''Superstar K'' () is a South Korean television

talent show A talent show or talent contest is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are p ...

series which is held yearly. First held in 2009, Superstar K has increasingly gained more attention, considered the biggest audition program 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 ...

. Superstar K's concept involves that of finding the next "superstar," with the winner each week determined with a combination of the scores given by judges and votes from viewers. The show received immense popularity for its first three seasons, discovering popular acts such as

Seo In-guk Seo In-guk (; born October 23, 1987) is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He launched his singing career after winning the talent reality show '' Superstar K'' in 2009, and made his acting breakthrough in '' Reply 1997'' (2012). Since ...

Huh Gak Huh Gak (; born November 15, 1984) is a South Korean singer. He rose to fame after winning the 2010 Mnet talent competition series '' Superstar K 2'', during which he became known as "the Korean Paul Potts". Early life and education Huh Gak ...

, John Park, Kang Seungyoon, Ulala Session and

Busker Busker Busker Busker () is a South Korean indie band who rose to fame through their runner-up performance in the South Korean music audition television program '' Superstar K3'' on Mnet. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Jang Beom-june, ...

, and reached its peak in ratings in its fourth season with

Roy Kim Kim Sang-woo (; born July 3, 1993), known professionally as Roy Kim (), is a South Korean singer-songwriter and radio presenter. He began his singing career after winning the television talent show '' Superstar K 4'' in 2012. Kim officially de ...

and

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 ...

as its forefront. The show saw a decline in popularity and ratings starting from its fifth season. The eighth season of ''Superstar K'' broke with tradition and abandoned the series number in its name, and was instead called '' Superstar K 2016''. Traditionally, the award winner of each season is given the chance to perform at the

Mnet Asian Music Awards The MAMA Awards (, formerly Mnet Asian Music Awards) is a major Music award, music awards ceremony presented annually by entertainment company CJ ENM. First held in South Korea, the majority of prizes have been won by K-pop artists, although ...

as well as receive other prizes.

Seasons

Superstar K1 Superstar K is a South Korean television show on Mnet. Superstar K1 is season one of the Superstar competition series in which singers audition to get on the show. Each week, the singers perform a song and are eliminated based on the three judges ...

* Superstar K2 *

Superstar K3 ''Superstar K3'' () is the third season of the South Korean television talent show series ''Superstar K'', broadcast by M.net. The theme song for this season, "Fly" is written by producer Park Keun-tae and sung by Super Junior-K.R.Y. It was relea ...

Superstar K4 Superstar K4 () is the fourth season of the South Korean television talent show series Superstar K, which premiered on 17 August 2012 on Mnet and airs every Friday night at 11PM KST. Lee Seung-Chul and Yoon Mi-Rae returned as judges, and were j ...

* Superstar K5 * Superstar K6 *

Superstar K7 Superstar K7 () is the seventh season of the South Korean television talent show series Superstar K, which premiered on 20 August 2015 on Mnet (TV channel), Mnet and aired Thursday nights at 11PM Korea Standard Time, KST. Eliminations are determin ...

* Superstar K 2016

Winning contestants

References

External links

Official website
{{Mnet Media 2009 South Korean television series debuts 2010s South Korean television series Korean-language television shows South Korean reality television series