Lee Seung-chul
'Rather than a legend, I want to be a working singer who is always right beside you.' — at the listening session marking the 40th anniversary of the debut (2026)
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
People around him ⏳🌊
- ProducerKim Tae-won
As Boohwal's leader, Kim recruited Lee as the band's second vocalist and wrote the songs best remembered in Lee's voice, such as "The Story of Rain and You," "The Last Concert" and "Never Ending Story."
- InfluenceKim Jong-seo
Boohwal's first vocalist; when Lee took over the place left behind, the lineage of Korean rock vocals branched in two.
- InfluenceCho Yong-pil
A senior figure in Korean popular music, said to have described Lee as a singer who brings a song's feeling to life.
- ProducerYoon Il-sang
The composer who wrote the fifth album's "Today, Too" and the drama theme "Fate," helping shape Lee's sound from the late 1990s onward.
- ProducerJeon Hae-sung
The composer who wrote "A Long Day," "Losing My Nails" and "My Love," filling out Lee's list of signature songs from the 2000s onward.
- FriendshipShin Seung-hun
He is known as a longtime friend and a peer who, alongside him, led the ballad scene of the same era.
I. The boy from Bulgwang-dong · 1966–1984
(Birth) He was born in December 1966 in Bulgwang-dong, Seodaemun-gu (today's Eunpyeong-gu), Seoul, South Korea. He had an older brother and an older sister. He attended Bulgwang Elementary School, Seodaemun Middle School and Daesin High School, and later enrolled in the mechanical engineering department of the University of Suwon, though he never completed his degree. (Record) Little has been made public about his childhood. No coming-of-age tale dressed up with poverty or dramatic hardship has come down to us either. (Era) The early 1980s, when he passed through adolescence, were a time when the sound of Korean popular music was changing. With the arrival of color broadcasting in 1980, singers began turning from people one listened to into people one watched, and the University Song Festival and the Riverside Song Festival were raising new faces. Meanwhile, in clubs and small theaters, young bands fronted by electric guitars and drums were coming of age. In 1985 Deulgukhwa released its first album, and the following year Sinawe put out its debut. The singer on that first Sinawe record was Yim Jae-beom, with whom he would often be compared in later years. (Opportunity) Around the time rock was at last beginning to reach the public's ear, a stage opened for Lee Seung-chul as well, then not yet twenty. The call came from a band a certain guitarist had only just put together.
II. The voice of Boohwal · 1985–1987
(Joining) In 1985 he became the second vocalist of Boohwal, the rock band led by guitarist Kim Tae-won, filling the place left when the original singer, Kim Jong-seo, departed. In effect, two men who would each go on to become a defining name among Korean rock vocalists took up the same band's microphone one after the other. (Heeya) In 1986 Boohwal's first full-length album came out. As its tracks “Heeya” and “The Story of Rain and You” won hearts one after another, Lee Seung-chul became the face of the band overnight — its frontman. The album is said to have sold in numbers rarely seen for a rock band at the time. Over Kim Tae-won's lyrical guitar lines, his way of singing — pleading rather than shouting — stretched the image of the rock band, so often thought rough and loud, toward the ballad. (Media) This was an era when LPs and cassette tapes were at the heart of music consumption, and radio request shows and TV chart programs made the hits. It was rare for a long-haired rock band to win both the living-room television and teenage fans, and Boohwal is counted among the early cases that broke down the boundary between rock and mainstream pop. (Parting) But the partnership did not last. After staying through the second album in 1987, Lee Seung-chul left the band.
The song from Boohwal's first album that made Lee Seung-chul the face of the band overnight. It captures the moment Kim Tae-won's lyrical guitar and a twenty-year-old voice first locked together.
- With the guitar leading the melody and the voice laid over it, the arrangement shows the archetype of mid-1980s Korean rock: ballads played in a rock-band lineup (electric guitar · bass · drums).
- Rather than shouting, the vocal draws near as if pleading with one person, then lifts higher toward the chorus until the feeling bursts open.
- Recorded as a band sound on analog tape, it has a rougher, warmer sense of space than today's recordings.
