Lee Gun-woo (; born January 30, 1989) is a South Korean singer and actor. Initially studying sports, he decided to become a singer at the age of 20 and moved to

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

to pursue that career. Lee signed to H2 Media, where he debuted with boy group

Myname Myname (; stylized as MYNAME) is a South Korean boy group created by Fly to the Sky's Hwanhee under H2 Media. The group is composed of five members: Gunwoo, Insoo, Seyong, Jun.Q, and Chaejin. The group debuted on October 27, 2011 with their ...

. An

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a devotional image of a deity or saint used during puja ...

, he serves as the leader and main vocalist for the quintet. He made his first acting role in ''Shinokubo Story'' (2013) alongside the group. ''I Am 27'' (2016), his first studio album independent from Myname, was released in Japan in January.

Life and career

1989–2010: Early life and career beginnings

Lee Gun-woo was born on January 30, 1989, the second child and first son in the family. He played soccer in middle school, and attended

Woosong University Woosong University () is a 4-year university located in Daejeon, South Korea providing a specialized curriculum based on foreign-language and IT education for every major field of study. History * 1954: Woosong Educational Foundation es ...

to study sports. He owned a fashion shop in Apgujeong-dong after taking interest in the field. He decided to pursue a career in singing at the age of 20, which his parents and friends vehemently opposed. He moved to

from

Daejeon Daejeon (; ) is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of nearly 1.5 million. Located in a central lowland valley between the Sobaek Mountains and the Geum River, the city is known both as a ...

to become a singer. He auditioned for H2 Media singing

Kang Min-kyung Kang Min-kyung (; born August 3, 1990) is a South Korean singer and actress. She is one half of the duo Davichi, who rose to fame upon the release of their debut album ''Amaranth'' in 2008. Davichi has since released 3 studio albums, 6 extended ...

's "Go to the Hospital" and dancing to

G-Dragon Kwon Ji-yong (; born August 18, 1988), best known as G-Dragon (), is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur, known as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of K-pop". Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, G-Drag ...

's " Heartbreaker", and he was immediately accepted as a trainee.

2011–present: Career

Lee is a member of

, where he serves as the leader and main vocalist. In 2011, the group released its debut single "

Message A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

". He began learning about songwriting during this time period. He made his acting debut along with his group in the film ''Shinokubo Story'' (2013), where he played one of five characters seeking to become "stars". He released his first studio album ''I Am 27'' in Japan on January 30, 2016. Consisting of ten tracks, eight were self-produced by Lee, with the remaining two being

cover songs In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song released ...

. He held a release event at the

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchising, franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when ...

store in

Shibuya is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses one of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station. As of January 1, 2024, Shibuya Ward has an estimated population of 230,60 ...

the day after its release, drawing in 350 attendees. The album ranked at number 39 on the country's national

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon A ...

. It charted for three weeks and sold 3,851 units domestically by the end of its run. Lee held the Gun-woo First Showcase Live on February 28 in order to promote ''I Am 27''.

Musical style

Lee has cited

Hwanhee Hwang Yoon-seok (, born January 17, 1982), better known as Hwanhee (), is a South Korean singer, actor and a member of South Korean R&B duo Fly to the Sky. Career Hwanhee graduated from Gwang Moon High School before his debut. He was encourag ...

and Brown Eyed Soul's Na-ul as role models.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Singles

Filmography

*''Shinokubo Story'' (2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Gun-woo 1989 births 21st-century South Korean male actors 21st-century South Korean male singers Japanese-language singers of South Korea Myname members South Korean contemporary R&B singers South Korean dance musicians South Korean male idols South Korean J-pop singers K-pop singers South Korean male film actors South Korean songwriters Woosong University alumni Living people The Unit: Idol Rebooting Project contestants