Now a bona fide K-pop sensation, it’s hard to believe that bilingual singer-songwriter Eddy Kim first started out as a violinist and a student of classical music before taking to commercial, guitar-laden ballads. Born Kim Jung-hwan on November 23rd, 1990 in Seoul, he spent much of his youth between the capital’s Gangnam District and Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied at the Berklee College of Music and gained a growing inclination toward pop music. In 2012, while conscripted in the army, Kim entered the famed TV talent contest Superstar K, in which he reached the top six alongside winner Roy Kim and runners-up DickPunks and Jung Joon-young. Signed to Yoon Jong Shin’s MYSTIC89 imprint, he re-emerged in 2014 with a debut EP entitled The Manual, written and co-produced in its entirety by the man himself. The project proved popular, with its title track reaching #7 on South Korea’s Gaon Music Chart and selling over 1.5 million copies. Continuing to maintain a strong output in 2014 with a myriad of musical contributions to TV shows including Pride and Prejudice, Roommate and Righteous Love as well as a collaboration with rapper Verbal Jint, Kim picked up the Seoul Music Award for Best New Artist in 2015 before unveiling his second EP, Sing Sing Sing. The following year, he landed another chart smash in the form of the Guardian soundtrack offering “You Are So Beautiful”, which shifted over a million units and peaked at #5 in his home country. His third project, the six-tracker Miles Apart, emerged in 2018, with its opening track “Last” proving particularly popular.
