Jun Sung Ahn

Jun Sung Ahn

Performing at KCON LA 2016, July 30.
Background information
Native name 안준성
Birth name Jun Sung Ahn
Also known as Jun Curry Ahn
Born (1993-02-18) February 18, 1993
Seoul, South Korea
Origin Princeton Junction, New Jersey
Genres
Occupation(s)
Instruments
Years active 2011–present
Labels Unsigned
Associated acts BgA
Website www.juncurryahn.com

Jun Sung Ahn or Ahn Jun-sung (Hangul: 안준성; born February 18, 1993), better known by his stage name Jun Curry Ahn, is a Korean American musician, YouTube video producer and member of BgA. He is a classically trained violinist who is known for his 2012 violin and dance cover performance of Psy's Gangnam Style on his YouTube channel and other K-pop and pop music covers.[1][2][3][4]

Early life

Ahn was born in South Korea and moved to New Jersey in the third grade of elementary school.[5][6][7] He started playing classical violin in fifth grade, performing in competitions and recitals. Later at college, although he majored in radio/TV/film, and not music, he still joined Northwestern University's orchestra and participated in the Asian-concentrated dance crew, 'Refresh'.[1][3] By sophomore year, he no longer studied violin formally, but continued to play.[3]

Musical career

2011-2015: Gangnam Style and other YouTube covers, Kollaboration

In July 2011, he started recording and publishing violin covers of pop songs on YouTube, under the pseudonym Jun Curry Ahn, with the "Curry" middle name being a play on his ethnicity. In about sixteen months, he had 17 million views and 130,000 subscribers,[1][3] with covers including Adele's "Skyfall", Taylor Swift's "Red", Bad Meets Evil's "Lighters" and Lil Wayne's "How to Love".[3] He has collaborated with other YouTube artists such as Arden Cho and Sungha Jung, and with his university's dance crew Refresh for a vocal, dance and violin cover of Big Bang’s, "Blue".[1]

On July 7, 2012, he won the annual Kollaboration Chicago award with a performance that combined violin and the Chinese yo-yo, and later competed at the Kollaboration Star Finale in Los Angeles in the fall of the same year.[1][6][8] Also, in July 2012, his dance and violin cover of Psy’s "Gangnam Style", which he published a few weeks after the original, soon reached more than 2.4 million views,[1] and won first place in a competition Psy held in South Korea.[5] He 'cloned' himself in the video to appear dancing and playing the violin at the same time.[3]

On September 13, 2013, he reported as an MNET America intern.[9]

On August 9, 2014, he was a special guest at KCON LA's convention,[10] and performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena as one of the opening acts for idols VIXX, IU, B1A4, Teen Top and G-Dragon; a violin cover of Taeyang's "Eyes, Nose, Lips" and a dance cover of BEAST's "Good Luck".[11]

By the fall of 2014, during his senior year at Northwestern University, he had more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers, over 7 million individual views and his most popular video, a cover of "Let It Go" had more than 3.8 million views. He described his YouTube work as building a portfolio, with his passion for film portrayed in his violin playing, and with each video having a cinematic quality.[12]

In November 2014, Asia Pacific Arts' Mai Nguyen said his Taylor Swift cover of Shake It Off "...remakes the music video with his own twist. While playing the upbeat pop song on his violin, Jun Sung shows off his comedic side in his attempts to perform martial arts and Indian dance".[13]

On August 2, 2015, he performed with opening acts at the Staples Center at KCON LA, preceding larger K-pop acts Red Velvet, AOA, Block B, Zion.T, Crush and Shinhwa.[14] On August 8, 2015, he opened for the first KCON New York for VIXX, AOA, Teen Top and Girls' Generation.[7][15]

2016-present: BgA, KCON NY and LA, YouTube Fanfest

YouTube FanFest Korea 2016, September 2, Seoul.

