Weekly Idol this time says hello to hugely popular soloist Bi / Rain.
Also known as Jung Ji Hoon, megastar Rain burst into the Kpop world in 2002 under the JYPE label with his debut song Bad Guy after a short time in a boy group called Fanclub.
His career steadily found its path when he dived into acting as well, beginning with the Kdrama Sang Doo Let’s Go To School in 2003 but the big push in his popularity came when he was cast as the leading male in 2004 Kdrama Full House alongside Song Hye Kyo. The drama was shown internationally across Asia and USA and Rain won the “Best Actor” award at the KBS Acting Awards for his role as Lee Young Jae.
Around 2006/2007 Rain released his first Japanese album “Eternal Rain” as well as the release of his fourth album “Rain’s World” and starring in his first film I’m A Cyborg But That’s OK, directed by Park Chan Wook. The following years involved more film opportunities for Rain when he made his English-speaking debut in Speed Racer followed by Ninja Assassin. Rain‘s activities didn’t stop there. In 2009 he created his own music label J. Tune Camp which introduced the likes of MBLAQ, followed by Two X and Pro C.
In 2010 Rain went into military service and was discharged from the army on July 10 2013. He made a mighty stage comeback at MAMA 2013 consisting of a medley [How To Avoid The Sun, It’s Raining and Hip Song].
Prior to his official music comeback, Rain starred in his own reality tv series “Rain Effect”, which also happens to be the name of his new album that was released in January 2014 (we reviewed here). The episodes show the preparation he made leading up to his return to the world of Kpop. A month after releasing Rain Effect, a repackaged version was released with an extra track called I Love You. This new album is also the first release under Cube DC Entertainment.
Rain is currently in America filming The Prince alongside Bruce Willis, John Cusack, 50 Cent and Jason Patric.
Popular songs
How To Avoid The Sun. Junsu did a quick impersonation of him many years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGa2_bAHeQ8
It’s Raining
I Do
Sad Tango. Rain‘s debut Japanese song
I’m Coming featuring Tablo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQ3YfFVVCU
Rainism
Rain got in trouble because of the explicit lyrics so he had to release a cleaner version later on
Love Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBgWMM8kG3s
LA Song
30Sexy . The second comeback song for 2014
Live performance of Marilyn Munroe
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT3QYTfq-t8
Why I chose Rain as Weekly Idol
My first actual “Oppa” in Kpop. I was introduced to Rain through word of mouth when I went on holiday. His name definitely rang a bell in the back of my mind from various sources but I had never dived into his activities until I started watching Full House upon recommendation and picked up his third album “It’s Raining” which was my personal entry to his music.
Next to my fangirling over TVXQ‘s synchronised dancing, I could not take my eyes off Rain‘s dancing skills and watching clips of his live performances really brought out his stage charisma. He could be intensely electrifying, suave and surprisingly cute or playful (watch this clip of Hip Song till the end). As well as being an entertaining music performer on stage, Rain is also known for his charitable nature and to add to his all-rounder skills, he is an actor who is now being sought after by well-known directors overseas. Hopefully he’ll have promising film projects on offer in the future.