- Sung as though calling out the name of someone who has left, it is still often chosen in karaoke rooms and on competition stages as a test for male vocalists.
III. A voice standing alone · 1988–1993
(Independence) In 1988 he released his first solo album, leading with composer Park Kwang-hyun's “Don't Say Goodbye.” It was his first step not as a band's vocalist but as a ballad singer standing on his own. The next year's Part 2 album included “The Last Concert” and “The Story of Rain and You,” both written by Kim Tae-won: though the band had split, Kim's songs still lived on in his voice. The same album's upbeat “Girls' Generation” was sung far and wide among teenagers, and a main prize at the 1989 Golden Disc Awards confirmed what that year had achieved. (Sanction) In 1990, the year he released his second album, “Sunset Glow, and Me,” he was caught smoking marijuana; the following year he received a suspended sentence, and for some time he was barred from broadcast appearances. Ever since the marijuana scandals of the mid-1970s, a broadcasting ban had been regarded as the heaviest sanction a Korean singer could face. In an era when television decided the hits, losing the screen meant losing half of one's career. (Wandering) His third album, in 1991, was titled “Wandering.” He wrote the lyrics of the title track himself and was credited as a co-composer. The title is often read as overlapping with his circumstances at the time. With broadcasting closed off, the channel that remained was the stage. The live albums he put out every year from 1991 to 1993 are also a record of the years he held on, off-screen, with nothing but his voice. (Film) In 1992 he took the lead role in the film The Moon Is… the Sun's Dream, appearing on the big screen as well. At a time when his path as a singer seemed blocked, he was knocking on another door and preparing his next chapter.
The solo debut with which Lee Seung-chul, having left Boohwal, took his first step as a ballad singer on his own. The song is by Park Kwang-hyun.
- It has the sound of a late-1980s ballad, laid over piano and keyboards (synthesizer) imitating strings, with the voice further forward than in his band days.
- Its voice is that of someone clinging to a lover on the verge of parting, begging them not to go; the pleading mood starts in breathy low notes and gradually swells.
- Passing through a short section that builds tension just before the chorus (pre-chorus) and then resolving into the high register, the structure shows off his signature handling of high notes.
- Spreading in 1988 through LPs, cassettes and radio, it is regarded as the song that stamped Lee Seung-chul, the rock vocalist, as a ballad singer.
An upbeat song from Part 2 of his first solo album; eighteen years later, a girl group of the same name remade it as the title track of their debut album.
- Among his signature songs, mostly ballads, it is a rare bright, up-tempo pop number, marked by a rhythm the body answers before the mind.
- Its speaker addresses an adolescent girl tenderly, which made it especially beloved among teenage listeners of a similar age.
- The keyboards (synthesizer) and drums of the late 1980s clearly reveal the color of the era.
- Heard alongside Girls' Generation's 2007 remake, rebuilt around electronic sounds, it lets you compare how the same song put on different clothes over twenty years.
IV. The emperor of live · 1994–2001
(Color) On his fourth album, The Secret Of Color, in 1994, he wrote both the lyrics and music of the title track, “The Secret in the Colors.” He had moved beyond being a singer who sang other people's songs well to being someone who designed his own albums. His work with fellow musicians broadened too, as with “Winter Painting,” written by Jung Won-young. (Collaboration) “Today, Too, I,” the title track of his fifth album, The Bridge Of Sonic Heaven, in 1996, was written by Yoon Il-sang, then a rising composer. Yoon went on to write even his drama theme songs, becoming a longtime collaborator. The late 1990s were a time when CD sales reached their peak and lip-syncing dance groups filled the TV chart programs. (Stage) Amid that current, he made his name by taking the opposite road. He released live albums steadily, and the verdict that he was better in concert than on record followed him. His way of singing — never squeezing the sound even on high notes, governing his breath to sustain them long — shone brighter in the concert hall than in the studio. At some point he acquired the nickname 'the Emperor of Live.' It is also said that Cho Yong-pil once described him as a singer who brings out the feeling of a song. (Jasmine flower) After his sixth album, 1999, in 1999, “Jasmine Flower,” from the 2000 film Bichunmoo, became the song that symbolized his high notes. In the karaoke rooms that had spread across the country in the 1990s, it was known as a challenge song that few ordinary people could sing to the end. In 2001 he closed out an era with album 6.5, Confession.
