Daesung

Daesung 대성
Born	Kang Dae-seong (1989-04-26) April 26, 1989 Incheon, South Korea
Other names	D-Lite
Occupation	Singer Actor Model
Musical career
Genres	Hip hop K-pop J-pop Trot (music)
Instruments	Vocals Drums
Years active	2006–present
Labels	YG Entertainment YGEX (Japan)
Associated acts	Big Bang
Website	Official website

Kang Dae-seong (born April 26, 1989),^[1] better known by his stage names Daesung and D-Lite, is a South Korean singer, actor, and television host.

Daesung made his musical debut in 2006 as a member of the South Korean boy band Big Bang. He has released a number of solo singles in South Korea under the group's record label YG Entertainment, including "솜사탕" ("Cotton Candy") and "Baby Don't Cry" which peaked at #1 and #3 on South Korea's Gaon Music Chart, respectively.

Since 2013, Daesung has also released one single and three solo albums in Japan under YGEX. His first album, D'scover, peaked at #2 on the Japanese Oricon Albums Daily and Weekly Charts. His second and third albums, D'slove and Delight (Japanese:『でぃらいと』), peaked at #1 on the Oricon Albums Daily Chart. Following the success of his albums, Daesung has completed several concert tours throughout Japan.

Early life and career

Daesung was born in Itaewon and attended high school at KyeongIn High School, but dropped out after a year to focus on his activities with Big Bang. Eventually, he passed his college entrance exams in 2008 and got admitted into Kyunghee University in Seoul.

2006–07: Debut with Big Bang and early works

Although his parents were strongly against the idea of him becoming a singer, Daesung pursued a singing career and was eventually recruited by YG Entertainment after auditioning. He later appeared on a reality show which documented the formation of Big Bang with five other trainees: G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Seungri, and So-1(Hyunseung). Hyunseung was eventually dropped and Big Bang debuted in 2006 with five members. Big Bang made their first appearance as a group on August 19, 2006, at YG Family's 10th Anniversary concert. On September 23, 2006, they had their debut performance on television broadcast.

Daesung's first solo single, "Useo Bonda" (Korean: "웃어본다", "Try Smiling"), is included in the BIGBANG 03 single album and the group's first album Since 2007, both released at the end of 2006. Their first album was a fair success, but the group only achieved mainstream success with the release of the song "Lies" (Korean: 거짓말; Revised Romanization: Geojitmal) from their 2007 mini-album Always, which topped several charts upon its release. The singles, "Last Farewell" (Korean: 마지막 인사; Revised Romanization: Majimak Insa) from the mini-album Hot Issue and "Day by Day" (Korean: 하루하루; Revised Romanization: Haru Haru) from Stand Up, became chart-toppers as well.^[2][3]

Shortly after the debut of Big Bang, Daesung was diagnosed with voice chord nodules. For nearly a year, he struggled with his voice and developed sociophobia and stage fright. However, he was able to recover with the help of fellow singer and label mate Gummy, who had been previously diagnosed with the illness, and the two became close because of this situation. Before the release of Big Bang's second album, Daesung's condition improved drastically.

2008–09: Trot solos, Family Outing, Cats, and car accident

In between various group albums and EPs, the members of Big Bang were able to pursue solo activities in singing, acting, and education. Daesung released his solo debut trot single "Nal Bwa Gwisoon" (Korean: "날 봐, 귀순", "Look at Me, Gwisoon") in 2008.^[4] He stated that although he was worried about dampening the group's image, he wanted to try something different.^[5] He was admitted to the post-modern music department at Kyung Hee University in 2008.^[6] Daesung joined the SBS reality variety show Family Outing as a permanent cast member. He also joined the Korean production of Cats, playing the role of Rum Tum Tugger.^[7] Daesung started his hosting activities by acting as a host for MBC's music program Show! Music Core, alongside fellow member Seungri.

In the midst of Big Bang's break in early 2009, Daesung released his second trot single titled "Daebakiya" ("대박이야", "Big Hit").^[5] He was also scheduled to join bandmate Seungri in the autobiographical musical Shouting.^[8] In August 2009, however, Daesung was injured in a car accident shortly before the musical opened.^[9][10] The 20-year-old singer was returning to Seoul from a filming location for Family Outing when the accident occurred on the Pyeongtaek Express highway, Gyeonggi Province. The van hit the guardrail as it skidded in the pouring rain, according to YG Entertainment, the group's agency. Daesung, who was in the passenger seat, broke his nose, injured his back, and sustained minor bruises on his face and arms. Daesung's manager injured his arm; his stylist hurt her leg and required surgery. Daesung fully recovered and made his return to Big Bang in October 2009, joining his group for the Dream Concert.^[11]

2010: Additional solo work, What's Up, Night After Night

According to his agency, YG Entertainment, he was supposed to release his solo album during 2010 along with bandmate T.O.P, however, neither released an album that year.

Daesung's new song, "Cotton Candy", was released at the end of January 2010.^[12] It was composed by Jung Ji Chen, though Daesung personally wrote the lyrics to the song.^[13] However, no accompanying album was released. In the beginning of 2011, YG Entertainment suggested that Daesung and Seungri would promote it during the year, but no actions have been made on Daesung's part yet. Seungri, however, did release a mini album in January 2011.

In 2010, Daesung began his shoot for MBC's pre-production drama What's Up, written by the famous scriptwriter Song Ji-na. The shooting of the drama finished in Feb 2011. He has also been one of the hosts for the variety-talk show Night After Night since November 2010. That same year, Daesung featured in Lee Hyori's new album H-Logic and recorded a duet titled "How Did We Get" with the female singer.

