Artist of the week - Lee Seung Hwan

Dec 06, 2009

PROFILE
Date of birth : 13th December 1965
Physique : 167cm, 54kg
Blood type : B
Hobbies : Playing computer games, watching baseball games
Motto : Become admirable.
Favorite food : Beef galbi

BIOGRAPHY
For this week, we have Lee Seung-hwan as the featured artist. He started his music career as a member of a school band in college. In 1989, Lee officially debuted with the album, “B.C 603,” which he wrote and produced himself. Lee’s debut album became a great success, making him one of the most promising pop vocalists at the time. Songs like “Empty Heart,” “Traces of Autumn” and “Awaited Days and Forgotten Days” were great hits.

Lee Seung-hwan enjoyed great commercial popularity with his first 3 albums. Since his 4th album, Lee has experimented with different genres of music and musical production. For his 4th album, Lee recruited musicians and producers from the US. David Campbell, Suzi Katayama and Michael Thomson worked on Lee’s 4th album, “Human.” The single, “For a Thousand Days,” also became a popular hit. In 2001, Lee established his own music company called “Dream Factory” and began investing in new talent and producing songs and music videos on a large scale.

In 2003, Lee Seung-hwan married Chaerim, an actress he met while shooting one of his music videos. However, the couple got divorced 3 years later. With his much-anticipated, latest album, “Hwantastic,” Lee has released a total of 9 full-length albums.

He had been called the Emperor of Live Performances due to his outstanding performances whenever he sing. Either in small venue like in tv station or large venue like stadium, he will featured various things to show his performance skills. Many singers have been inspired to do the same things too.

This year he celebrates his 20th anniversary in the music business and released a special album “Hwantastic Friends”. Two songs have already been released previously as singles: “Heart Attack” and “Dunk Shoot”. The title song “One Fine Day II” is the only song on the album in which Lee Seung Hwan sings solo. This alternative, easy listening rock song is the sequel of Lee Seung Hwan’s first album hit “Good Day”. The rest of the album are eight tribute songs from a spectacular lineup of artists who gathered to salute Lee Seung Hwan.

For this album, he have collaborate with many singers from various genre like hip hop, indie and rock. Among the artist that involved with this album are Outsider, MC Sniper, and Horan’s take of “Heartache” (Track 3) and “Dunk” from 2AM’s Jo Kwon and W&Whale’s Whale. Other hip-hop, indie, and rock artists that participated in the album include Clazziquai Project, Winterplay, Windy City, Tiger JK, Yoon Gun, DJ DOC’s Lee Ha Neul, Sean2Slow, Verbal Jint, J-Kwondo, PIA, Yoon Do Hyun, Kim Jin Pyo, No Brain’s Lee Sung Woo, You Hee Yeol, and NELL’s Kim Jong Wan.

DISCOGRAPHY

* B.C 603 (1st album, 1989) : Empty Heart, On Christmas, A Good Day, Awaited Days and Forgotten Days

* Always (2nd album, 1991) : My Heart for You, Like the Love Spread in the World, About Sorrow

* My Story (3rd album, 1993) : My Story, To Me, Memories of You, Dunk Shot, Radio Heaven

* Human (4th album, 1995) : For a Thousand Days, Only, Our Attitude Towards Separation, Boogie Woogie

* Cycle (5th album, 1997) : Red Camel, Vampire, Morning Walk, For a Hundred Days

* The War in Life (6th album, 1999) : You Don’t Know, Three Wishes, Rumor, Let It All Out, The Battle

* Egg (7th album, 2001) : Mistake, A Song For You, Christmas Wishes, Are You in Love?, Waiting for Payback Time, Dangerous Paradise, Why?

* Karma (8th album, 2004) : Heart Disease, Happy Wedding Song, Karma, I Envy You, Quiz Show
Hwantastic (9th album, 2006) : How Can Love Be Like That?, Rewind, Pray for Me, Moonlight Girl