Wonho is a K-Pop solo artist signed under Highline Entertainment, a Starship Entertainment subsidiary, as a singer-songwriter, composer, dancer, performer, choreographer, designer, actor and producer. He has produced/accomplished four mini-albums, a powerful EP, several digital releases, a Japanese CD debut, multiple social media accounts, a photo exhibition, two online concerts, a 2-day offline concert, a guest appearance at a cultural event, several “Best Artist” awards, and many more things, since he started his solo career. His most recent accomplishment is taking on a lead role in a stage musical, “Equal”.
Wonho (real name Lee Hoseok) was born on March 1st, 1993. Before his official debut, he trained at Starship Entertainment for three years, and performed as a backup dancer in several shows, including a live performance of ‘Ma Boy’ by Sistar.
He later joined NUBOYZ (누보이즈) under sub-label Starship X, with fellow members Shownu, Jooheon, and #Gun. They released a five-track mix-tape and performed it at the Starship X concert on December 5th, 2014.
In December 2014, Starship Entertainment and MNET announced a survival TV show –No.Mercy. All four members of NUBOYZ (누보이즈) participated, and earned a spot in the newly forming Monsta X, along with fellow Nuboyz members: Hyungwon, Shownu and Jooheon. Wonho’s position in the group was designated as Lead Vocalist, Lead Dancer and Visual.*
The newly-formed Monsta X debuted on May 14th, 2015. Over four years, they released severalmini and full-length albums together. Wonho is credited with writing, composing and producing many of their songs.
On October 31st, 2019 he decided to leave the group, due to several unsubstantiated allegations made against him. A five-month police investigation found the allegations were false, and he was able to continue his musical career. On April 9th, 2020, he signed under Highline Entertainment to begin his solo career. As a solo artist, Wonho could now explore new and exciting avenues of music and video production. Each new album/song he has released since then, has been an exploration into different music and dance genres.
He released the first part of his first mini-album – Love Synonym #1: Right for Me, on September 4th, 2020. The album release was pre-dated by the YouTube teasers for ‘Losing You’ and ‘Open Mind.’ The first MV to be released was the emotional ballad “Losing You”, released on August 13, 2020. The official release of the album’s main track, ‘Open Mind’, was on September 3, 2020.
The second part of his first mini-album – Love Synonym #2: Right for Us, was released on February 26th, 2021. He had his first collaboration in early 2021, with the B Side release of “Ain’t About You” featuring American singer-songwriter, Kiiara.
2021 continued to be a good year for Wonho. Besides the release of, ‘Love Synonym #2: Right for Us’ he also had a comeback with the release of another mini-album, ‘Blue Letter’. Wonho had the opportunity to collaborate with Honey J and Holy Bang in stage performances of ‘Come Over Tonight’, a sensual B-side from “Blue Letter”. Other B-Sides that saw performances were “No Text, No Call,” which aired as an Esquire exclusive performance, as well as several show stages, and “24/7” which also had show stage performances.
Wonho got to perform several of his new songs on ‘It’s Live’, which were pure vocal stage performances with a live band. He performed “Blue” and “No Text No Call,” from his “Blue Letter” album, at this venue.
An important part of 2021 was his opportunity to do concert stages. He had both an online virtual concert #WENEEDLOVE, in March 2021, which allowed international fans to join his concert remotely and then later, in November, he had a 2 day offline stage concert ‘We Are Young’, where he finally got to see his Wenee in the audience. An extremely emotional event for him, as was visible when he performed his love song to his fans, “WENEED.”
Wonho took other kinds of stages in 2021, the winner’s stage and a rather spicy photo exhibition. He won the Asia Artist Award 2021 Best Solo Musician Award and also won the Top 3 Male Solo Artist Award at the Hanteo Music Awards. He was the center of attention in a Japanese photo exhibition and photobook called “Feel Wonho,” an immersive online and in person viewing event, organized by PARCO.
He released a limited edition Japanese CD with the original song ‘On the Way’ (and MV). This CD included a Japanese version of ‘Open Mind’ and prior to it’s release, an official Japanese language audio release of “Lose” had come out. He rounded out the year with the official digital release, and special video clip, of his holiday song, “White Miracle”. This song had been officially introduced during Wonho’s live concert, ‘We Are Young’, in November.
