Lee Jong-hyun (born May 15, 1990), also known by his
mononym
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person.
A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...
Jonghyun, is a South Korean musician, singer-songwriter and actor. He was the former lead guitarist and vocalist of South Korean rock band
CNBLUE. He made his acting debut in an
omnibus movie ''
Acoustic'' in 2010, followed by his television debut in the Korean drama ''
A Gentleman's Dignity'' in 2012. He appeared in television dramas ''
Orange Marmalade'' (2015), ''
Lingerie Girls’ Generation'' (2017) and Evergreen (2018).
In August 2019, Lee departed CNBLUE after the backlash over a private direct message towards a
YouTuber
A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
, and amidst allegations of him viewing illicit videos and having inappropriate sexual conversations degrading women in the
Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms, a part of
Burning Sun scandal.
Life and career
Early life
Lee Jong-hyun was born on May 15, 1990,
in
Busan
Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...
, South Korea. His family consists of his parents and two older sisters. He lived in Busan before his family moved to Japan when he was four years old. His family moved back to Busan and he finished his elementary school and middle school there.
He was an
ulzzang at "BESTNINE" alongside Mblaq's Lee Joon, fellow member
Jung Yong-hwa, and Block B's Jaehyo before debut.
The talent scouter from FNC Music (currently known as
FNC Entertainment
FNC Entertainment (; stands for "fish and cake") is a South Korean entertainment company established in 2006 by South Korean singer and record producer Han Seong-ho. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, ...
) who visited Busan to see Jung, came across Lee in the street, and suggested him to audition at the company. On his way to his audition, he met his current fellow CNBLUE member Jung at the
Seoul Station. They then met
Kang Min-hyuk, also a current fellow member of CNBLUE, at FNC Music where they auditioned. Eventually, only the three of them passed the auditions and Lee began training in bass technology at FNC Academy.
Before Lee embarked on his musical career, he was a judo athlete who won a gold medal in a judo championship amongst athletes in his hometown when he was in high school. However, he decided to give up on sports upon realizing that this was not the field that he would excel in after losing in a match in just a few seconds. He then started to focus on music. At first, he learned singing, then piano. Then, upon watching English singer-songwriter and guitarist
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
playing the guitar, he was inspired to learn to play the guitar.
Music career
Lee debuted with CNBLUE in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
on January 14, 2010 with their lead single "I'm a Loner". Before their Korean debut, they debuted as an indie band, with Lee being the leader, in Japan in August 2009.
Jung Yong-hwa then took over his place following the band's Korean debut. They made their major debut in Japan in October 2011.
Lee, together with Jung, composed many of the band's released songs, such as "Blind Love", "Lie", "Rain of Blessing", "Kimio", "My Miracle", "Come On", "No More", "These Days" etc., which all gained positive feedback. "
Come On" ranked number 5 on
Oricon's Weekly singles chart while "
Blind Love" ranked number 4. "Get Away", one of his compositions, was used as the ending theme song for the Japanese broadcast of American TV series ''
Gossip Girl
''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series created and developed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and based on the series of novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. It follows a group of students on Manhattan's ...
''.
Lee released his first solo single "
My Love" in 2012, as part of the soundtrack for SBS drama ''
A Gentleman's Dignity'', which he starred in. The song was written by Lee himself. "My Love" debuted at number four on the
Gaon Digital Chart
The Circle Digital Chart, previously known as the Gaon Digital Chart, is the music industry standard record chart ranking the 200 most popular singles in South Korea. It provides rankings on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, which is based on ...
. It eventually became the 34th best-selling song in South Korea that year with 2,187,150 digital downloads.
The song earned Lee five award nominations, ultimately winning "Best OST" at the 2013
Seoul Music Awards
The Seoul Music Awards (; SMA) is a major South Korean music awards show presented by the newspaper Seoul Shinmun, ''Sports Seoul''. The award winners are selected based on a combination of criteria, including music sales, popular votes, and exp ...
.
In December 2013, Lee and his fellow label-mate
Juniel formed a duo called "Romantic J" and released a digital single album titled "Love Falls". Inspired by the movie ''
Music and Lyrics
''Music and Lyrics'' is a 2007 American Musical film, musical romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Marc Lawrence (filmmaker), Marc Lawrence. It focuses on the relationship that evolves between a former pop music ido ...
'', the song was compose by Lee, with lyrics written by Juniel. The single peaked at #27 on the Melon Chart. The duo subsequently promoted the song through
Mnet's ''
M Countdown
''M Countdown'' () is a South Korean music program broadcast by Mnet from the CJ E&M Center Studio in Sangam-dong, Mapo District, Seoul. It features appearances by popular music artists who also perform live on stage. First hosted by Leeteuk ...
'' and SBS MTV's ''
The Show''.
On August 2, 2015, Lee held his first solo fan meeting in Japan at the Tokyo International Forum and met with 10,000 fans.
