Jungkook Birthday 2023: Tracing the BTS Golden Maknae’s meteoric rise to stardom

Ahead of Jungkook’s 26th birthday, we take a look at his rise to fame and growth as a member of global sensation BTS and also as an individual artist. Read on to know more about his inspiring journey!

BTS’s Golden Maknae, Jeon Jungkook

According to Korean culture, the youngest in a family or group the ‘maknae’. Jeon Jungkook is the youngest member of global music sensation BTS and thus has been dubbed ‘Golden Maknae’ by the fandom. 

On an old episode of variety show Rookie King, teenage Jungkook had described himself as an all-rounder, be it when it comes to visuals, vocals, creative skills or performance. “Golden Maknae Jeon Jungkook, there’s nothing he can’t do,” he sang, and every word was true.

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Since BTS’s debut in June 2013, Jungkook has grown from a doe-eyed, camera-shy artist into a brilliant and confident performer who shines not only on stage, but also in his innumerable other artistic and athletic endeavours. Recently, he released his debut solo digital single ‘Seven’ that swept ARMY by storm. It became the fastest song by a male artist in Spotify history (second fastest overall) to surpass 500 million streams. The feat was achieved in 43 days. ‘Seven’ became the 2nd most streamed song by Korean soloist on Spotify, dethroning BLACKPINK’s Jennie’s debut single, ‘Solo.’

Jungkook will soon celebrate his 26th birthday on September 1, 2023. How the years have flown by – where did our little banana milk-loving Kookie go? To celebrate this special occasion, let’s rewind and take a look at Jungkook’s rise as the ‘Hwangum Maknae’ of BTS. The signs of stardom had been there since the beginning!

Jungkook is known as the main ‘face’ of BTS, even as his position within the group. In a behind-the-scenes ‘Bangtan Bomb’ where BTS was promoting their lead single ‘Dope’ in 2015, Jungkook celebrated his ‘casting day.’ This was the day he was scouted by Big Hit entertainment, the talent agency that manages the group.

On April 24, 2011, 14-year-old Jungkook auditioned for the mega-hit survival program Superstar K3 with a rendition of IU’s ‘Lost Child.’ He made it to the second round, and while his footage was edited out of the show, BigHit viewer scouts caught his performance and asked him to join their label. Jungkook was a rookie at the time, yet his melodious vocals swooned K-entertainment bigwigs like SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment. Although Jungkook received offers from six agencies, he chose to join the smallest label, BigHit – and all because of leader Namjoon aka RM.

Jungkook has often mentioned that RM is one of his biggest musical inspirations. As a teenager, he was blown away by RM’s rapping skills and decided to join the then-struggling BigHit because of the to-be leader’s charisma. Seems like some matching Virgo telepathy drew them together! Two years later, JK officially debuted as Jungkook of BTS in 2013.

Since BTS’s inception, Jungkook has not shied away from putting his exceptional and diverse talents on display. Along with being a heavenly vocalist with an insane range, Jungkook also flaunted his rapping skills during the group’s early years when their music was more hip-hop oriented. During his training period, Bang Si Hyuk, BigHit CEO and the producer often regarded as the mastermind behind the group’s rise to fame sent Jungkook to the US to sharpen his dancing skills and also undertake vocal training to bring greater emotion to his voice. All that hard work paid off – Jungkook is now part of BTS’s dance line and is reaching unprecedented levels of success with challenging productions such as his performance of ‘Dreamers’ at the Qatar World Cup and his all-English single ‘Seven.’ Being nurtured under the wings of the septet for over a decade has propelled him to grow as an individual creator and musician. 

Even as a solo artist, Jungkook has displayed versatility and growth in his music. Right from ‘Magic Shop’ in early 2018, a track which Jungkook co-wrote and co-produced to dazzling with his vocals and performance of ‘Euphoria’ to recording the hauntingly beautiful piano ballad ‘Still With You,’ BTS’s maknae has proven that he has a lot to offer as an individual.

Jungkook is also a talented painter and photographer. He seems to have drawn his artistic abilities from his father, and often used to post snippets of his art on Twitter. ARMYs also got to witness his abilities when he effortlessly painted landscapes during their pandemic reality show ‘In The Soop.’ After taking one look at his painting that depicted the expanse of the mountains and lake BTS’s cabin overlooked in the show, RM said, “I really want to know what is in his genes.” Us too Namjoon, us too!

Jungkook also films and edits videos of his travels under the banner ‘Golden Closet Films.’ His videos depict a clear-eyed sense of detail and curiosity in his surroundings as well as impeccable intuition of light, angle and emotive frames that contribute to his cinematography.

JK is also the resident ‘muscle bunny’ of BTS – he has had a long-standing commitment to fitness and is also great at any kind of athletics and sport. Remember when Jungkook helped BTS bag the gold medal at the relay event at the Korean Idol Championships for three years in a row? Apart from this, it is also a running show within BTS and the fandom that there is no skill JK is objectively ‘bad’ at. His grasping power and ability to learn quickly is superhuman and you can be guaranteed that he will be above average at anything he does, even if it’s for the first time! BTS often call upon Jungkook to help them, and the artist says that this makes him feel happy as he can be depended upon. Yes, we know, it is unfair we don’t have even a fraction of Jungkook’s golden talents.

In an old episode of Run BTS!, the seven members gathered around a campfire and read self-written poems. In Jungkook’s poem, titled ‘Gold.’

“When I was in my mother’s belly, she dreamed of golden rain,

Whatever the rain touched, everything became golden.

I could not do anything, but I met you in my golden time

I found myself starting to shine.”

Jungkook would no doubt be brilliant even if he had pursued a solo career from the start – but his poem beautifully encapsulates that what makes him the ‘Golden Maknae’ is his fateful journey with BTS and each of its members. It was meant to be – happy birthday Jungkook!