A song from the film Bichunmoo that became a high-note song pushed to the extreme, underpinning his nickname 'the Emperor of Live.'
- A grand, orchestral-sounding arrangement supports the sweeping atmosphere of the martial-arts film.
- It is famous for the passage at its climax where a very high note is held for a long time, and even among singers it is counted as a hard song to pull off.
- Because he holds the high notes by using his breath broadly rather than tightening his throat, the sound seems not to crack sharply even at that height.
- Long sung in karaoke rooms and on competition shows as a challenge song for proving one's skill, it has become a test in its own right.
V. Again, the never-ending story · 2002–2008
(Reunion) In 2002 he rejoined Boohwal for the first time in fifteen years and made the band's eighth album with them. Kim Tae-won's “Never Ending Story,” heard as echoing that reunion after fifteen years, became one of the most widely loved songs of the period. But with the end of that album's promotion, he returned once more to his own path. (A long day) “A Long Day,” the title track of his seventh album, The Livelong Day, in 2004, was his first signature work with composer Jeon Hae-sung. The album won a main prize at the Golden Disc Awards, and at the 2005 Korean Music Awards he took the prize for Male Musician of the Year. That same year he sang “Destiny,” written by Yoon Il-sang, for the drama Firebird, and the following year “Western Sky” for the film Blue Swallow. (Transition) The music market was being shaken to its foundations. As MP3s and digital downloads spread, CD sales plunged, and drama theme songs became the most powerful channel for launching new songs. It was no accident that he scored one success after another with soundtracks in this period. “Are You Listening?,” composed by Cho Young-soo for the 2008 drama East of Eden, belonged to that same current. (New start) Having released his eighth album, Reflection Of Sound, in 2006, he broadened his stage that same year by releasing records in Japan under the name 'Rui.' In 2007 he married Park Hyun-jung, and the same year he put out his ninth album, The Secret Of Color 2. Calling back the title of an album from thirteen years earlier is read as a singer past forty looking back at his own starting point.
A Kim Tae-won song he sang on reuniting with Boohwal after fifteen years. The story of that fifteen-year reunion seemed to echo in the song's feeling.
- Beginning with a calm opening and building until the whole band swells up, it follows the grammar of the rock-band ballad (power ballad) by the book.
- The emotional arc is vivid, beginning with a composed longing to see a parted lover once more and bursting wide open in the chorus.
- The passages where Kim Tae-won's guitar fills the spaces between the vocal lines, trading phrases as if in conversation, give the song its unmistakable Boohwal sound.
- Released just before the age of digital music, the song was dearly loved on CD and radio, and it is remembered along with the story that the two men's reunion came to stand for.
His first signature work with composer Jeon Hae-sung, it was the title track that won his seventh album a Golden Disc main prize.
- In the clean arrangement typical of mid-2000s ballads, built around piano and strings, the accompaniment is held back so as never to cover the voice.
- Told like the monologue of someone getting through the day unable to forget another, it sets a low, murmured first verse in sharp contrast with a chorus that bursts out.
- As befits a voice approaching forty, a soft, breath-laced tone stands out in place of the sharpness of his twenties.
- Because it began the collaboration with Jeon Hae-sung that would lead on to “My Love,” it can fairly be seen as the starting point of the later phase of his career.
