Cai Xukun

"When you try to do new things, you get new ideas, and that can inspire you and make you stronger."

- KUN

Cai Xukun (Chinese: 蔡徐坤), also known as Kun (stylized KUN) is a Chinese singer, rapper, dancer, songwriter, DJ, model, actor, and composer. He is a solo artist as well as the leader and center of Nine Percent. Xukun has composed and produced most of his solo works on his own, he also has a very diverse music style, ranging from future R&B, urban R&B, hip-hop, pop, dance to electronic soul. In 2018, he released his first single, "I Wanna Get Love" and his first EP, 1. In 2019, he released his first Chinese single, "No Exception (没有意外)" and his first DJ mix, "Bigger".

His English name was August, but he officially changed his English name to Kun.

History
Xukun was born on August 8, 1998 in Zhejiang, Hunan, China. He spent a part of his childhood in Hunan with his grandparents and later grew up in Shenzhen, Guangdong. During his time in elementary school, at Genshankou Primary School, he was chosen to be the Principal's assistant and Student Union's President. Xukun has even won various essay writing competitions at his school.

He was reportedly a trainee that was preparing to debut as a member of TFBoys. However his parents felt he was too young and believed that he should focus on his studies first, leading him to study in the US. Around the age of 16, he studied at Grace Brethren High School in California, where he joined the school's basketball team.

2015–2017: Super Idol (星动亚洲)
In 2015, Xukun returned to China from America to participate in an idol trainee reality talent show produced by Anhui TV, in a partnership with MBC from South Korea, Super Idol. During the two seasons of the show, Xukun experienced considerable pressure and fierce competition from the other participants and received intensive training in South Korea. Throughout the one and a half years, his performance skills saw an unprecedented improvement, earning him a place in the Top 3 among others.

Upon the conclusion of Season 2, Xukun and a few selected trainees from the show returned to China, where they debuted as a boy group, SWIN, under the management of Yihai Entertainment Company (Yihai) in Shanghai on October 18, 2016. As the group had already accumulated a sizable fan base at the time, the debut was highly anticipated by both the boys and their fans. However, under the mismanagement of Yihai, the group did not have much performance opportunities and public appearances, resulting in a dwindling fan base and popularity.

On February 10, 2017, Xukun filed a lawsuit against his then-company, Shanghai Yihai Entertainment, for poor treatment and the right to terminate his contract. Yihai was allegedly in arrears and members of SWIN were said to have to pay for all expenses of their activities, including but not limited to their albums and fan meetings, without being reimbursed. Furthermore, Yihai demanded that each member sign a Debt Acknowledgment Letter for RMB 1.1 million (approximately USD $165,000) to share the production costs for Season 2 of Super Idol.

In addition, the boys had to sign an amendment to their original contract within an hour of notice. This new document not only severely shrank the share of the artists' pay, but also extended the term of their contracts.

Soon after the broadcast of Idol Producer, Yihai filed another case in March 2018, to countersue Xukun for the breach of contact, asking that he pay the company RMB 1.1 million for liquidated damages and compensation for their losses. Meanwhile, Yihai demanded for Xukun to continue to abide by the terms in the contract, allowing the former to be entitled to 70% of the income Kun draws from dramas, endorsements and variety shows.

In October 2018, the Court of First Instance rendered a decision favouring Xukun, prompting Yihai Entertainment to submit an appeal. In January 2019, a second trial was held. The court did not announce the verdict until February, with the final ruling issued on February 19, 2019. iQiyi released an exclusive report stating that the two-year dispute between Xukun and Yihai has finally been settled, with Xukun winning the case, hence being free from his contract.

2018: Idol Producer (偶像練習生)
At the end of 2017, Xukun joined another reality survival show, Idol Producer, with 99 other trainees. When the first episode of the show was broadcast, Xukun performed with the first song that he composed and produced on his own, "I Wanna Get Love". Despite some controversy, through his performance skills and style, stage presence and personality, Xukun attracted a large group of fans. He quickly rose to fame and became a hot topic for discussion. Xukun received the most votes from fans after each evaluation performance in the show. He eventually received a total of 47,640,887 votes in the final evaluation, earning the center position in Idol Producer's new boy group. On April 6, 2018, Xukun officially debuted as the leader and center of said boy group, Nine Percent.

