JYJ: The Biggest Boy Band In The World You’ve Never Heard Of

Trivia question: Who’s the biggest boy band in the world? Backstreet Boys? *NSYNC? New Kids? Hanson? Take That? Menudo? Nope. According to reliable source Guinness World Records, it’s JYJ.

Never heard of JYJ? Well, obviously you haven’t been to Korea lately, where the group’s singers, Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, and Kim Junsu, are bigger than Justin Timberlake. Their popularity in their homeland landed them in Guinness in 2008 and 2009 for having the world’s largest official fanclub (more than 800,000 members in Seoul alone) and for being the most photographed celebrities on the planet (they’ve been snapped professionally approximately 500 million times).

And now JYJ are going global, as they release their first English-language album, The Beginning, on Atlantic Records. The disc features production on two tracks, “Empty” and “Be My Girl,” by superstar studio guru Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige), and the album’s lead single, “Ayyy Girl,” actually boasts vocals and production by a little American artist named Kanye West.

 

Interview: Changmin in CHORUS magazine

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It is said that in Korea, flowery boy is used to describe a person with attractive appearance. Beautiful like a flower, and smell as nice as a flower…. the slender beautiful lad who stands out like a character from the shoujo manga, is Changmin!
The staff suggested to completely unbutton his shirt. Due to this, Changmin was very shy and rejected strongly, ‘No no, It’s okay to have my shirt buttoned!’ However, he compromised halfway. (laughs) ‘I don’t usually let people see that!’ In the end he still showed a bit of his physical beauty. Undoubtedly, he is a ‘flowery boy’.
‘No, it is not like that. My female friends have never told me that, maybe because I am not that popular…’