Happy Baekhyun Day: Looking back at the goofy and gifted vocalist’s extremely successful career

Known for his angelic voice and care-free personality, Baekhyun has garnered quite the reputation for being one of the most talented artists to come out of SM Entertainment, which is no surprise, seeing as he is an amazing vocalist, great entertainer and actor. But where did he get his start and how did he manage to make millions of fans fall for his voice, visuals and more? Well, let’s take a look at his journey to being a respected idol in the industry. 

Baekhyun was born on May 6, 1992, in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. At a young age, he was inspired by Rain, a well-known 1st generation K-Pop artist, and began his training as a singer. He was spotted by an SM Entertainment agent while he was studying for the entrance exams to the Seoul Institute of the Arts. He later joined SM Entertainment in 2011 through the S.M. Casting System. 

Baekhyun was officially revealed to be EXO's ninth member on January 30, 2012, as a main vocalist of EXO. The group officially debuted in April 2012 and has since gained significant popularity and commercial success. He had quickly gained immense popularity due to the group as well as his charismatic personality, as seen in variety shows and on stage. In April 2015, Baekhyun released his first solo song since debut titled ‘Beautiful’ as the soundtrack for EXO's web-drama ‘EXO Next Door’. The song became the first soundtrack single from a web drama to top digital charts. 

The amazing track still resonates in the minds of EXO-Ls for the beautiful vocals that fit perfectly with the instrumental. In 2016, Baekhyun made his debut as an actor in the popular drama  ‘Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo’, a South Korean adaptation of the Chinese novel ‘Bu Bu Jing Xin’. For his performance in the drama he received a New Star Award at the 2016 SBS Drama Awards.

He played the role of 10th prince Wang Eun, a mischievous and playful royal with a lively but annoyingly childish personality who becomes Hae Soo's (IU) first friend in Goryeo. He also collaborated with fellow EXO members Chen and Xiumin on an original soundtrack for the series titled ‘For You’. In October 2016, together with Chen and Xiumin, Baekhyun became a member of EXO's first official sub unit EXO-CBX.  

Even before becoming a soloist, Baekhyun brought about some amazing singles with popular artists such as Bae Suzy and Sistar’s Soyou. The tracks reached number one on every South Korean online music chart, an achievement known as ‘all-kill’, making him the first SM Entertainment artist to achieve ‘all-kill’ in both 2016 and 2017 with ‘Dream’ and ‘Rain’ respectively.  In July 2019, Baekhyun debuted as a solo artist, the third soloist among Exo members by releasing the EP ‘City Lights’. 

The EP went on to sell over 550,000 copies in 2019, breaking the record for the best-selling album by a solo artist in the history of South Korea's Gaon Music Chart. It topped the Gaon weekly and monthly chart and placed sixth on the year-end chart, as well as first among albums released by solo artists. It eventually became the best-selling solo album of South Korea in the 2010s. 

In 2020, Baekhyun released his second EP ‘Delight’, featuring the lead single ‘Candy’. The EP garnered over 732,000 pre-orders, making it the most pre-ordered album by a soloist in South Korean history. By July, ‘Delight’ had sold more than 1,000,000 copies, becoming the first album by a solo artist in South Korea to do so since ‘Another Days’ (2001) by Kim Gun Mo. ‘Candy’ was described as a ‘trendy’ R&B song. The song sets a playful tone to the album.  

On March 30, Baekhyun released his third Korean-language EP (fourth overall) ‘Bambi’ and its lead single of the same name, his last release before enlisting for South Korea's mandatory military service. The album replaced ‘Delight’ as the most pre-ordered album by a solo artist in South Korea at over 833.000 copies. It debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart and is Baekyun's second consecutive Korean-language album to have sold over 1 million copies. As a soloist, he has also sung popular OSTs for dramas like ‘Do You Like Brahms?’, ‘Dr. Romantic 2’, ‘Hyena’ and more! 

Besides so many accolades, he is also the diligent leader for SM’s supergroup SuperM. The group debuted on October 4, 2019, with their self-titled EP, which entered the US Billboard 200 at number one, making SuperM the first Asian artist in history to top the chart with a debut release. Their debut single, ‘Jopping’, was among Billboard's Critics' Picks for the ‘25 Best K-pop Songs’ of 2019.  

With so many achievements under his belt, Baekhyun still manages to be humble and the lovable goof that he always was. We hope to see him with new solo songs soon! 

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