For the three months between May and July, Xukun had his schedule full with fan meeting tours across China with Nine Percent. On June 2, Xukun and the other members of Nine Percent had their first group appearance on the variety show, Happy Camp.

In 2018, Xukun was chosen to be the brand ambassador for the skin care line of YOSEIDO, the parent company of Nongfu Spring. He was also named the promotional ambassador for L'OREAL PARIS, and an ambassador for the smartphone technological giant Vivo. On October 19, Aussie of P&G named Xukun as their global ambassador. On January 1, 2019, Levi's announced that Xukun has become their brand ambassador.

On January 10, 2019, Xukun was awarded the title of China and Jamaica's Goodwill Ambassador by the Jamaican Embassy in Shanghai, China. With this title, Kun called on mutual cultural exchanges between China and Jamaica. He hopes to become a positive role-model for the younger generation.

Solo activities
In 2014, Xukun played the younger version of Du Yu Feng (portrayed by Lee Joon-hyuk) in Chinese drama, Half A Fairytale. Two years later in 2016, he played the teenage version of Huo Ke (portrayed by He Jiong) in the romantic comedy drama Lock Me Up, Tie Him Down. Recently in 2017, he was filmed as the main actor for the 2018 web drama, I Won’t Get Bullied By Girls.

After Xukun's release of his first single, "I Wanna Get Love" during Idol Producer, from April to May, it topped the Mainland China C-pop Single Chart as China's number 1 single for almost three weeks.

On August 2, 2018, his 20th birthday, Xukun released the highly anticipated EP, 1. His first EP contained three songs with three different feels described as "sexy, cool and romantic", "Pull Up", "You Can Be My Girlfriend", and "It's You". The first track, "Pull Up", became an instant hit and broke 10 records on QQ Music, the largest music streaming platform in China.

"Pull Up" was co-written with UK songwriting team Mike Macdermid, David Brant (who is also the producer on the song), Rajiv Bukhory, Fidel Rosales and Ryan Curtis. He also edited the sensational music video for Pull Up. Xukun later released another single, "Wait Wait Wait" on August 23, which quickly rose to the top of multiple music charts. His first stage performance of "Wait Wait Wait" was broadcast in the first episode of Idol Hits on September 7.

On October 12, Xukun performed "You Can Be My Girlfriend" live for the first time at the BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night and donated RMB 600,000 for Bazaar's charitable project. Over the next two days, Xukun, partnered with MiGu Music, successfully held his first set of small-scale fan meetings at Chengdu and Shanghai. On the last day of October, Xukun delivered his first stage performance of "Pull Up" at the ELLEMEN Movie Hero Gala in Beijing.

On November 7, Nine Percent released their first original song, "Rule Breaker", one of the tracks in their album To The Nines. Xukun co-wrote the lyrics of "Rule Breaker" and "Good Things". "Rule Breaker" was written by some of the same writers as "Pull Up" namely Mike Macdermid, Rajiv Bukhory, David Brant and in addition, USA based producer Kevin Chozen took the helm on production.

At the twelfth annual Migu Music Awards, held on December 8, Xukun's "Wait Wait Wait" was ranked one of the Top Ten Pop Songs of the Year. This marked the first major award received by Kun for his musical work. He also received an award as the Most Popular Male Singer. On December 28, TC Candler & The Independent Critics released their highly awaited List of The 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2018, taking into account the large pool of public opinion and suggestions, where Kun has been ranked as having the 27th Most Handsome Face in 2018.

On December 30, Kun performed "You Can Be My Girlfriend" and "Wait Wait Wait" at the Zhejiang TV New Year's Eve Concert. On the very next day, he unveiled his first stage performance of "It's You" at the Dragon TV New Year's Eve Gala in Shanghai.

On January 16, the official theme song of the movie The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, "The Lunar Song (一起笑出来)", was released. This was a noteworthy collaboration between Xukun and the renowned cinematic personality, Jackie Chan.

