Roy Kim

South Korean musician Roy Kim, whose acoustic folk-pop style often conveys a sense of quiet melancholy, secured victory on Mnet’s Superstar K4 talent program that aired in 2012. Over the years that followed he placed three albums inside Korea’s Top Ten—Love Love Love (2013), Home (2014), and The Great Dipper (2015)—while also claiming two solo number-one singles: the buoyant “Bom Bom Bom” in 2013 and “The Hardest Part” in 2018. Much of this activity occurred while he pursued a sociology degree at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; by 2023, still in his twenties, he had moved more than 12 million digital downloads.

Born Kim Sang-woo in Seoul in 1993, he was the son of an artist mother and a father who worked as an executive at a liquor manufacturing company. His cousin Jung Yoon-Hye later became a member of the K-pop act Rainbow before moving into acting. After Kyung Bok Elementary School and Whimoon Middle School, Kim’s parents arranged for him to finish his secondary education at the Asheville School in North Carolina, from which he graduated in 2012. A diligent student who enjoyed soccer and swimming, he set those interests aside in his final school years to devote himself entirely to music.

After returning from the U.S., a successful Seoul audition placed him—chosen from two million applicants—on Superstar K4. Early in the competition he collaborated with Jung Joon-young on a rock arrangement of Lee-Mi-Ki’s “Becoming Dust,” which reached number one when released as a single. Their cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” fared less well, yet before the series ended Kim added two further solo Top Ten entries with renditions of Lee Moon-se’s “Whistle” and Yoon Gun’s “October Rain.” His winner’s single, the self-written “Passing By,” also reached the Top Ten late in 2012, prompting renewed interest in video clips of his earlier Asheville School performances.

Early in 2013 Kim began co-hosting radio shows, a pursuit he would return to intermittently over the next three years. That same year he commenced deferred studies at Georgetown University and issued his debut album, Love Love Love, in June. The record and its singles earned him Best New Artist at the Mnet Asian Music Awards and Rookie of the Year at the Golden Disc Awards. In 2014 both Home and its title track performed strongly on the charts, while his theme for SBS’s Pinocchio series received Best Original Soundtrack at the 2015 APAN Star Awards. He was additionally named Best Foreign Artist at Taiwan’s 2015 Hito Music Awards. Released that December, The Great Dipper found him moving away from his customary acoustic folk sound toward piano-based, string-laden ballads.

Bookending mid-2016 appearances on King of Mask Singer, Kim scored two Top 20 hits linked to tvN dramas: “Maybe I” from Another Oh Hae-young and “Heaven” (with Kim EZ) from Guardian: The Lonely & Great God. His Blooming Season EP reached the Top Ten in 2017. The following year brought two major singles—“Only Then,” which peaked at number two and won Best Ballad at the Melon Music Awards, and the chart-topping “The Hardest Part.” Before the end of 2018 he was named Best Male Artist at the Mnet Asian Music Awards. After “All I Do” appeared on tvN’s Romance Is a Bonus Book in 2019, Kim graduated from Georgetown. He returned in May 2020 with the piano ballad “Linger On” before beginning an 18-month military service. His 2022 comeback album And. and its singles “Take Me Back in Time” and “It’ll Be Alright” did not match the commercial results of his previous three full-length releases.