Welcome to Tuesday’s “Do You Know, BTS?” highlight! Let’s keep talking about Jung Kook and learn more about his music. This lyric is from his iconic solo BTS song ”Euphoria” and it was released on August 24, 2018. It’s from the album, “Love Yourself : Answer”. 
JK has definitely come to be associated with “Euphoria”, it’s been a phenomenal hit for him (and BTS). Although released a few years back, it is STILL on the charts. It is reported that as of this past February, it had still spent 51 weeks on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart- a full year! Nearly three years after its initial release! It is the longest-charting solo by a K-pop artist and one of the most streamed songs by BTS to date. [Republicworld.com]
Some of our favorite JK memories are from the Love Yourself tour when he performed “Euphoria”. In the larger venues, he really pulled out all the stops and would get harnessed into a standing lift and fly over the crowd while singing. It is SO amazing! (Again, due to copyright issues, we’re unable to share but trust us- Google: Jungkook, Euphoria and Wembley.)
Jung Kook’s voice is so pure and special. And it has been such since the very beginning but has evolved. He’s become much more expressive with is phrasing and his range just seems to expand and become stronger. Over the years we’ve seen him drop a variety of covers and other solo tunes via various platforms. It may be a quick clip posted on Twitter of him covering a Justin Bieber tune or a more formal offering such as his “Still with You” from 2020’s FESTA celebration. No matter the song? It’s these treasures that usually break the internet and find him crushing some new social media statistic. He’s also created a frenzy by posting him singing portions of popular U.S. tunes like, “Never Not” “Nothing Like Us” “Paper Hearts” and “10,000 Hours”.
Here is pretty good list from last year from Koreaboo.com. Again, a simple Google search should also provide several listening options.
https://www.koreaboo.com/…/heres-13-song-covers-done…/
He’s known to include Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and Usher as his influences. One of our favorites is the cover JK did of Beiber’s “2U”. It’s perfect! We’ve also seen him duet with American popstar, Charlie Puth, on Charlie’s song, “We Don’t Talk Anymore” for an awards show a few years back. Jung Kook sounded fantastic and the crowd LOVED it!
He’s grown into quite the songwriter too. He earned writing credits on several songs from BTS’s most recent album, “BE” and before that, his solo BTS song, “My Time” was another huge hit (with writing help from RM). It’s a heartfelt composition where he describes growing up amidst this unusual life as an Idol. It also has stayed on the charts since its release on “Map of the Soul : 7” in early 2020. He famously performed it both nights of the group’s streaming live concet(s), “Map of the Soul ON:E”. The internet memes definitely blew up after that!
Full disclosure: both of your OLB Leaders definitely started paying a bit more attention to BTS’s Maknae after that weekend! In all honestly, it did feel like the youngest was making a definite statement: I’ve arrived.
Finally, there are the rumors swirling about his upcoming mixtape. We KNOW he’s working on something- and has been for quite some time. Even the song “Stay”, which appears on “BE”, was originally a song he’d written for his solo release. V felt it was so good he encouraged JK to offer it up to the group instead. Yet another example of how Jung Kook has grown musically, it’s an awesome song and perfect for the album’s mix.
Often in the K-pop realm when we see some of these extreme hair color changes, it’s to signify something big is coming. We were all SO SURE when JK went blond earlier this year (then blue, etc.) it meant that mixtape was coming (often referred to as JJK1 = his initials plus denoting his #1/first mixtape). But alas, nothing yet! Hopefully this year- we’re waiting! And of course, we will share updates as we learn more.
Now you know! And now you have a nice overview of what Jung Kook has accomplished so far, in regards to his music. And what we have to look forward to! He’s such a talent and still so young- we’re confident he’ll be surprising us for years and decades to come. Thing of all the notes, songs and genres he has yet to share with us!
We’ll be posting more about his performances and sharing some insight about his work. There is definitely much more JK to come!
: OneLuv BTS | Content: various sources
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