Biography
He is a
Christian. He has an older sister named Cho Ara. He currently attends
Kyunghee University, majoring in Post Modern Music. He can play the clarinet and piano. He is the youngest member from Super Junior. He likes to play games, especially
StarCraft, that is how he recieved his nickname "GameKyu".
Ear Operation
Kyuhyun had ear problems due to an inner ear infection he had in High School. Finally deciding to do something about it he went for surgery to repair the damage during Super Junior's Bonamana promotions. While Super Junior was performing onstage Kyuhyun was in the hospital recovering from the surgery. He participated in Bonamana's first few stages but could not participate in all. Kyuhyun was away while Donghae, Leeteuk and Sungmin sang his solo parts in Bonamana. Luckily, he recovered and sang a remixed version of Bonamana with fellow Super Junior members - Donghae, Yesung, Sungmin and Ryeowook and aired on Youtube on June 23, 2010. Announcements said that Kyuhyun was going to be back onstage for Bonamana's goodbye stage on June 25, 2010.
Pre-debut
Cho Kyuhyun's singing talents were discovered after he won third place at the
Chin Chin Singing Competition in 2005. He soon signed under
SM Entertainment and was featured in the video remake of
TVXQ's single
Hi Ya Ya along with other Chin Chin idols.
Before Kyuhyun's addition to
Super Junior, the original twelve members were said to be separating and "graduating" as the band was still presented as a project group at the time, the concept being very similar to
Japan's popular girl group,
Morning Musume. Although Kyuhyun's addition to the group initially brought in an unpleasant surprise and dissatisfaction within the group's fans who supported the original twelve members, Kyuhyun was quickly accepted and acknowledged by the fans as the thirteenth member of Super Junior.
Debut
Kyuhyun's first media appearance was mysterious and unspecified. He made his first appearance as a part of Super Junior in a
news broadcast on May 23, 2006 when the group was introducing their new single,
U. Kyuhyun made his debut performance on May 26, 2006 at
SBS's
I-Concert performing the new single "U", where it was also the group's first return performance as a permanent group. Towards the end of 2006, Kyuhyun, along with
Yesung and
Ryeowook, was placed in Super Junior's first subgroup,
Super Junior-K.R.Y. The trio debuted on November 5, 2006 on
KBS's
Music Bank.
April Car Accident
In the early morning of April 19, 2007, just one month before Kyuhyun's first anniversary in Super Junior, Kyuhyun with Super Junior members
Leeteuk,
Shindong,
Eunhyuk, and two managers were all hospitalized due to a serious car accident when returning from the
Super Junior Kiss the Radio show that night. The driver lost control of the vehicle as the van flipped over on its right side. Kyuhyun, who was sitting behind the driver's seat when the accident occurred, was the most injured and had a fractured hip,
pneumothorax from fractured ribs, and facial scratches and bruises. He was slipping in and out of consciousness and was
mute because of the shock. Kyuhyun spent 6 days in the ICU before he was moved to a regular hospital room. Kyuhyun also did not need the respiratory machine anymore to support his breathing, though it was said that he was only able to walk on his own one month after the accident.Kyuhyun was discharged on July 5, 2007 after 78 days.
Due to the accident, throughout 2007, Kyuhyun's participation in many of
Super Junior's activities was limited. He appeared in episode 7 onwards of SBS's
Explorers of the Human Body, however his injuries only allowed him to compete in some activities. A noticeable event that occurred shortly during his recovery was Kyuhyun's guest appearance on the October 13, 2007 edition of
Star King, in which he performed a duet of
A Whole New World with
Charice Pempengco. Despite still recovery from his injuries, Kyuhyun wowed the audience with his mind-blowing vocals.
Don't Don
In time for the release of Super Junior's 2nd album in September, it was announced that Kyuhyun would return along with the rest of the members, sporting new looks and styles. Kyuhyun gave his first performance after the April car accident on September 21, 2007, performing the new promo-single, "
Don't Don" on KBS Music Bank and overwhelmed fans with his appearance after his long absence.
Since Kyuhyun had to undergo another operation and needed more time to recover from his injuries, his participation in Super Junior's second album activities was intermittent. It was in December of the same year that he began appearing more frequently with his group.
Super Junior-M
In early 2008, Kyuhyun was placed in a third Super Junior subgroup,
Super Junior-M. The subgroup specializes in singing Mandarin songs, including versions of Super Junior's Korean songs, bringing the K-pop influence over to the Chinese music industry. Super Junior-M is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both
Chinese and
Korean descent. The 7-member group debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards along with the release of their first single music video, "
U".
Not long after Super Junior-M's debut, they became one of the most celebrated boy-bands in China. The band's popularity skyrocketed further after their highly anticipated Mini-album, "Super Girl" was released on September 2009.
Solo
In 2009, for the promotions of Super Junior's third studio album
Sorry Sorry, Kyuhyun performed as one of the lead vocalists and traveled with the other members to overseas events, including
Jackie Chan's Bird Nest Concert on April 8, 2009 with
Zhang Liyin. The album brought immense popularity to the group after their long hiatus, allowing Super Junior to appear regularly in several variety shows and endorsements. They also held their second official Asia Tour,
Super Show II.
Kyuhyun featured on Yoo Youngsuk's 20th anniversary tribute album, singing his first solo: a remake of Yoo's hit song "7년간의 사랑" (
"7 Years of Love"). He first performed the song on July 10, 2009 on
Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketch Book, the episode airing 2 days later. The song was released as a digital single, and Yoo Youngsuk's album was available online on June 30, 2009, with all proceeds going to
UNICEF.
He and bandmate
Donghae performed a special song
"Happy Bubble" for a facial wash product commercial "Happy Bath" with actress
Han Ji Min. A full music video was released on August 19, 2009.
Kyuhyun, along with the rest of
Super Junior-M, returned in September 2009 to China to promote their first mini-album:
Super Girl. The mini-album was a major success and garnered further popularity and awards for the band. Unfortunately, Super Junior-M's activities are canceled until further notice due to bandmate,
Han Geng and his dispute with SM Entertainment.
On January 6, 2010, Kyuhyun released his solo song "Listen To You", it is the main theme song for Korean drama "Pasta". When the song was first released on the music site monkey3 (www.monkey3.co.kr), it garnered a lot of attention and reached #1 on the real time chart.
Aside from the official solo releases, Kyuhyun has also performed a variety of other songs such as
"Believe", Qi Qin's
"Won't Let My Tears Accompany Me Through The Night (不讓我的眼淚陪我過夜)",
Nicholas Teo's
"Tears of Polaris",
Jam Hsiao's
"Forgive Me" and
"A Goose's Dream" with Jonghyun of
SHINee. Kyuhyun also collaborated with The Grace in early 2008 to perform "하루만 (Just For One Day)" for
The Grace's first album
한번 더, OK?. He also sang the song "Hope is a dream that doesn't Sleep" for the drama ost of "Baker King, Kim Tak Goo" in year 2010.
