Lay (entertainer)

Early life

Lay was born in Changsha, Hunan, China on October 7, 1991. In 2000, at 9 years old, he participated in a Chinese TV show as the fan club member of the actor and singer Jimmy Lin, giving him his first contact with the entertainment industry. Lay began his career as a local child star in the province of Hunan, after winning third place in a competition organized by the popular TV show Star Academy in 2005. He also appeared in an episode of Yue Ce Yue Xin Kai and Liu Na's variety show, Na Ke Bu Yi Yang between 2005 and 2006. In April 2006, he auditioned to star in the series The Duke of Mount Deer directed by Zhang Jizhong. Despite being one of the finalists, he did not win the role. In 2008, Lay joined S.M. Entertainment after a successful audition with the company's global casting system in Changsha. At the time of the auditions, he was 16 years old and was studying for his college entrance exams. In 2011, prior to debut with Exo, he briefly worked with SHINee during their concert tour as Jonghyun's dance replacement.

2012–14: Debut with EXO

Lay became the sixth member of South Korean boy group Exo who was formally introduced to the public on January 17, 2012. The group officially debuted on April 8, 2012. In December 2012, Lay was featured in S.M. Entertainment's project dance group S.M. The Performance, alongside fellow Exo member Kai and labelmates Yunho, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Minho and Taemin. On December 29, the group performed their single "Spectrum", which was released the following day, at the 2012 SBS Gayo Daejeon.

Early in 2014, Lay composed and performed the song "I'm Lay" for his solo performance during Exo's first headlining concert tour The Lost Planet. Later in 2014, he performed another self-composed song titled "I'm Coming" on a special year-end television program on Hunan TV.

2015: Solo activities and Acting career

In April 2015, S.M. Entertainment announced that a personal studio had been established for Lay's activities in China. In May 2015, he became a regular cast member of the Chinese reality television show Go Fighting!. In June 2015, Lay composed the song "Promise" from the repackaged edition of Exo's second studio album, Love Me Right. He also wrote the lyrics for the Chinese version of the song, while the Korean version was co-written by Chen and Chanyeol.

On September 18, 2015, the limited edition of Lay's autobiography Standing Firm At 24 was published, while the standard edition became available on October 7. The book documents important events throughout his life and broke several online sales records by selling 68,537 copies in the first 24 minutes of pre-sales. With less than 3 month sale of 1.4 million in royalties, he took the 4th place on ‘The 10th Chinese Celebrity Writers List’, released by China’s 3 influential media outlets, WCC Daily (mainstream), Cover News (Digital) and Great Star Media, becoming the youngest celebrity author to enter the charts. He was also the champion of the 2015 installment of the ‘Annual Celebrity Book Sales’, and took the top spot of ‘Asia’s Best Books’, twice during its monthly ranking and six times for the weekly chart. He also locked in standings for Rakuten’s listings, with 400,000 copies sold within 6 months, and has received much reader acclaim and praise.

The same month, he was cast in the upcoming Indian-Chinese movie Kung Fu Yoga, starring Jackie Chan and directed by Stanley Tong, and was later announced to be starring as the male lead alongside labelmate Krystal in the upcoming South Korean-Chinese movie Unexpected Love.

In November 2015, Lay made his big screen debut with a supporting role in the Chinese movie Ex Files 2: The Backup Strikes Back, which was a box office hit, garnering 2 billion in sales within 10 days of its release. He later won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the 2016 China Britain Film Festival for his performance. He also wrote and recorded an original soundtrack for the movie titled "Alone (One Person)", which reached number one on the Baidu Music Chart, and later won Best Movie Original Soundtrack awards at the 16th Top Chinese Music Awards and 4th V-Chart Awards. Lay also starred in the Chinese movie Oh My God and collaborated with his co-stars Coco Jiang Wen and Li Xiaolu on an original soundtrack for the movie titled "Happy Youth", which debuted at number 8 on the Billboard V Chart.

2016–present: Rising popularity and Solo debut

In January 2016, Lay and the other cast members of Go Fighting! appeared in the Chinese movie Royal Treasure. In April 2016, he received the Most Popular Newcomer award at the 16th Top Chinese Music Awards. In May 2016, Lay made his small screen debut in the Chinese television series To Be A Better Man, and released a Chinese song titled "Monodrama" as part of S.M. Entertainment's Station music project. Written by Lay and co-composed and arranged with Divine Channel, "Monodrama" broke records by staying at number 1 on YinYueTai's VChart for 5 consecutive weeks.

In May 2016, Lay starred in the Chinese television drama The Mystic Nine, a prequel to The Lost Tomb. The series achieved unprecedented success, placing first in television ratings and setting a record for the most online views garnered in a day, and has accumulated over 10 billion views in total. The television series went on to have a side story, which focuses on Lay's character Er Yue Hong.

In October 2016, Lay's career as a solo singer began with the release of "What U Need?" (stylized as "what U need?") as a surprise gift for his fans. The song hit the #4 spot on the China V Chart as well as on Billboard's World Digital Songs, and made it to the top 60 on the US iTunes chart, making Lay the first Chinese artist to appear on the chart. He performed the song for the first time on October 10 at the 2016 Asia Song Festival in Busan, South Korea. On October 28, one day after holding a press conference at Shanghai Town & Country Community, Lay released his debut extended play Lose Control, which contains 6 Mandarin tracks, and the music video for the title song. He was a producer, and personally in charge of the composition, arrangement and writing the lyrics of every song. The song "Lose Control" stayed as #1 on Billboard's China V Chart for 6 weeks in a row. Lose Control broke the record in South Korea for the most sales by a solo artist, with pre-orders surpassing 200,000 copies before the physical album was released. Lay also became the first solo artist to sell more than 40,000 album copies within a day and 125,000 within a week from the album's release. Over 1,000,000 copies of the digital album has been sold on Xiami. He performed "Lose Control" for the first time on The Show on November 15., Lose Control was a commercial success peaking at number 1 on the Gaon Album Chart.

Later in November, Lay was announced to be starring in a Chinese remake of the hit Japanese drama TV series Operation Love.

Endorsements

In 2015-2016, Lay was chosen to be a spokesperson for several brands, in particular Pancoat and Mentos for which he became the first spokesperson in Asia. He is also Asia’s first male endorser for Vichy, and China’s first endorser for Planters. Other products he endorses include Kangshifu Ice Tea, Tide, Cornetto, Huawei, Lay's, AirBender, Chushou TV and Tmall.

Extended play