Seungri, of Big Bang
Happy birthday to Seungri, the youngest member of the Kpop hip-hop group Big Bang, who turns 18 today!!
Big Bang’s debut occurred at the YG Family concert on August 19, 2006. Though originally composed of six members, the group now has five members, who each either rap or song. The current members are: G-Dragon, the leader and main rapper; Tae Yang, a vocalist; T.O.P., a rapper; Dae Sung, a vocalist; and Seung Ri, a vocalist. The sixth member, SO-1, was dropped from the group because he was too shy on stage.
Their first single, “The First Single Album,” was released on Auguist 29, receiving great success due to the popularity of the song “This Love.” One month later they released their second single, and in November they released their third, both to great success. Their first album was released in January 2007 and was titled “Since 2007”, following their first live concert, The Real. In February a concert album of The Real was released.
Also in Febraury, the group released a perfume that outsold that of Korean superstar Se7en. From May to July they went on their first multi-city tour, and in each of the five cities all tickets were sold out.
During this year they have participated in numerous solo appearances in music videos. In addition, T.O.P. was cast in the Korean drama I Am Sam.
August sported the release of their mini-album Always. The track Lie on the album earned them considerable success, hitting the number one spot on the charts and staying there for seven weeks straight. It was written and composed by G-Dragon, the group’s leader, and won the band several awards at the end of the year, including “Best Male Group” and “Song of the Year.” In early 2008, they also earned a Daesang, the highest award honor at the Seoul Music Awards 2007.
They then released Hot Issue shortly after Always, in November, and began promoting the lead single, “Last Farewell” very early, even before the mini-album’s release. The song achieved success equal to that of “Lies”, topping various charts for weeks, including the Juke-On chart, whose number one spot was held by “Last Farewell” for eight consecutive weeks. The song also earned the “Song of the Month Digital Music Award” from Cyworld. The high demand for this single caused the record company to reprint and repackage it.
They held a concert at the end of December, called “BIGBANG is GREAT”, and tickets for each of the three shows sold out in 10 minutes. The band took a week long break in the beginning of January due to exhaustion from overwork.
Returning from their break, the group kicked off 2008, with their first Japanese album, For the World. The album contained songs from their previous singles rerecorded in English, as well as one original song (in English), “How Gee.” The album did remarkably well, considering it was promoted very little: it made its debut at #14 on the Oricon World Chart and peaked at the #10 spot.
In February, they released a concert album for their December performances. The group returned to Korea for the “Global Warming” Tour hosted by YG Entertainment, which extended until the end of June. However, they did releas their second Japanese mini-album, With U, on May 28.The mini-album contained a title single plus some of their older Korean singles re-recorded in English.
Following this release, the group returned to Korea to work on temporary solo activities. Tae Yang, one of the vocalists of the group, released his solo album in September 2008, entitled Hot. The lead single for the album, “Look at Me Only”, topped various public and online charts. Youngest member Seungri made his acting debut in the musical Sonagi, adopted from a popular novel, and in the 2008 movie, Why did you come home?, which will be released in November. G-Dragon later released a digital single just after entitled “Look at Me Only 2” but didn’t promote it very heavily. His focus for the time was composing other works for other artists, including Uhm Jung Hwa’s D.I.S.C.O, in which T.O.P. also sang, along with a few others. Daesung released a digital single called Gwisoon, Look at Me, which was rather successful, especially for a trot single.
The group reunited to release their new mini-album, Stand Up, which featured collaborations with artists like Daishi Dance and the Korean rock band No-Brain. The mini-album was quite successful and exceeded over 100,000 sales. It topped several charts and stayed at the #1 spot for over 6 weeks.
On October 22, 2008, Big Bang released their first full Japanese album, Number 1, which reached #3 on the Oricon charts on the day of its debut, although it failed to chart on the weekly.
The group also released their second Korean album in November, entitled Remember, which was a huge success. It contained remixed versions of old songs as well as new songs, and the leading single from the album was “Beurgeun Neoul” (or Sunset Glow), which is a song that has been remade many times. The original singer of the song, Lee Moon Sae, praised Big Bang’s rendition and has said it is his favorite so far. Big Bang’s second album was so successful that it earned them the Artist of the Year award at the 17th annual Seoul Music Awards, beating out super-idol group TVXQ.
