Who is Kim Woo-sung? All you need to know about the talented leader of the Korean indie rock band, The Rose
Kim Woo-sung, also known as Woosung or Sammy, is the leader of the famous Korean indie rock band, The Rose. Housed under the label Woolfpack, the Korean-American singer-songwriter takes the positions of the vocalist and the electric guitarist of the band.
While The Rose debuted back in 2017, as the main vocalist of the band, Kim Woo-sung embarked on his solo journey on July 25, 2019, with the extended play WOLF. The Rose mainly works with the musical genres of rock, pop, and indie, and Woosung extends the same by playing with contemporary R&B and also dipping a little into K-pop.
Many of his solo songs have gone viral, sitting as favorites in the hearts of many listeners of Korean music. While the singer already has great popularity among the masses due to his impressive music recreation, his recent collaboration with BTS' SUGA on his solo album track, Snooze, alongside the late Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has intrigued many about the talented artist.
From musical evolution to personal characteristics: Here's everything known about The Rose's multi-talented leader, Kim Woo-sung
Prior to becoming a member of The Rose, Kim Woo-sung began his journey as a singer back in 2011. He participated in the South Korean reality survival show K-pop Star season 1. However, the singer was soon eliminated from the show and wasn't active until his engagement with The Rose. Following their busking performances and YouTube videos, his fellow band members Dojoon, Hajoon, and Jaehyeong created their own label, Windfall.
Their search for their final band member, Kim Woo-sung, came to an end when they recruited him through a mutual friend of Dojoon. Soon after the stabilization of the band, they moved under the label J&Star Company in 2016. The Rose, after a short training period, debuted on August 3, 2017, with their single Sorry.
1) Discography
While The Rose still remains housed under J&Star Company, to commemorate his solo journey, Kim Woo-sung made his debut under the label Woolfpack with the stage name Woosung. The first EP he put forth was WOLF in 2019 with five songs, including FACE, which is the title track. Other songs included WOLF, Moon, Lonely, and the instrumental for FACE.
Beautiful Girl, Lazy, and Dimples, released between the years 2019 and 2021, were the other singles that Woosung put forth. His latest EP, MOTH, was released on May 13, 2022, and consists of four songs: ComE dOWn, Side Effects (ft. SATICA), Phase Me, and Modern Life.
Additionally, Kim Woo-sung has also composed many OSTs for several popular K-dramas. Feel My Heart for Catch The Ghost, Wanna Be Bad for Psychopath Diary, and You Make Me Back for ITAEWON CLASS, with instrumental versions of them all. His latest production was a remix of his solo track Phase Me: (Fancy Inc Remix).
2) Collaborations
Apart from solo projects, Kim Woo-sung has also worked on collaborations with respect to both his discography and external cover songs. His songs Beautiful Girl and Lazy feature artists Peniel and Reddy, respectively. Additionally, during his time on JBTC's reality talent show Superband, the artist covered quite a few famous songs in collaboration with others.
These included Sign of the Times with Lee Chan-sol, ILYSB with DPOLE, Mellow Kitchen, and Kim Hyung-woo, and Cake by the Ocean with Hwang Min-jae, Park Ji-hwan, and Kim Ha-jin. With quite an intriguing and diverse list of collaborations, his upcoming feature on BTS' SUGA's Snooze seated on D-DAY naturally has fans looking forward to the same.
One of the activities that Kim Woo-sung participated in outside of musical contexts was hosting the After School Club in 2019. He was the third MC on the interactive music talk show, which he hosted alongside Park Jimin and Han Hee-jun.
3) Personal Background
Kim Woo-sung was born on February 25, 2023, making him a Pisces. The 30-year-old singer pursued his education at Newbury Park High School in California and continued living in the U.S. until his auditions for the K-pop star when he moved to Korea. Following his elimination from the survival show, the singer took a short break from music and pursued teaching English in Korean schools. That was until he was recruited into The Rose.
With quite a multi-talented artist standing as the leader of The Rose, excelling in both group and solo activities, fans can't wait to see more of the artist's dimensions in the future.
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Priya Majumdar