SHINee’s Taemin Announces He Will Enlist in the Military in May

Taemin is a member of the K-pop groups SHINee and SuperM. He debuted in SHINee in 2008 when he was only 14 years old. The singer debuted as a member of SuperM, a K-pop supergroup formed by SM Entertainment and Capitol Records, in 2019.

On April 19, Taemin shared in a VLIVE broadcast that he will enlist in the military on May 31. Before enlisting, Taemin will hold a “Beyond Live” virtual concert and release a new album.

Taemin | Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images Taemin will enlist on May 31

Taemin announced his upcoming enlistment date in a VLIVE livestream on April 19. He decided to tell fans about his enlistment using VLIVE so he could speak with fans in a personal way.

“There is more than a month left, so I didn’t want to spend it already being sad. I wanted to tell you with my own words directly,” he said according to Soompi.

The SHINee singer also shared that over the course of the next month, fans will have new music and performances to look forward to.

“I’m going to do a Beyond LIVE [concert] on May 2. My solo album will come out in the second or third week of May. The album schedule hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I will be able to show one last brilliant performance and music,” Taemin said.

RELATED: Baekhyun Updates Fans on His Upcoming Military Enlistment

Taemin has a successful solo career

Outside of his work in SHINee and SuperM, Taemin is an accomplished solo artist. In 2020, he released a studio album titled Never Gonna Dance Again.

The album was split into two parts. Never Gonna Dance Again : Act 1 was released on Sept. 7, 2020, and the second part was released on Nov. 9, 2020. The entire album was released on Dec. 14, 2020.

In an interview with Hypebae, Taemin discussed his solo career and involvement with Never Gonna Dance Again.

“I participated in the writing of three tracks: ‘Heaven,’ ‘Think of You,’ and ‘Pansy.’ I’m always writing and taking notes in my notebook when I have time between schedules, so a lot of the inspiration came from that,” he said.

RELATED: Taemin Proves He Is the King of K-pop With His New ‘Criminal’ Music Video

The SHINee singer also explained how he finds inspiration for creating music.

“When I watch a movie, I’m not inspired by the movie itself, but the feelings that I have as I’m watching it. That’s what plays the most important role,” Taemin said. “I had that period where I was going through a slump of trying to create something new, so I wanted to make that experience artistic and useful and incorporate it into my album.”

SHINee and SuperM recently had comebacks

In addition to having upcoming solo work, Taemin also participated in recent comebacks with SHINee and SuperM. On April 9, SuperM released a music video for the single “We Do.”

The song is an English-language track with a retro vibe, and Baekhyun, Taemin, Kai, Ten, Taeyong, Lucas, and Mark released the song as part of Prudential’s “We Do Well Together” campaign.

On Feb. 22, Onew, Key, Minho, and Taemin released an album as SHINee called Don’t Call Me. A repackage of the album titled Atlantis was released on April 12.