Debut Date: August 19, 2006
Label: YG Entertainment
Members:
Leader/Main Rapper: G-Dragon (Kwon Ji Yong)
Vocalists: Tae Yang (Dong Young Bae), Dae Sung (Kang Dae Sung), Seung Ri (Lee Sung Hyun)
Rapper: T.O.P. (Choi Seung Hyun)
Discography:
Singles:
08/28/2006 - First Single Album
09/28/2006 - Big Bang is V.I.P
11/21/2006 - B I G B A N G 0 3
Mini-Albums:
08/16/2007 - Always
11/22/2007 - Hot Issue
08/08/2008 - Stand Up
Albums:
12/21/2006 - Since 2007
02/08/2007 - Live 1st Concert - The Real
02/29/2008 - Live 2nd Concert - The Great
11/05/2008 - Remember
Discography - Japanese:
Mini-Albums:
01/04/2008 - For the World
05/28/2008 - With U
Mini-albums:
10/22/2008 - Number 1
Solos:
Singles:
05/282008 - Tae Yang - Hot
Digital Singles:
06/18/2008 - Dae Sung - Gwisoon, Look At Me
06/30/2008 - G-Dragon - Loot At Me Only 2
Chronological Discography:
1st Korean single: 08/28/2006 - First Single Album
2nd Korean single: 09/28/2006 - Big Bang is V.I.P
3rd Korean single: 11/21/2006 - B I G B A N G 0 3
1st Korean album: 12/21/2006 - Since 2007
1st Korean live album: 02/08/2007 - Live 1st Concert - The Real
1st Korean mini-album: 08/16/2007 - Always
2nd Korean mini-album: 11/22/2007 - Hot Issue
1st Japanese mini-album: 01/04/2008 - For the World
2nd Korean live album: 02/29/2008 - Live 2nd Concert - The Great
2nd Japanese mini-album: 05/28/2008 - With U
3rd Korean mini-album: 08/08/2008 - Stand Up
1st Japanese album: 10/22/2008 - Number 1
2nd Korean album: 11/05/2008 - Remember
Credits: Wikipedia, Wiki.theppn
I LOOOOOOOVE BIG BANG. They are so awesome and talented and great. They have such awesome music; it’s a combination of hip-hop and dance and pop and omg. It’s just all awesome. Their rapping and singing is extremely good and I love like all of their songs so you should download what I uploaded for you. xD;
Sunset Glow
This is a really upbeat and cheerful song! Big Bang does a great job of it. I never heard the original, but this song is really fun and awesome. It’s kind of more dance-y that it is hip-hop but I don’t really mind. It’s just a really super fun song! And the music video is fun. I wish they would drive around the US in a bus. xD;
Lyrics + Translation | MV | Download
Strong Baby (Seungri Solo)
Seunri! ♥♥♥ He’s so young! Younger ever than me! *_* Buuut he’s so talented~ Waah~ Apparently he’s really full of himself. My friend and I watched this interview and the other members were talked about how he says things like “Ah, I’m so great.” xD; But anyway, this song may not be the best but it’s really hip-hopy and catchy and cool. It’s got a killer beat, and of course Seungri’s talent is outstanding. I love ow the video is random Seungri clips. xD; Plus a few from the other members too. And they all dance. Which is SUPER HOT ZOMG. Kay. I’m done now. For sure.
Lyrics | Translation | MV | Download
Please comment if you downloaded, or if you want to say something! I'm up for comment discussions. =D
Asian Birthdays is a subdivision of the site Much Love, an Asian mp3 rotation page that focuses on spreading the love of Asian pop music and culture. These mp3’s are for sampling purposes only, and should be deleted after 24 hours. Please support these wonderful artists by buying their CDs at your store of choice (CDJapan, Yesasia, Amazon).
If you happen to download a song, please be sure to comment, as I’m doing this to share music with other people, and opinions would be appreciated. Kay? Thanks!
You may ask for reuploads of songs, but please don’t If you’ve never commented before.