V (singer)

• 1. The Secret Member

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  V, the South Korean singer born Kim Tae-hyung, began his career as someone fans were not supposed to know about. Before BTS debuted, the group's followers had no idea he existed. His agency wanted to keep him as a surprise, so he was the group's "secret member". V later said the idea left him lonely and uneasy. He feared it meant the company might remove him from the lineup.

  A hidden trainee who worried about being cut is an unlikely starting point for what followed. How did that nervous beginning lead to songs he wrote himself, acting roles and a solo career? What do critics hear when they describe his voice? And how did a star at the height of his fame step away for mandatory military service?

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• 2. Saxophone And An Audition

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  Kim Tae-hyung was born on the 30th of December 1995 in the Seo District of Daegu. He grew up in Geochang County as the eldest of three children, with a younger brother and sister. His family belongs to the Gwangsan Kim clan.

  In elementary school, he first decided he wanted to be a professional singer. In early middle school, with his father's support, he began saxophone lessons as a practical step toward a music career.

  An audition in Daegu changed his path, because passing it made him a trainee at Big Hit Entertainment. He finished at Korean Arts High School in 2014. Afterward he enrolled at a university and graduated in August 2020 with a major in Broadcasting and Entertainment. By 2021 he was studying at Hanyang Cyber University for a Master of Business Administration in Advertising and Media.

  His professional debut had actually arrived in 2013, before he finished high school.

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• 3. Writing His Way In

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  On the 13th of June 2013, V made his debut on Mnet's M Countdown, performing "No More Dream" from the single album 2 Cool 4 Skool.

  His first songwriting credit came two years later, on the 2015 EP The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 1. He co-wrote and produced "Hold Me Tight" and contributed lyrics to "Fun Boyz". On the next EP, Pt. 2, one of his melodies became the song "Run".

  In 2016, he co-wrote and composed "Stigma" for the BTS album Wings. It was his first solo track. He would record two more solo songs under the group's name, "Singularity" in 2018 and "Inner Child" in 2020, which he helped compose and write. All three charted on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart.

  Unofficial covers of "Hug Me", with bandmate J-Hope, and of Adele's "Someone Like You" also circulated. For BTS's fourth anniversary, on the 8th of June 2017, he released "4 O'Clock", a song he co-produced with RM.

  "Singularity" arrived in May 2018 as a trailer for the album Love Yourself: Tear. Its video, directed by Yong-seok Choi, shows V in white among theater masks and in dark clothing among flowers and thorns. It ends with a white mask and a single black tear.

  The song reached British radio on BBC Radio on the 25th of October. One month after its release, The Guardian added it to a playlist of the top 50 songs of June 2018. Billboard critics ranked it number 28 among the top 50 BTS songs. The New York Times placed it twentieth on its list of the 65 best songs of 2018, alongside "Fake Love". Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times ranked it fourth for the year, and Laura Snapes of The Guardian counted it among her favorite tracks.

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• 4. Scenery And Winter Bear

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  On the 30th of January 2019, V uploaded "Scenery" to the BTS SoundCloud page, his first independent song. He wrote and composed the ballad himself and photographed the cover art. Big Hit producer Docskim produced it, with extra contributions from Pdogg and Hiss Noise.

  The response was immediate. "Scenery" climbed from 20 million to 100 million streams in over fourteen days, a record for the platform. During those two weeks it also broke the daily streaming record nine times.

  In June 2019, V and J-Hope joined Swedish singer Zara Larsson on "A Brand New Day", written for the soundtrack of the BTS World mobile game. Released on the 14th of June, it debuted at number one on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart.

  Seven months after "Scenery", V released "Winter Bear" on SoundCloud, his second solo song and his first entirely in English. He co-produced it with RM, Hiss Noise and Adora. On the 9th of August, a video he directed himself appeared on BTS's YouTube channel. It is a retro-styled collection of clips from his solo wanderings through Los Angeles, New York, Paris and London during the Love Yourself: Speak Yourself World Tour. Cameras in hand, he also filmed animals, landscapes and architecture. He credited the cover photography to his pseudonym, Vante.

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• 5. Soundtracks And Screens

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  In 2016, V took a supporting role in KBS2's historical drama Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth, playing Seok Han-sung under his real name. He also recorded the soundtrack duet "It's Definitely You" with bandmate Jin.

  On the 13th of March 2020, V contributed "Sweet Night" to the soundtrack of the JTBC drama Itaewon Class. He wrote and produced the indie pop single himself. Reviewers praised its composition, his vocal performance and its warm lyrics, and it debuted at number two on Billboard's Digital Songs chart in the United States. Its video is built from scenes of the drama, and V is heard but never seen.

  On the 25th of December 2020, he released the Christmas-themed "Snow Flower", featuring Peakboy. A second holiday song, "Christmas Tree", followed on the 24th of December 2021 for the Studio N series Our Beloved Summer. It debuted at number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100, his first solo entry on that chart. Its video uses footage of actors Choi Woo-shik and Kim Da-mi, again without V on screen.

  On the 2020 album Map of the Soul: 7, V and Jimin recorded "Friends". The song was later used in the 2021 Marvel film Eternals.

  In July 2022, V starred in the Disney+ reality series In the Soop: Friendcation with Peakboy, Park Seo-joon, Choi Woo-shik and Park Hyung-sik. It ended in August. In February 2023, he appeared in the Prime Video cooking-travel show Jinny's Kitchen alongside Park Seo-joon and Choi.

