Choi Young-jae, professionally known by the mononym Youngjae, is a South Korean singer, dancer, songwriter and producer. He is the main vocal of the Korean boy bandGot7.
Career
Youngjae started dreaming of becoming a singer in his childhood, when he sang with his older brother. When the latter enlisted in the military, Youngjae joined a practical music academy in his hometown, Mokpo, to learn more professionally. In 2011, he won the Vocal Excellence Award at Mokpo Youth Music Festival. In 2013, JYP Entertainment held a closed audition in the academy and he became a trainee. After one month of training in Seoul, he was chosen as part of JYPE new boy group. After a total of 7 months of training, he subsequently debuted as the main vocalist of the seven member boy group, Got7, with the single "Girls Girls Girls", released on 16 January 2014, from the group's first EPGot It?. In early times after the debut, Youngjae mentioned his dream was to become a music therapist. He has been writing songs and lyrics under the name Ars since 2016, starting with "Rewind" in Got7's extended play . Youngjae had a collaboration with Sanjoy and Elliott Yamin in 2017 on the song "Victim of Love", while he recorded "I'm All Ears" with Park Ji-min for the Life InsuranceSocial Responsibility Foundation's youth suicide prevention campaign in 2018. The song was released on October 15 alongside its music video. In 2018 and 2020, he sang "At the Usual Time" and "Fall In Love" for the original soundtracks of TV dramas Wok of Love and When My Love Blooms. Together with Day6's Young K, he became the new DJ of MBC RadioIdol Radio starting from May 18, 2020. On May 25, 2020, he launched Ars X Coco, a clothing store for people and dogs, which will run for two weeks until June 8. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to abandoned dog shelters and volunteer organizations.
Personal life
Choi graduated from Seoul's Korean Arts High School in February 2015 and got accepted into Seokyeong University's Department of Theater and Film; the following year he moved to the Daekyeung University's Modeling Department for schedule conflicts.