VI. The judge's seat · 2009–2015
(Mutopia) In 2009 he released his tenth album, “Mutopia.” Featuring Jeon Hae-sung's “Because My Nails Fell Off” and Cho Young-soo's “No One Else,” the record won a Golden Disc main prize that year and showed that his prime as a ballad singer was not yet over. (Audition) That same year he took a seat on the judging panel of “Superstar K,” launched by the cable channel Mnet. He held the seat through season 6 in 2014, drawing attention for his short, decisive critiques, and his name became known even to a generation that knew little about music. Audition shows, where viewers' text-message votes and online reactions swayed the outcome, were the new gateway into the Korean pop world of the 2010s, and he became one of the faces of that era. It was also around this time that Kim Bum-soo's remark that his songs seem easy but are fiendishly hard to copy made the rounds. (My Love) In 2013 he released his eleventh album, “My Love.” Its title track, again written by Jeon Hae-sung, became a signature song that went on being sung long into the age of streaming charts, and that year he won the best concert performer award at the Mnet Asian Music Awards. That a singer nearing thirty years since his debut was still winning prizes for his live shows was entirely in character. (Dokdo) In August 2014 he went up onto Dokdo with a choir of young North Korean defectors and sang “On That Day,” a song on the theme of reunification. That November he was refused entry at Haneda Airport in Japan, and he stated that he regarded it as a response to the Dokdo performance. In 2015 he released his twelfth album.
A Cho Young-soo song from his tenth album, “Mutopia,” it proved his staying power as a ballad singer in the very year his name was spreading as an audition-show judge.
- Framed as a confession to one person that there will never be anyone like them again, the song rests on a feeling closer to gratitude than to resentment.
- The chorus gathers the instantly catchy melodies characteristic of Cho Young-soo, who wrote many drama theme songs in the 2000s.
- He sings the verses lightly, almost speaking, then stretches the notes long in the chorus, widening the song's emotional range.
- Known as a song often sung at weddings and concerts, it is counted as the piece in his repertoire that sits closest to everyday life.
The title track of his eleventh album, it rejoined the roster of his signature songs in the streaming era and was sung anew in 2020 as a duet with Taeyeon.
- Opening quietly on piano as strings gradually build, it is a song that leans on the flow of its melody rather than on dazzling technique.
- Couched as a confession offered to a loved one, it lets the composed tone of a singer nearly thirty years into his career carry the song's sincerity.
- Even where the chorus climbs into the upper register, he seems less to show off his power than to round and polish the sound.
- The 2020 duet version with Taeyeon has two generations of voices sharing a single song, and it rewards listening side by side with the original.
VII. The title of working artist · 2016–2026
(Generations) After releasing “Diary,” written by Brave Brothers, in 2016, he went on to collaborate across generations. In 2020, for his 35th debut anniversary, he sang “My Love” anew as a duet with Taeyeon of Girls' Generation. Given that the group took its name from a song he sang in 1989, it was a bond some thirty years in the making. On 2021's “We,” Lee Chan-hyuk of AKMU handled the lyrics, music and production alike. (Broadcasting) Moving between judging singing and cooking competitions and hosting variety shows, he also stayed steadily on screen. In an age when YouTube and streaming changed how people listen to music, his old stage videos became the gateway through which younger generations first encountered him. (Relationships) His ties with fellow musicians are also part of his story. Shin Seung-hun is known as a longtime close friend, and fans have often weighed him against Yim Jae-beom over who stands at the summit of Korean male vocalists. Yim Jae-beom is said to have praised his voice highly, likening it to a hawk. (40 years) In 2026, marking the 40th anniversary of his debut, he launched a commemorative project of successive duets with younger artists. On September 30, “Our Own Story,” written for him by WOODZ, a singer-songwriter who began in an idol group, was released as the first song, and the nationwide tour that began in Cheongju in July continues into the second half of the year. At the anniversary event he said he would rather remain an active artist than a legend. Forty years on, the boy from Bulgwang-dong is still singing in concert halls.
