trainee for the longest period of time → vocal growth’ winner's kim jin woo, looking forward to his solo debut after five years

Kim Jin Woo, a member of the group WINNER, will debut as a solo artist five years after his group debut. There's focus on whether he will be able to meet the fans' expectations through a song filled with his voice and his voice alone.

 

On August 1st, YG Entertainment shared the confirmation of Kim Jin Woo's solo debut by revealing a teaser poster filled with sensory objets. The exact date of the debut was not announced, but with the text 'RELEASING SOON', it was insinuated that the release of the song was near. 

 

Earlier in the year Kim Jin Woo promoted the mini-album 'WE' and its title track 'AH YEAH' with his fellow members. Following that, since July 3rd, he has been swiftly working through the schedules of their 6th Japan tour, 'WINNER JAPAN TOUR 2019'.   This would also mean that despite his busy schedule and going in and out of the country he was hard at work preparing for his solo debut throughout. In July, he was able to meet many audience members through featuring on various variety programs like XtvN's 'SCENE'S QUIZ', tvN's 'Prison Life of Fools', JTBC2's 'Today's Fortune', and more, yet as much as this will be his first finished product in a while as his main work as a singer, he is attracting a lot of interest from many people.

 

▲ WINNER MEMBER → SOLO ARTIST, STANDING ALONE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS

 

Following Kang Seung Yoon and Song Min Ho, Kim Jin Woo is the third member to announce news of their solo debut. Kang Seung Yoon had announced a total of three single tracks, beginning with 'It Rains' in 2013 prior to WINNER's official debut, then with 'Wild And Young' and 'Stealer', thus allowing him to debut as a solo artist and to conquer the top of the charts simultaneously. After this Song Min Ho released his first solo album 'XX' in November of last year, seizing a long-term #1 position on the charts and proving his strong presence as a solo musician. 

 

Since then WINNER’s multicolored charms have been displayed through their albums, singles, and the records they have set, all of which further bring more cause to focus on what Jin Woo’s future path as a solo artist will present. Kim Jin Woo’s group, WINNER, has an impressive achievement of hitting #1 on music charts with every single title track on every single album for 5 years, beginning with the 2014 title track of ‘2014 S/S’, ‘EMPTY’, followed by ‘BABY BABY’, ‘REALLY REALLY’, ‘EVERYDAY’, ‘MILLIONS’, and ‘AH YEAH’. They created a stir by becoming the first idol boy group to have a song pass 100 million streams while remaining in the Top 100 with their song ‘REALLY REALLY’.

 

▲ TRAINED IN YG FOR THE LONGEST PERIOD OF TIME→ VOCALS YOU TRUST AND LISTEN TO, GROWTH BROUGHT UPON BY CONSISTENCY

 

Kim Jin Woo is considered the member who has accomplished blinding growth and rediscovery through endless efforts. With his dream to become a singer, he left Imjado to move to the capital, entering YG in August of 2010 as a trainee before going on to take part in Mnet’s boy group survival program ‘WIN (WHO IS NEXT)’, which was broadcasted in 2013. At the time Kim Jin Woo appeared as a member of TEAM A alongside Kang Seung Yoon, Lee Seung Hoon, Song Min Ho, and others to engage in a fierce competition against TEAM B. It concluded in a victory for TEAM A and they officially debuted in August of the following year as WINNER.

 

He is also a member who has actualized his dreams of debuting after he went through the longest period of training as a trainee. As the eldest of the team, Kim Jin Woo was introduced on ‘WIN’ as a trainee of 3 years –– the longest period of training ever within YG. Despite receiving criticism like, “Your face expressions and gestures are a bit too much on stage so they seem unnatural”, “You work hard, but despite how hard you work the results are not as great”, and more, he put his heart and soul into the practices that continued into the early hours of the morning and, as a result, succeeding in receiving positive feedback from the judges. At the time, Kang Seung Yoon said as a compliment to Kim Jin Woo, “He’s truly a genius of hard work. Hyung doesn’t even sleep,” and to this Kim Jin Woo said, “If I get to sleep a lot it’s about 4 hours? And it’s not like I die because I don’t get to sleep for a few more hours.. If I don’t do well, it means I would ruin the lives of the other members.”

 

The most prominent growth was found in the vocals. Though he was primarily recognized as someone with outstanding looks who was fit for the title ‘kkotminam’ *(a term used to call a male who is very handsome/beautiful), a devilishly sweet voice hidden by his looks is also regarded as his strongest point and something that cannot be ignored. In particular, he was recognized for the amazing growth of his vocals heard in the tracks ’REALLY REALLY’ and ‘FOOL’ under ’FATE NUMBER FOR’. There was a change in vocal parts due to a modification in the team, but through consistent vocal lessons, he seems to have been born again as a vocal you can trust and listen to.

 

Kim Jin Woo revealed then, “There are more parts now that I have to execute, so it’s giving me a lot to think about. That's why I took more vocal lessons in periods of rest, and even when I was recording I would receive vocal lessons. I consistently practiced in that way. Kang Seung Yoon knows the tone of our team, and I think he did a good job in catching those points.” Kang Seung Yoon also said, “I think each of us really tried to develop and improve ourselves in order to fill the empty space. (Kim) Jin Woo hyung is doing really well in his role as the vocal. We were in a situation where we had no choice but to grow to fill that empty space, but I don’t think you will be able to feel that vacancy in our music.”

 

While details like the date of the debut and the title of the new song are still under wraps, currently there is much curiosity about what kind of vocals and concepts will be displayed, now that a new start that has been announced five years after his debut. The members of WINNER are not holding back on their support. Leader Kang Seung Yoon uploaded Kim Jin Woo’s teaser image on his SNS and captioned it, ‘Our ung-ah *(hyung-ah in an aegyo tone) lessgo’. Fellow member Song Min Ho said through his SNS, ‘Our Jin Woo hyung is coming. It’s a really great song. Please show him a lot of support.”