Wonho enjoyed a great many other interactions and performances. During this time, he got to be a guest on Kim Jang Hoon’s Forest Concert Cultural Event, again, before a live audience. He also was extremely busy posting tons of material on his social media outlets, like Universe, the Ohhoho YouTube channel, and Instagram. He wrapped the year up with a “New Year from Jeju Island” series, which was his way of sharing the holiday with his fans. This VLog spanned the new year, and brought him into his 2022 with warmth and love.
2022, has been a non-stop roller coaster ride for Wenee. Release od February 16, fans were treated to an all new musical genre in his first EP, “Obsession.” The title song of the album, “Eye on You”, was a powerful adventure into EDM composition, with vibrant and creative filmography, and powerful choreography. The song gained him recognition with the Grammy’s Recording Academy, who sang his praises as being an original artist going beyond the K-Pop box.
The B-side of the ‘Obsession’ EP was an equally powerful “Somebody”, an emotional song in the same vein as “Losing You.” “Somebody” saw Wonho reunite with Honey J and Holy Bang, for multiple show stages. Although the song was completely in English, many shows thought it was so good, that they let him perform it on their stages. It also was one of Wonho’s It’s Live performances.
During this release, Wonho was center stage for an interview/talkshow and comeback mini-concert, aptly called “The Wonho Comeback Show ‘Obession’.” He was a model for Calvin Klein in a Dazed magazine video/photo shoot. He had fun and successful birthday and Wenee Day celebrations in VLog fashion. He got to attend Serendip Live, a music festival in Japan, where he got to meet Japanese Wenee and hang with his friend, Hayato. He also filmed a couple of vacation/staycation Vlogs, one with his brother and one with a friend, showing Wenee that he was making the effort to relax.
‘Obsession’ was just the beginning of Wonho’s phenomenal 2022. He has already been on multiple talk shows this year, and has been the guest of and MC of several Variety shows. He was also part of the “World Boys” a World Vision series promoting the Global Citizen Challenge through education and some silly games. He shared the screen in this show with Super Junior’s Leeteuk and Shindong, as well as CIX’s Seunghoon and Hyunsuk. Well worth the watch.
2022 was also the year of Wonho being showcased in commercials. In May, he became an exclusive model for the “CENT” and CENT double” brand dietary supplements. He was also one of the official models for Calvin Klein jeans in a “Dazed Korea” video advertisement photoshoot, with an Ohhoho behind the scenes video.
On June 13th, Wonho released the title track ‘Crazy’, from his next mini-album, “Facade”. The pre-release videos for this album were unique and intriguing. Besides the regular teaser and highlight medley, he released secret and concept photos, and introduced three concept films, which had nothing to do with his upcoming title track, “Crazy.” The concept films were beautifully crafted artworks showcasing fairy-like costumes and playful themes. They were set to the two instrumental compositions from his ‘Facade’ album (9AM and 9PM), rather than being teasers for his new MV. Film #1 (Intro: 9AM). Film #2 (Intro: 9AM). Film #3 (Outro: 9PM).
The B-Side track for Facade, “Close”, is a beautiful and warm love song, which has gotten very little airplay, because of the brevity of this comeback. It was initially previewed on N city live at 23:00 in June. On July 11th, the song was officially released as a Special Clip. This comeback was a relatively short one because of Wonho’s other big responsibility, his lead role in the stage musical, “Equal.”
“Equal the Musical” is Wonho’s first opportunity to be a musical actor. He plays one of the lead roles, that of Theo, a kindly and simple country doctor. The musical is set in the Dark Ages of Europe, and revolves around the friendship between Theo and Nicola, his best friend. Nicola is terminally ill, and Theo tries everything in order to save his life, a difficult task during the witch trial era. Wonho has been greeted with great reviews for his first stage acting role, and hopefully this will lead to many more acting opportunities. Equal runs from June 3 through July 24, 2022 in Korea, and then runs from August 5 through August 14, 2022 in Japan. Wonho will not appear for every performance, as they rotate the roles through several actors, but they have a calendar so you will know who is playing each role each performance.
Prior to Wonho’s trip to Japan for the musical, Wonho will finally have gotten to hold his Ohhoho Bus fanmeeting with Wenee. This event had been scheduled for another year, but Covid put a damper on it. He will have the event on July 30, 2022 at Sejong University. After his stage performances in Japan, in late August into September, Wonho will have his first European tour, with 4 performances scheduled.
*Information from miscellaneous sources on the web and probably varies from place to place.