Lesser-known stories
The 1992 film “The Moon Is… the Sun's Dream,” in which he starred, was the feature debut of Park Chan-wook, who would later become a world-renowned director. It is said to have done poorly at the box office on its release. Because he took to the screen during a period when he was barred from broadcasting, it is a chapter easily passed over even in Lee Seung-chul's own career. The name of Girls' Generation, the girl group that debuted in 2007, came from his 1989 song of the same title, and the group remade the song as the title track of its first full-length album. He later said on air himself that his royalty income from the song rose sharply after Girls' Generation's remake. Girls' Generation also took part in the 2010 tribute album for his 25th debut anniversary, and in 2020 he sang “My Love” with member Taeyeon. In Japan he released records from 2006 under the name 'Rui'. In effect he entered the market under a new name rather than the one he had built in Korea, and it remains an example of a mid-career ballad singer's move into Japan before the center of the Korean Wave shifted to idols. It was also because of this history that, when he was refused entry at Haneda Airport in 2014, he countered that he had been performing and releasing records in Japan. “The Last Concert,” the signature song of Part 2 (1989), the solo album he released after parting ways with Boohwal, was written by Kim Tae-won. Even right after leaving Boohwal he was still taking songs from Kim Tae-won, and the two men's musical relationship carried on.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Frontman
(Literally) From the English front man, the man who stands at the very front. (In Korean popular music) The person in a band who stands at the front of the stage, sings, talks with the audience and serves as the face of the group. Usually it is the vocalist. It is like a class representative stepping forward to present on behalf of the whole class. The representative gives the presentation, but everyone prepared it together, and in the same way a band's music is made by all its players. (Elsewhere) In politics or business, it is also used disparagingly for a stand-in who appears in public in place of the real power hidden behind the scenes.
Ballad
(Literally) Originally the word referred to the ballad, a European poem that told a story in song. (In Korean popular music) A slow-tempo song that carries emotions such as love and parting and conveys them deeply through the voice. From the late 1980s it became the central genre of Korean pop, with singers like Lee Seung-chul and Shin Seung-hun as its leading figures. Imagine reading aloud a long letter in which you pour out your heart to a friend. Rather than reading quickly and cheerfully, you find yourself reading slowly, putting your feelings into it. (Elsewhere) In literature it means a narrative poem handed down among ordinary people, that is, a folk ballad (譚詩).
OST
(Literally) Short for Original Sound Track, from the strip along the edge of film stock on which sound was recorded (the soundtrack). (In Korean popular music) An album collecting the songs and music used in a drama or film, or those songs themselves. Since the 2000s, as theme songs climbed the charts alongside popular dramas, the OST became an important channel for singers to introduce new songs. Think of the background music that plays at particular moments in a game. Just as hearing that music alone brings the game scene to mind, a good OST calls back scenes from the drama.
Remake
(Literally) From the English remake: re (again) plus make. (In Korean popular music) A different singer re-recording and releasing an older song in a new arrangement. Often the original melody is kept while the instruments and mood are updated for the times. It is like taking the kimchi stew recipe your grandmother used to make and cooking it again with ingredients you love. The basic flavor is the same, but it feels new. Royalties go to the person who wrote the original. (Elsewhere) In film it refers to reshooting an earlier movie with a new cast and director.
Live album
(In Korean popular music) An album made from recordings of songs performed before an audience in an actual concert venue rather than a studio. Because mistakes are hard to fix and even the crowd's cheers are captured, a singer's true ability is laid bare. By releasing live albums steadily, Lee Seung-chul earned the nickname 'the emperor of live'. It helps to think of the difference between a video rehearsed and recorded in advance and a live broadcast. On a live broadcast you can't reshoot when you trip over your words, so a person's real skill shows.
Audition show
(Literally) Audition comes from the Latin audire, to hear. It means that the person judging listens to the applicant's singing. (In Korean popular music) A TV program in which ordinary people or unknown singers compete on their singing, with eliminations at each stage by judges' scores and viewer votes until a winner is chosen. “Superstar K,” launched in 2009, is the best-known example, and Lee Seung-chul served as a judge on it. It resembles the preliminary round of a school talent show, where teachers judge and pick the teams that go on to the finals. On TV, though, viewers across the whole country vote too.
Tribute album
(Literally) The English tribute means something offered as a mark of respect and gratitude, that is, a dedication. (In Korean popular music) An album gathering a musician's songs sung anew by younger artists or peers, or new songs written for that musician, to honor their achievements. Many appear on milestones such as 25th or 40th debut anniversaries. It is like classmates each preparing a letter or a song for a teacher who is retiring. Everyone together celebrates the recipient's years and influence. (Elsewhere) In history it can also mean the tribute a weaker state paid to a stronger one.