In May 2016, he and BgA members, YouTuber Ryan Higa, musician David Choi, filmmaker Philip Wang and actor Justin Chon, released a parody K-pop song and music video "Dong Saya Dae", which recorded a million views on May 13, the first day of its release. In the video, his persona was "Jeungri", an "inspiring YouTuber and actual K-pop star".[2]

On June 25, 2016 at KCON NY, he performed K-pop covers on the Prudential Center stage as an opening for popular idol acts, including Mamamoo, Eric Nam, Ailee, Day6 and BTS. Fuse's Jeff Benjamin said, "The crowd particularly enjoyed his cover of BTS' 'Save Me,' that saw Ahn dancing a bit during the breakdown." Benjamin said he shared the praise he received from BTS on a Twitter post, "Rap Monster just came up to me and said my performance was amazing and that the BTS members have seen my videos. I'M DEAD.[16]

On July 30, 2016, he performed BTS' "Save Me" at KCON LA's pre-show at the Staples Center before larger acts I.O.I, DEAN, Amber, GFriend, Block B, Turbo, and SHINee,[17] and held a "meet-and-greet" at the convention.[18] On August 4, 2016, while reporting chart news, Billboard's Trevor Anderson mentioned his performance at KCON LA and his nearly 1 million YouTube subscribers. Anderson accounted his Twitter posting of the popular cover of BTS' "Butterfly" for boosting the song to a re-entry on the Billboard Twitter Top Tracks Chart at Number 2, along with a cover by singer Lucia.[4]

On September 2, 2016, he participated with eleven other star YouTubers in the YouTube FanFest in Seoul.[19][20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bien, James (November 28, 2012). "Instrumental Success: Northwestern sophomore Jun Sung Ahn finds his forte on YouTube". The Daily Northwestern. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Dong Saya Dae: funniest K-Pop debut ever!". Asia Times. May 17, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Violinist Jun Sung Ahn 'Gangnam Style' cover hits 2.4M views". ABC 13. December 12, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Anderson, Trevor. "BTS, 5 Seconds of Summer & Major Lazer Make Waves on Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks Chart". Billboard. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Spain, Erin (December 7, 2012). "Northwestern Violinist a YouTube Smash". Northwestern Now. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Kim, Joo-hyun (July 14, 2012). 유튜브 스타 바이올린 연주자…콜라보레이션 우승 안준성 씨. Korea JoongAng Daily Chicago (in Korean). Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  7. 1 2 Schlueter, Krista (August 9, 2015). "KCON". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Reflections of Kollaboration Chicago 2012 Winner Jun Sung Ahn". Kollaboration Chicago. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  9. ↑ Ahn, JuNCurry (September 13, 2013). "What's it like in the life of an intern at Mnet America?". MNET America. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  10. ↑ "KCON 2014 Official Program Book". issuu/KCON. August 5, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  11. ↑ Rodriguez, Tanya (August 15, 2014). "G-Dragon, Girl's Generation, VIXX, B1A4, CNBlue, and more take on LA during KCON 2014 (1/2)". DramaFever. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  12. ↑ Daswick, Tyler (March 11, 2015). "3.8 Million Hit Wonder (And Counting)". North by Northwestern. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  13. ↑ Nguyen, Mai (November 19, 2014). "Video of the Day: Jun Sung Ahn's "Shake It Off" Violin Cover". Asia Pacific Arts. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  14. ↑ Westbrook, Leah (August 22, 2015). "KCON LA's Sunday Night Concert". ATK Magazine. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  15. ↑ Benjamin, Jeff (August 9, 2015). "KCON 2015 New York Recap: Girls' Generation, VIXX & More Attempt to Satiate East Coast K-Pop Fans". Billboard. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  16. ↑ Benjamin, Jeff (June 27, 2016). "KCON 2016 New York Day 2: The 11 Best Moments From the Concert". Fuse. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  17. ↑ Espinosa, Lisa (August 9, 2016). "[HanCinema's Event Coverage] KCON LA 2016 Saturday Concert Review". HanCinema. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Meet & Greet: JuNCurryAhn". KCON. August 10, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  19. ↑ FANFEST 서울 대한민국. YouTube Fanfest (in Korean). Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  20. ↑ Kim, Jae-heun (September 6, 2016). "YouTube holds third FanFest in Korea". The Korea Times. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
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