2011–13: Big Bang comeback and D'scover

Daesung performing on Alive World Tour in September 2012

In April 2011, Daesung released a solo song, "Baby Don't Cry", which was included in Big Bang's 4th mini album special edition. The song was first performed in Big Show 2011 concert in February and charted on various Korean music charts together with the title tracks in the album.

On May 31, Daesung was involved in a car accident in which a motorcyclist died.^[14] Investigation cleared the singer of charges,^[15] but he had to suspend his public activities with Big Bang for a period of time.^[16]

Daesung had his first public appearance after the incident on November 6, 2011 when he attended the MTV EMA awards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In December 2011 and January 2012, he also performed for YG Family concerts which took in South Korea and Japan.^[17][18]

The musical drama "What's Up" started airing on MBN channel on December 3, 2011. "Lunatic", a track sang by Daesung for the drama's OST, was also released online on the same day.^[19]

Daesung made a comeback with the rest of the Big Bang members in March 2012 with their new mini-album "Alive". The album includes a solo track sung by Daesung titled, "Wings."

Daesung released his first solo album, D'scover, on February 27, 2013. The solo album is in Japanese and has a total of 12 tracks with mostly remakes of Japanese originals. It also includes Daesung's solo tracks, "Wings" and "Baby Don't Cry." D'scover ranked #2 on Oricon Daily Album Chart on the day of its release ^[20][21] and also ranked #2 on Oricon Weekly Album Chart.^[22] It was confirmed that Daesung would be holding solo concerts in Japan, starting with Kobe World Memorial Hall on March 23 and 24 and followed by Tokyo Nippon Budokan Centre on March 30 and 31. ^[23]

D'scover Tour 2013 in Japan

Initially, it was announced that Daesung would hold a total of four concerts at Kobe and Tokyo to promote the album. However, on February 28, it was announced that due to high demand, Daesung would be holding an additional 21 concerts over 17 cities, bringing the total to 25 concerts over 18 cities. The concert tour kicked off on March 23 at Kobe's World Memorial Hall and ended on June 18 at Kanagawa's Yokohama Arena.^[24]

2014: D'slove and Delight

Daesung's D-Lite Tour 2014 in Japan

In February 2014, YGEX has announced that Daesung will hold solo Arena Tour in Japan (DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan) in June and July (12 concerts in 7 major cities). On 17 February 2014, YGEX has announced that continuing the success of Daesung’s solo album D’scover in 2013, he will be releasing a new Japanese solo album on 16 July 2014. On 29 March 2014, YGEX announced that Daesung will add another date for his DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan tour, to be held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on 18 July. On 15 April 2014, YGEX announced that Daesung will add 2 more dates for his DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan tour, which is going to be held at Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka on 26 and 27 July 2014, which makes a total of 15 concerts in 8 cities. On 7 May, it was revealed that the title of Daesung’s Arena Tour will be called [ DLITE DLive 2014 in Japan ~D’slove~ ].

Daesung released mini digital album "RAINYRAINY" containing 4 songs on June 11 in celebration of his solo arena "D-LITE DLive Tour 2014 in Japan" which swept across ranking #1 to #4 on Japanese major real-time charts including iTunes and mu-no.^[25]

Daesung's first Japanese original solo album D'slove was released on 16 July and ranked #1 on Oricon Daily Album Chart on the day of release with total of 30,090 copies sold.^[26] D'slove was ranked #2 on Oricon Weekly Album Chart.

Daesung's Arena Tour in Japan [D-LITE DLive Tour 2014 in Japan - D'slove] has been successfully completed on 27 July at Osaka Jo Hall. He went through 8 cities and 15 shows and performed in front of more than 170,000 fans, becoming the first-ever Korean solo artist who attracted more than 100,000 people to Japan tour for two years in a row.^[27][28][29]

On 18 September, YGEX announced that Daesung will be releasing Daesung's Arena Tour in Japan [D-LITE DLive Tour 2014 in Japan - D'slove] DVD on 22 October ^[30] and he will also be releasing a mini-album titled 『でぃらいと』 on 29 October to celebrate the end-of-year season ^[31][32][33] The mini album includes 9 versions of 4 songs ~ 2 songs are re-made of his Korean Trot songs and 2 songs are cover songs of 2 famous Japanese Enka songs. He had received a good comments from the 2 original singers ^[34][35] Daesung's mini album 『でぃらいと』 ranked #1 on Oricon Daily Album Chart on the day of release with 65,048 copies sold.^[36][37][38] 『でぃらいと』 also ranked #1 on Oricon Weekly Album Chart with 68,335 copies sold.^[39][40][41] 『でぃらいと』 was ranked #64 on Oricon Yearly Album Chart.

2015: "Encore !! 3D Tour [D-LITE DLive D'slove]"

On 29 October 2014, YGEX announced the decision to hold Daesung's solo tour encore performances which will be held at Yoyogi National Stadium on 31 January and 1 February 2015 and then at Osaka Jo-Hall on 10 and 11 February.^[42][43] On 2nd show at Yoyogi, Linda Yamamoto, who is the original singer of the song Donimo Tomaranai, made a surprise appearance.^[44][45][46]

Daesung successfully completed the Encore Concerts, following his successful Solo Arena Tour last year in Japan.^[47]

Discography and filmography

Album

DVDs

Singles

Featured and collaboration singles

Drama

Variety shows

Musical

Movie

Personal life

Daesung is a devout Christian and said his faith was a big influence in re-evaluating his life after a tragic life event.^[50][51]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daesung.

• Official website (Korean)
• Official website (Japanese)
• Big Bang's official site