Lee made his solo debut in July 2016, with the studio album ''
Sparkling Night''. The album debuted at number seven on the weekly
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 ...
and number nine on ''
Billboard Japan
''Billboard Japan'' is a sister organization of the U.S.-based music magazine '' Billboard''. It is operated by the Japanese Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link (a subsidiary of Hanshin Electric Railway), holding an exclusive licence fr ...
'' magazine's Hot Albums,
eventually selling 13,529 copies.
Lee then embarked on the "Welcome to Sparkling Night" tour, his first series of solo concerts. The first two concerts took place from August 9–10 at the
Osaka International Convention Center in
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
, followed by a concert on August 13 at the
Nagoya Congress Center in
Aichi, and two final concerts from August 17–18 at the
Tokyo International Forum
The is a multi-purpose exhibition center in Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. The complex is generally considered to be in the Yūrakuchō business district, being adjacent to Yūrakuchō Station, but it is administratively in the Marunouchi district.
Toky ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
.
Acting career
In 2010, Lee made his acting debut in the
omnibus film ''
Acoustic'' alongside fellow member
Kang Min-hyuk.
On May 27, 2012, Lee made his small screen debut in
SBS weekend drama ''
A Gentleman's Dignity''. He earned positive reception for his debut role and won the "New Star" award at the year-end
SBS Drama Awards
The SBS Drama Awards (), also known as SBS Awards Festival, is an awards ceremony presented annually by Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) for outstanding achievements in Korean dramas aired on its network. It is held annually on December 31. The hi ...
.
In May 2015, Lee starred in the fantasy high-school drama ''
Orange Marmalade'', alongside labelmate
Seolhyun from
AOA, where he plays a vampire. He also joined the
fourth season of the Korean
reality show
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
''
We Got Married'', pairing with actress
Gong Seung-yeon. Shortly after, he reunited with Gong in the youth historical drama ''
My Only Love Song''.
In 2017, he starred in the teen drama ''
Lingerie Girls’ Generation'' in which he played a former gangster of
Daegu
Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...
who turned to be a kindhearted local handy man. The same year, he was cast in the Japanese film ''Ikiru Machi'', which is about the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
In 2018, Lee starred in the fantasy romance drama ''
That Man Oh Soo'' opposite
Kim So-eun.
Controversy and departure
Inside trading of stocks
In June 2016, Lee and fellow CNBLUE member
Jung Yong-hwa were accused of insider trading of FNC stocks based on information that their label, (
FNC Entertainment
FNC Entertainment (; stands for "fish and cake") is a South Korean entertainment company established in 2006 by South Korean singer and record producer Han Seong-ho. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, ...
), was signing popular comedian, host, and television personality
Yoo Jae-suk. While Jung was acquitted of all charges, Lee was fined. Lee apologized and stated that he bought the stocks without verifying the information, but once he realized legal issues could result from the purchase, he held onto the stocks.
Group chat rooms
On March 12, 2019
Lee's agency issued a statement that Lee was not connected to alleged chat rooms and sexual activities, which
Jung Joon-young
Jung Joon-young (; born February 21, 1989) is a South Korean former musician and sex offender who was convicted in 2019 for gang-raping two different victims on two occasions in 2016.
Jung first gained recognition in the 2012 season of the mu ...
was part of. However, on March 14, it was reported that Lee was involved in the
Burning Sun scandal with Jung in a one-to-one chatroom where Jung had shared sexual hidden camera footages of himself as Lee engaged in "inappropriate sexual conversations, and inappropriate conversations degrading women".
On March 15, 2019, Lee admitted that he watched sex videos shared by Jung and he had made disparaging remarks about the women filmed. Investigation is still ongoing. In August 2019, Lee departed CNBLUE after the backlash over inappropriate messages he sent to a
YouTuber
A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
, which brought renewed attention to the Burning Sun issue.
Philanthropy
The proceeds collected from "LEE JONG HYUN Solo Concert in Japan - METROPOLIS" which was held in June 2018 were donated for the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Kumamoto Earthquake through the Japanese Red Cross Society.
Mandatory military service
Lee enlisted in his military service in August 2018.
Lee was officially discharged from his military service on March 25, 2020.
Filmography
Television series
Film
Variety show
Discography
Albums
Singles
Video albums
Song writing and production credits
Awards and nominations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Jong-hyun
1990 births
Japanese-language singers of South Korea
K-pop singers
FNC Entertainment artists
English-language singers from South Korea
21st-century South Korean male actors
Living people
Musicians from Busan
Male actors from Busan
South Korean composers
South Korean male idols
21st-century South Korean male singers
South Korean pop rock singers
South Korean pop guitarists
South Korean male pop singers
South Korean rhythm and blues singers
South Korean rock guitarists
South Korean male television actors
South Korean male web series actors
CNBLUE members
21st-century South Korean singer-songwriters
South Korean male film actors
South Korean musicians
School of Performing Arts Seoul alumni
Warner Music Japan artists
South Korean male singer-songwriters