Yesung (Super Junior) has visuals like a painting, is he ambitious to 'surpass' Stray Kids?

Yesung Super Junior is known as the "talented little boy" of the group because of his smooth and emotional voice. He also attracts many fans thanks to his lovely and funny personality.

Yesung's real name is Kim Kang Hoon, born on August 24, 1984 in Seoul, South Korea. He is known as a Korean singer, actor, announcer and television host. Currently, Yesung is a member of the boy band Super Junior, founded and managed by SM Entertainment. He is also the Main Vocalist in the group.

Yesung is the eldest son in his family and has a younger brother named Kim Jong-jin. He was born in Seoul but moved to Cheonan, South Chungcheong at the age of 10. As a child, he began to express his interest in singing. In 1999, Yesung participated in a televised singing competition and won the gold medal at the Cheonan Singing Competition.

Then, his mother, Im Bo-kyung, signed him up for SM Entertainment's "Starlight Casting System" audition in 2001. There, he successfully impressed the judges with his excellent singing voice and signed a contract to become a trainee for the company.

His stage name "Yesung" comes from the Korean phrase "an artist's vocal cords" and can be translated as "art-like voice". Yesung is known as a tenor. In addition to group activities, he has recorded songs for various dramas and movies. He started his solo career in 2016 with his first mini album "Here I Am".

Yesung officially debuted as a member of the boy group Super Junior 05 along with 12 other members on November 6, 2005. On SBS's music program "Popular Songs", the group performed their first single "Twins (Knock Out)". The group's debut album "SuperJunior05 (Twins)" was released a month later on December 5, 2005 and debuted at number three on the monthly MIAK K-Pop Albums chart.

In March 2006, SM Entertainment began recruiting new members for the next generation of Super Junior. However, plans changed and the company announced that it would stop training future generations of Super Junior.

After the addition of the 13th member Kyuhyun, the group dropped the suffix "05" and officially became known as "Super Junior". The group's first CD single, a remastered version of "U", was released on June 7, 2006 and was the group's most successful single until the release of "Sorry, Sory" in March 2009.

In the fall of 2007, the group released their second official album "Don't Don" and became Super Junior's best-selling album as well as the second best-selling album of the year in Korea. Yesung then became the host of "Radio Miracle For You" from September 2006 to September 2007 and the group members often appeared as guests.

However, before the first anniversary of the Radio show, Yesung left to focus on his second album "Don't Don". The last broadcast of the Radio show was on September 8, 2007. In November 2006, he and members Ryeowook and Kyuhyun formed a sub-unit "Super Junior-KRY".

Yesung was taken to the hospital after injuring his leg during the 70km, 24-hour "Marathon of Hope" on May 9, 2008. The event was coordinated with SBS's charity program "Hope TV 24" and the money raised was donated to a Mongolian school in Korea that was in danger of closing. He was unable to complete the marathon due to his injury and appeared on stage with his members on crutches.

In June 2008, Yesung became a member of the sub-group Super Junior-H and released his first mini album "Cooking? Cooking!". He sang the ballad "Love Really Hurts" for the original soundtrack of the drama "Tazza" which aired from September 16 to November 25, 2008. In 2009, he debuted in the musical Namhansanseong based on the novel of the same name by Kim Hoon and based on the historical event of Byeongja Horan at Namhansanseong in Kyunggi-do.

Additionally, Yesung starred in the third musical "Spamalot" as Sir Galahad from October 1 to October 28, 2000. On December 29, 2010, he and f(x) member Luna sang the song "Loving You" which was included in the second part of the original soundtrack for the KBS drama "President".

Yesung joined the ballad group "SM The Ballad" during his military service in February 2014. The project group was originally formed by SM Entertainment in 2010.

On June 18, 2019, Yesung released his third mini album "Pink Magic" with the lead single of the same name. He then released his fourth mini album "Beautiful Night" on May 3, 2021. The album contains 7 tracks including the lead single of the same name. In October 2022, he released the single "After Love" from his "Casting in the Corner" project with Solar, which is a remix of the 2006 version.

When he was a trainee at the company, Yesung loved a girl very deeply and beautifully for about three years until a big incident happened. That girl started showing signs of cheating on the male idol and even took the initiative to break up. However, because he loved his girlfriend so deeply, he tried every way to get her back, but his efforts were completely unsuccessful. After being dumped by his girlfriend, Yesung was selected to join the group Super Junior. In addition, on Chinese online forums, there were rumors that Yesung had secretly dated T-Ara member Jiyeon.

A series of convincing evidences were presented to show the couple's suspicious relationship such as couple rings, couple bracelets, couple sunglasses or couple phone cases,... Notably, Yesung was born in 1984, and Jiyeon was born in 1993 and the two are 9 years apart, but the age gap does not seem to hinder their feelings for each other. On June 6, 2012, he was caught by fans buying hairpins while June 7 was Jiyeon's birthday. The coincidence at that time raised suspicions that he was preparing a birthday present for his girlfriend Jiyeon.