We hope most of you do know that the famous leader of K-Pop band Stray Kids is a Korean Australian – and yes we need to claim him as one of our success stories!
Felix – another band member of Stray Kids is also a Korean Australian – we will write about him next!
Bang Chan, the stage name of Christopher Chahn Bahng is not only the leader of this K-Pop sensation but is also a songwriter and record producer. Now a K-Pop icon, it is interesting to learn more about this awesome Asian Aussie!
Born in South Korea, Bang was raised in Sydney. In addition to being a talented performer he was a competitive swimmer in his high school years winning medals for his achievements. Having attended Newtown Performing Arts School, he passed the 2010 JYP Entertainment Global Audition held in Australia at 13, and soon moved to South Korea to become a trainee.
He trained for 7 years and can you believe it that he is only 23 years old. Not someone who does many interviews he did do one recently with GQ, and said:
“I’ve never really gone in-depth into my life before, but I’m kind of excited.”
A very humble young man indeed!
He continues to speak with GQ, taking about Stray Kids and how unique the music is- evoking different reactions with fans:
“There’s no answer to music. It’s all about preference. We’re unique and experimental, that could be a reason why opinions are so polarizing, but as long as we like it, and if there are people out who like it the same way as we like it, then it’s a win-win situation.”
In the 7 years Bang spent training at JYP Entertainment, he trained alongside members of other big name K-Pop bands of Twice, Got7 and Day6. In 2016, he met his band mates of Han and Changbin and formed the band known then as 3Racha.
Come 2017, JYP Entertainment put on a new K-Pop audition style survival show called Stray Kids, where Bang was a participant and was able to choose his trainees to complete weekly missions – of course this was the start of the fame of Stray Kids.
Since 2018, his career has just grown to new heights. We will end by adding one more thing he said at the GQ interview:
“Another reason could be, well, I don’t think I actually, really love myself. It’s not like I hate myself but because I’m still trying to search for the real person that I am, I’m still awkward. It’s funny, because I’ve never thought of helping myself out. That’s done by the members right now, they acknowledge the stuff that I do and compliment me because I don’t compliment myself. That’s something I’m really thankful for.”
I am sure all of us will keep an eye on his career and see him and Stray Kids grow!~
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