WooSung

Born Kim Woo-sung, this Korean-American lead vocalist and guitarist for the Seoul-based melodic indie rock quartet the Rose employs slick R&B and 1980s pop-inspired stylings on his solo material. Woosung introduced his sound with the Korean Top 20-charting debut EP Wolf in 2019 before self-releasing the full-length Genre in 2021. The next year's Moth EP returned him to the Top 20, as did 2024's 4444, his somewhat darker, more reflective second long-player.Born in Wonju, South Korea, and raised by his mother in Los Angeles, Woo-sung initially had ambitions to be a professional football player. However, a serious shoulder injury sustained in his mid-teens led him to make a career in music his primary goal. By 2011, he was on Korean TV appearing as a contestant on the first season of SBS' K-pop Star. His confidence took a knock when he narrowly missed out on being included in the show's Top Ten artists, but this also instilled in him a determination to push on and succeed in the industry. His next big break came in late 2015, when Park Do-joon, keyboard player of the indie act Windfall, asked him to join the band. Within a year, they changed their name to the Rose and secured a record contract with J&Star Company. The Rose's debut single, August 2017's "Sorry," reached the Top 20 of Billboard's World chart, and their two 2018 EPs -- Void and Dawn -- reached the Top Ten. That same year, they toured Europe, the U.S., South America, and Australia before winning the Most Promising Artist prize at the International K-Music Awards.2019 brought Woo-sung's first flurry of solo activity. He kicked off the year as a host of Arirang TV's After School Club and made three collaborative appearances on JTBC SuperBand. That July, using his full birth name as a moniker, J&Star issued his debut solo EP, Wolf, which nodded to R&B and hit the Top 20 of the Korean charts. It featured Woo-sung's debut solo single, "Lonely," as well as "Beautiful Girl," on which Reddy provided a guest rap. Coinciding with that release, a non-EP solo track, "Feel My Heart," was included on the soundtrack to tvN's Catch the Ghost. Late 2019 and early 2020 brought further exposure of this nature when his rock track "Wanna Be Bad" appeared on tvN's Psychopath Diary, and "You Make Me Back" not only appeared in JTBC's Itaewon Class but was also the lead track on the show's accompanying soundtrack album. Following the release of the Rose's August 2020 single, "Black Rose," all three of Woo-sung's compatriots in the band were drafted for mandatory military service, leading to the outfit's temporary hiatus. Woo-sung revealed in mid-2021 that both he and the Rose had parted company with J&Star. This cleared the way for him to launch his own label, Woolfpack. Its inaugural release was his own Genre LP, an '80s pop-inspired set issued in December 2021 under the simple mononym, Woosung. After making headway in distribution, his EP Moth arrived on Woolfpack in May 2022 and reached number 18 in Korea. The Rose then charted with both October 2022's HEAL and September 2023's Dual (which also hit number 83 stateside on the Billboard 200) before Woosung issued his second solo album. Released on Woolfpack in conjunction with Transparent Arts, 4444 cracked the Korean Top 20 upon its arrival in October 2024. Its moodier scope added darker electro-pop to the mix.
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