  Within a month of that series, he was named a global ambassador for the French luxury brand Celine.

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• 6. The Layover Year

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  In its first week, the EP Layover sold 2.1 million copies, according to Hanteo Chart. That was the highest first-week total ever recorded for a K-pop solo artist.

  V released the EP on the 8th of September 2023, with "Slow Dancing" as its third single. Two earlier singles, "Love Me Again" and "Rainy Days", had marked his official solo debut that year. On the 28th of August, three older songs, "Scenery", "Winter Bear" and "Snow Flower", became official singles on streaming platforms worldwide.

  The videos gave the project its personality. For "Love Me Again", V performed in sequined clothes inside a cave in Mallorca, ringed by analog television screens showing the lyrics karaoke-style. "Rainy Days", directed by Shin Dongle, follows a gloomy day alone at home with cartoons, cooking and an art studio. "Slow Dancing" sends him on a road trip with friends to a sunny beach, and ends with his pet dog Yeontan on a terrace.

  In the United States, Layover debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. That tied V with Jimin and Suga as the highest-charting Korean solo artists in the chart's history. In South Korea, it sold more than 2.2 million copies.

  Brands had been arriving all year. In March 2023, V became a brand ambassador for the Indonesian investment company SimInvest. In July he became a brand ambassador for Cartier and the face of its Panthère de Cartier campaign. Seoul Tourism named him honorary tourism ambassador of Seoul 2023, and Compose Coffee announced him as its ambassador in December. That month, the single "Wherever U R" by UMI featuring V was also released.

  In 2024, the video for "Fri(end)s", directed by Samuel Bradley, cast actress Ruby Sear as V's girlfriend. V first wanders through a city of happy couples, then the scenes replay with her at his side while the couples around them break up. He also appeared opposite IU in the video for "Love Wins All", directed by Um Tae-hwa. It is set in a dystopian world where floating Cubes hunt people, and the couple hides in an abandoned mall.

  At the UK Music Video Awards in 2024, "Fri(end)s" won Best Pop Video - International.

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• 7. Voice And Stage

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  Critics describe V's singing voice as a baritone, and they often praise its range and its "husky" tone. He gained wider vocal recognition with "Stigma", where reviewers admired his falsettos and his unusual musicality.

  On "Singularity", the opening track of Love Yourself: Tear in 2018, music critic Blanca Méndez heard a "tone setter" for the whole album. Katie Goh of Vice called it "one of V's best vocal performances." Karen Ruffini of Elite Daily wrote that V easily produces soothing low tones that are central to BTS's sound. Tamar Herman of Billboard likewise noted that his lower range is a prominent part of the group's music.

  His own taste runs to jazz and classical music, which heavily influence his musicality. Eric Benet and Ruben Studdard are among the singers he names as inspirations.

  On stage, V is known for what is often called his "duality", the ability to evoke very different emotions in a single performance. British journalist Rhian Daly of NME noticed it when he performed "Singularity" on the Love Yourself: Speak Yourself World Tour. She described his movements as "precise and deliberate". Crystal Bell of MTV observed that his concert performances often work with the live cameras in the venue, which he uses to create subtle expressions.

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• 8. Reach And Service

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  During a BTS fanmeeting in November 2016, V coined the phrase "I purple you". Since then, purple has become a symbol of BTS and their fans. UNICEF later used the phrase in an anti-bullying campaign with the group.

  The measurements of his popularity are varied. In 2018, research by Eugene Investment & Securities on Google search trends found "V" was the most-searched K-pop keyword of the previous five years in South Korea. Gallup Korea ranked him the fourth most-preferred idol of 2019, up from ninth in 2018. In 2021, he was the most popular Korean celebrity in Japan for twenty-eight consecutive weeks. Guinness World Records that year recognized him for the fastest time to reach 1 million and 10 million followers on Instagram. Singers from younger groups such as The Boyz, Ateez and Tomorrow X Together have called him an influence and role model.

  On the 24th of October 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in awarded V and his bandmates the fifth-class Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit for spreading Korean culture. V was one of the youngest recipients. In July 2021, the president appointed the group as Special Presidential Envoys for Future Generations and Culture. Their mission was to "lead the global agenda for future generations" and "expand South Korea's diplomatic efforts and global standing". In 2022, the National Tax Service also honored him as a conscientious taxpayer from Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do.

  The pace had a physical cost. In October 2018, at the Love Yourself World Tour concert in Paris, illness left him unable to sing some of his parts. In October 2021, a calf injury meant he stayed seated while singing at the Permission to Dance on Stage concerts. Since 2018, he has lived in Hannam-dong, Seoul, with his bandmates.

  On the 22nd of November 2023, Big Hit announced on Weverse that V, RM, Jimin and Jungkook had started the enlistment process for mandatory military service. V enlisted on the 11th of December. After his extended military training, he was assigned on the 8th of February 2024 to the Ssangyong Unit of the 2nd Corps, serving under the Special Task Force of the Military Police Corps. He was formally discharged on the 10th of June 2025.

  Three months before that discharge, in March 2025, V donated through the Korean Red Cross to help recovery from wildfires in the Ulsan, Gyeongbuk and Gyeongnam regions.

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