Jung Joon-young

Jung Joon-young (born February 21, 1989) is a South Korean former singer-songwriter, radio DJ, host, actor, television personality and convicted serial rapist.

Jung Joon-young was born on February 21, 1989, in South Korea.

He then grew up in Indonesia, China, Japan, France and Philippines.

He is the youngest son of Jung Hak-chun and Choi Jong-sook.

His father was an international businessman who travelled to many countries for his business.

Jung learned to speak English, Chinese, and Korean fluently.

He could not enroll in a regular school due to frequent moves.

He took private lessons for subjects such as Math and English, as well as violin, and piano.

He also got his fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo.

When Jung turned 17, he went to the Philippines to do missionary work.

He taught Taekwondo and music to the local children.

He was a member of the choir that performed for the former president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

He stated that he got inspired by Kurt Cobain and was determined to become a rock star after he watched Nirvana's MTV Unplugged Show when he was a teenager.

In 2008, Starkim Entertainment selected Jung as a vocalist of LEDApple.

Jung moved to South Korea the next year to start his musical career and soon signed to an entertainment agency, supposedly Danal Entertainment which released Jung's solo EP titled Rock Trip in 2010 as well as the digital single "환상 Fantasy" in 2012.

As one of the original members, he went through the training process and even finished recording the debut album with the band, however, before Led Apple's debut in 2010, Starkim Entertainment discovered that Jung was already under contract with the previous agency which refused to release him and, thus, he was dropped from the idol rock band.

In 2010, Jung dove into the Hongdae, Seoul indie music scene and formed various bands such as Flower Mist which busked in Japan and Switch On which performed for amateur club theaters.

Jung modeled for several online shopping malls.

He was also featured in an advertisement for "BGF retail", a retail franchise, and participated in other artists' music videos, such as "Liquor Bottle" (술병 by Haha).

Jung appeared on the TV show Ulzzang Generation 얼짱시대 Season 5 (Ep.1~Ep.8) and he said of the show, "People don't like this program because they think this is just about good looking boys and girls chatting on a TV show, but it was a good opportunity for me to make money."

Since his band "Switch On" was little known to the public, Jung Joon-young tried to take part in Superstar K4 with Switch On members to gain more popularity as a band, but they could not continue the audition together due to issues with some foreign members' visas.

Thus, he decided to carry on the audition as a solo artist.

During the Superweek, his low husky voice, appearance, and rather idiosyncratic personality appealed to the viewers as well as the judges, one of whom, PSY, was particularly impressed.

Moreover, his collaboration with Roy Kim covering "먼지가 되어 (Becoming Dust)" by Kim Kwang-suk, a ballad which Jung changed to a rock version, became a big hit and the best duet audition song ever.

Jung first gained recognition in the 2012 season of the musical reality competition television show Superstar K, where he finished in third place.

In October 2013 he released his debut mini album, 1st Mini Album, which won him the "New Male Solo Artist" award at the 3rd Gaon Chart Music Awards.

In 2013, he joined the KBS2 variety show 2 Days & 1 Night as its youngest member and would be a cast member on the show until 2019.

After its release, it achieved an "all-kill" on real-time charts and won the Mnet 20's Choice Hot Cover as well as 2013's Most Popular Karaoke Song of the Year at the 3rd Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards.

Jung had been at risk of dropping out several times, but he passed through into the finals by Psy's choice in the judge's final decision.

Throughout the final stages, he stuck to rock as his only musical style.

He received multiple suggestions to try a different genre of music, such as ballads, from the judges.

However, on the other hand, his persistence for rock music impressed a lot of viewers, and as a result, it help him to establish a strong fandom.

He was able to survive the third stage through a large number of phone votes.

On June 26, 2014, he released his self-produced 2nd mini album, Teenager.

He hosted his own radio program titled Jung Joon-young's Simsimtapa on MBC FM from 2014 to 2015 and made his film debut in Love Forecast in 2015.

From 2015 to March 2019, Jung was the lead vocalist of the rock band JJY Band, which was renamed Drug Restaurant in 2016.

On February 7, 2017, he released his studio album The First Person.

In March 2019, Jung retired from the entertainment industry after admitting that he had "filmed women without their consent and shared it in a chatroom" in the Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms, which were first revealed in the Burning Sun scandal.

On November 29, 2019, Jung was sentenced to six years in prison for the rape of multiple drunk unconscious women and the unwitting filming and sharing sexual images of his victims without their consent.

The sentence was reduced to five years by the Seoul High Court in May 2020.