha Do Sung | Main Actor |
Variety shows[edit]
| Year | Channel | Title | Role | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-2008 | SBS | Miraculous Victory And Defeat(Ep 8-12) | Guest | with G-Dragon |
| 2008 | SBS | Intimate Note(Ep 1-2) | Guest | with BIGBANG |
| 2008-2009 | MBC | Show! Music Core | Co-Host | with Seungri |
| 2009 | MBC | Kara Idol ShowSeason 4 Episode 2 | Guest | with Kara Band Members |
| 2008-2010 | SBS | Family Outing Season 1 | Co-Host | with Yoo Jae-suk, Lee Hyo-ri, Kim Jong-kook,Lee Chun-hee, Park Ye-jin, Yoon Jong-shin,
Kim Su-ro etc. |
| 2010 | SBS | Strong HeartNew Year Special | Guest | with Taeyang |
| 2010 | SBS | Haha Mong Show(Ep 1) | Guest | with Seungri |
| 2010 | KBS | 1 Night 2 Days | Guest | with BIGBANG |
| 2010-2011 | SBS | Night After Night | Co-Host | with Jung Yong-Hwa, UEE etc. |
| 2011 | MBC | Infinite ChallengeEpisode 248-249 | Guest | with BIGBANG |
| 2011 | Mnet | Beatles Code | Guest | with Seungri |
| 2011 | SBS | Running Man(Ep 35-36) | Guest | with Jung Yong-Hwa |
| 2012 | SBS | Healing Camp, Aren’t You Happy(Ep 31) | Guest | with BIGBANG |
| 2012 | SBS | Running Man(Ep 84-85) | Guest | with BIGBANG |
| 2012 | SBS | Go Show(Ep 3) | Guest | with BIGBANG |
| 2012-2013 | Space Shower | Space Shower AreaJapan | Guest | with Seungri |
| 2013 | SBS | Incarnation/Hwasin | Guest | with G-Dragon |
| 2013 | Smartphone PoliceJapan | Guest | ||
| 2013 | TBS | Power PurinJapan | Guest | with Shinji Saito |
| 2013 | SBS | Running Man(Ep 163) | Guest | with G-Dragon, Seungri |
| 2013 | MTV Japan | D’splayJapan | Co-Host | with VJ Boo |
| 2013 | MTV Japan | D’splay ReturnsJapan | Co-Host | with VJ Boo |
| 2013 | MBC | Infinite ChallengeEpisode 361-362 | Guest |
Musical[edit]
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Cats (Korean version) |
Movie[edit]
| Year | Title | Character | Note | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures | Sammy | Korean Dubbing | with Sulli |
SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
MCBNFORC 