On January 18, the first episode of Cai Xukun's Unfinished, a documentary series initiated by Weibo, was released. This short video series spans across various themes close to his heart, and is expected to run for 12 episodes. The very next day, January 19, Xukun released an artistic music video for "Wait Wait Wait", directed by Dave Meyers. The award-winning director and his international team have created a highly cinematic and storytelling music video using a series of symbolic elements, to allude to the message behind the song.

On February 5, the first day of Chinese New Year in 2019, Xukun prepared an exclusive stage performance for Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala by delivering a song he co-wrote with other musicians. "That Spring (那年春天)" marks the first time he performed a song that was written only in Chinese. He later revealed his intention to dedicate the song as an exclusive performance for Beijing TV, hence will not be releasing a studio version of it.

On February 18, Xukun released his first Chinese single, "No Exception (没有意外)”. The song was a collaboration between two musicians, with composition by Yoga Lin and lyrics written by Xukun. A week later on February 26, an animated music video for "No Exception" was released. The music video created by a group of artists from South Korean-based publishing and filmmaking studio, VCRWORKS, employs abstract elements and snippets from Xukun's life to recount his story. Attempting to relate his own story with a personal narrative while being aligned to the overall theme of the song, Xukun chose a controlled and melodic singing style when delivering this melancholic ballad. "No Exception" once again rose to the number one position on multiple music charts in China, setting an impressive record on music streaming platforms for 2019.

On March 1, Xukun officially announced the dates for his first solo tour, "ONE" North America/UK Tour 2019, where he brought his music to fans in Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London between April 4 and April 12, 2019. It is worth noting that the tickets for the Los Angeles and New York stops were sold out online within the first few minutes they went on sale.

On March 15, Kun released his first DJ mix, "Bigger", on Spotify. It was one of the tracks performed at his solo tour in April. On April 19, Kun released a song titled "Hard To Get". Prior to the song's release, Kun updated his social media accounts with three photos in succession, captioned 'H', 'T' and 'G'. The song was first performed during his first solo tour.

Philanthropy
Xukun has been very active in supporting philanthropic work. Back in 2014, he participated as a runner in a fundraising marathon to help children suffering from autism. In August 2018, Xukun donated RMB 32,000 to a private non-for-profit autism rehabilitation facility for children older than 6 years old. On October 13, 2018, Xukun performed at the BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night and donated RMB 600,000 without making it known to the public. This, unfortunately, invited much criticism from haters before the list of donors was published. The raised funds were intended for the costs of building facilities that would allow students in the rural areas to pursue different extracurricular activities, such as learning music.

In addition, Xukun often uses his Weibo account, which has 22 million followers, as a platform to rally his fans to participating in and doing their part for good causes, such as making donations to support the fight against leukaemia. On November 29, 2018, Xukun met a traditional musician from the Yi ethnic group in Sichuan and filmed a short program for the "Tracing the Influence of Music" project organized by MiGu Music. The aim of the project was to improve awareness of, and preserve distinctive music cultures and instruments from ancient China.

In December 2018, Xukun joined the Star Lights "Battle Against Poverty" project, a charity movement initiated by Jackie Chan, which has garnered the support of many A-list celebrities. Along with a crew of cameramen from a Chinese television channel, CCTV-6, Xukun visited a poverty-stricken area on Hainan Island to film his charitable efforts as part of the Star Lights "Battle Against Poverty" project. Through a live broadcast, Xukun introduced local specialities and agricultural products to viewers across the country, hoping to boost tourism and increase the sale of local products, one of which being the salted duck egg. Owing to the popularity and positive influence of Kun, fans rushed to purchase these duck eggs, resulting in all 80,000 eggs being sold out within a minute. "Cai Xukun's fans, please give the ducks some time" immediately became a trending topic on Weibo. In fact, with Kun's advocacy for philanthropy, his fans have made significant contribution to different charity causes, including donations for purchasing school supplies and building a new road in rural villages.

Discography
See also: Nine Percent Discography

EPs

 * 1 (2018)

Digital singles

 * I Wanna Get Love (2018)
 * Wait Wait Wait (2018)
 * No Exception (没有意外) (2019)
 * Bigger (2019)
 * Hard To Get (2019)

OSTs

 * The Lunar Song (一起笑出来) (Jackie Chan feat. KUN) (2019)