Jo Kwon

Predebut

Jo Kwon, formerly known as Sacre Bleu, trained at JYP Entertainment 7 years after joining the company. He was chosen as the last member of Park Jin-young's "99% Challenge Project" along with Sunye of Wonder Girls.

2AM career

In 2008, he appeared on Mnet's Hot Blood. The program showed the intense physical training that thirteen male trainees go through to acquire the opportunity to debut in either a 4-member ballad group or a 7-member dance group. After several elimination steps, Kwon was chosen for a position in the 4-member ballad group 2AM. He became the group's leader.

2AM's first single "This Song" released on July 21, 2008. It debuted on July 11, 2008, performing "이 노래" ("This Song"). In March 2015, Jo Kwon had decided to renew his contract with JYP Entertainment, while 3 other members of 2AM have signed with other agencies. JYP Entertainment assured that the departures do not mean 2AM is breaking up nor disband the group. But along with this 2AM is currently on temporarily break from any group activities

2008: The birth of Variety Idol

Kwon appeared as a regular panel member on variety shows such as "Star King". He was part of "Dirty Eyed Girls" on an episode of 2PM's variety show "Wild Bunny", performing a parody of popular Brown Eyed Girls song Abracadabra. The music video became popular. In September 2009, he was one of the main MCs for SBS's environmental variety show "Find it! Green Gold" with Super Junior member Shindong, SS501 member Kim Hyung-jun, and Fly To The Sky member Brian Joo. He also replaced Jaebeom on historical culture variety show Nodaji after Jaebeom withdrew from 2PM and went back to the United States where his parents lived.

He joined the cast of We Got Married on October 3, 2009, coupled with Brown Eyed Girls member Ga-In. Although they were initially only supposed to be featured in the Chuseok special, their appearance brought in the highest ratings yet for Season 2, so they were announced as a permanent couple. Kwon was diagnosed with H1N1 on October 28, 2009 causing him to postpone filming We Got Married. He recovered quickly after treatment.

In 2010, he became a permanent cast member of Family Outing 2. He made his fifth appearance on the TV show "Happy Together" in June 2012. Also, he made several appearances on Star King, Invincible Youth S2, Come To Play, Radio Star, Star Dance Battle, and many other shows. He is known for his "kkab" dance and often danced on variety shows. "Kkab" can be translated as hyperactive.

In 2014, he is back to variety program as guest on JTBC Off to School after has been missing from variety program for at least 2 years.

2009: Popularity as Adam Couple

As he joined the cast of We Got Married with Brown Eyed Girls member Ga-In. The popular pairing was given the nickname Adam Couple by fans. The popularity not only stopped on their appearance on the show but also in music industry.

He and Ga-In released a digital single "우리 사랑하게 됐어요" ("We Fell in Love") on December 16, 2009 which topped variety online music charts and won two awards on Music Bank's K-Charts and the "Most Popular Background Phone Music" on the Gaon Charts. 50 million won from the profits of the song were donated for rebuilding Haiti's earthquake. For these efforts, Kwon was given an award at the 3rd Korea Sharing Awards ceremony.

The couple ended on 15 January 2011.

2010: First solo and screen debut

On June 30, 2010, Kwon released his first solo digital single titled, "고백하던 날" ("The Day I Confessed"), a song he partially composed during the We Got Married broadcast for Ga-in. The song came first on Cyworld real-time charts the day after its release.

In same year,He was cast in the sitcom All My Love with co-stars Park Min Sun, Kim Gab Soo and fellow idol and 'wife' Ga-In from Brown Eyed Girls. Jo Kwon stayed on the sitcom until the last episode in 2011 while Ga-In participation in the sitcom ended earlier in May, 2011 due of schedule conflict.

2012: First solo album

On June 25, 2012, Jo Kwon released his solo album, "I'm Da One", with a music video.

For his album Pop star Beyonce’s choreographer Jonte Moaning praised Jo Kwon’s performance for his song "Animal." Jo Kwon wore 19.5 cm kill heels and a feather outfit for his "Animal" performance with rapper and main dancer of Bulletproof Boys Scouts, better known as BTS or Bangtan Boys, J-Hope (Jung Hoseok) featured. Jonte praised him for it.

2013: Musical debut and drama debut

In 2013 Kwon joined the cast of a Korean Jesus Christ Superstar musical production, where he played the role of King Herod.

In same year on February 27, 2013, Jo Kwon was confirmed as one of the cast for KBS2 drama Queen of the Office. The drama is about a talented contract worker, played by Kim Hye Soo and the work and relationships that surround her. Kwon appeared as worker Kye Kyung Woo, shedding his ′kkap′ character.

2016-2017: Second solo album, 4th Musical Casting, and Golden Tambourine

On February 5 (KST), Jo Kwon uploaded a picture with handwritten lyrics to his new song "Crosswalk" on his Instagram. Jo Kwon's single music video was released on February 15 (KST), featuring EXO's Suho as the male lead in the music video.[1] Jo Kwon's new album "Crosswalk" includes three tracks, two of which he wrote ― the title song "Crosswalk" and the third track "Flutter", the second track "It's Okay" was written by Ryan S. Jhun and Denzil "DR" Remedios, the music producers of S.M. Entertainment's SHINee and f(x). Popular songwriters Esna and Aev produced the title song "Crosswalk"

On March 17, 2016, It was announced by JYP Entertainment that Jo Kwon will be participating in the musical "On The Starry Night" as the role "Choi Sung Keun". He will be portraying a guy who seems to be completely thoughtless, lacking in common sense, but actually a vocalist who was born to be in a spotlight. The musical will be running from May 7 to May 15, 2016.

On November 10, 2016, Mnet release some b-cut poster image on their upcoming karaoke program, Golden Tambourine which runs on 15 December 2016 until 23 February 2017. Jo Kwon became Golden Tambourine MC with Yoo Se Yoon, Sim Hyung Tak, and Choi Yo Jung and called "T4".

Personal life

As of 2013 Jo Kwon was attending Kyung Hee University. He entered Kyung Hee University without taking the entrance examination, with rumors alleging favouritism, because Kwon was an entertainer. The rumors were refuted by his performance at the top of his class in his major. In 2015, Jo Kwon enrolled in the Performing Arts Department of Kyunghee University’s Graduate Program.

Music programs

These are collection of Jo Kwon wins on Korea's televised music show. Music Bank is aired on KBS.