The year started with the announcement that Jimin had been appointed as the Global Brand Ambassador for Christian Dior (17/01). The occasion was marked with six Awesome magazine covers and the Dior Fashion Show in Paris (20/01). The fashion establishment was blown away by the response to Jimin's participation in the show.
The same month Jimin released Vibe (13/01) , a dream collaboration with his long time musical hero Taeyang from Big Bang.
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This was both artists first solo hit on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 76.
February 2023
Jimin did a live on 03/02 in which he confirmed that his solo music, although a little delayed, was likely to come out in March 2023.
On 21/02, Big Hit announced that FACE would be released on 24/03/23. The next day they published the countdown schedule and on the 23/02 the tracklist for the album.
March 2023
On 02/03, Jimin was named Ambassador for Tiffany & Co which he wore spectacularly in his photoshoot for Vogue that month.
On 06/03, Soundcloud super track Promise along with Jimin's yuletide gift to ARMY, Christmas Love were added to Jimin's Spotify profile. The era of streaming Jimin's profile had begun.
From then on, everything started speeding towards the release of FACE. The Hardware and Software images came out.
Set Me Free Pt 2 exploded into the world on 17/03. Nobody saw it coming and it caused a furore on social media. It was a clear statement of intent. I am here to stay and I am here to slay. It debuted at No.30 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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FACE was released on 24/03 along with the Like Crazy MV. Speaking for myself Like Crazy blew me away. Jimin set out to make a statement with that song and I will always be proud to be the fan of such an honest and brave artist.
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With the release of FACE we also discovered that hidden on the record was a very special song, Letter, in which Jungkook sings background vocals.
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That last week of March saw Jimin appeared on the Jimmy Fallon Show with a live performance of Like Crazy.
In the next 9 days, he gave comeback performances on MCountdown, Music Bank and Inkiagayo. He came live to thank ARMY for turning up to his shows. He won awards. He appeared on the radio, on the entertainment shows Beat Coin, Ddeun Ddeun and Pixid. He even did fan meetings.
April 2023
On 01/04 Jimin gave an unforgettable acoustic rendition of Like Crazy live on Lee Mujin Service April Fools Edition.
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And then on 03/04, Jimin made history. The first South Korean to ever make No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the first Asian Artist to do so in 60 years. He came live in the early hours of the morning, clearly shellshocked but brimming over with gratitude to everyone who had supported the album and the song.
Then on 05/04 the promotions were over and Jimin once again expressed his happiness and thanks to ARMY for supporting FACE.
It had been a whirlwind and I think we, as well as Jimin, were caught off guard when the promotions ended so quickly. We had a beautiful album to savour but we wanted to continue to savour it with Jimin.
The focus returned to fashion when Jimin flew to New York at the end of April to attend the Tiffany & Co Landmark opening (28/04).
He attended Suga's concert in Newark on the 29/04 and headed back to South Korea later that week. But why didn't he fly straight back after the concert we wondered?
May 2023
It all soon became clear, he had been filming the MV for Angel Pt 1 from the Fast X movie. The song came out on the 19/05 and debuted at No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was Jimin's fourth chart entry in five months.
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At the end of the month, Jimin made a short trip to London and we are still speculating on what that was all about. He posted photos of his trip to HP World as soon as he got back to South Korea on 27/05.
June 2023
Festa 2023 soaked Seoul in purple for nearly three weeks at the beginning of June in celebration of BTS's ten years since debut. Jimin gifted fans with a live performance of Dear.ARMY on 07/06 and....
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,,,,,,on 13/06 BTS released this beautiful live version of Take Two with Jimin adding depth and colour to the song with his stunning vocals.
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But there was still more to come, on 15/06 Jimin came live in high spirits and spent quality time with ARMY. It was the same day as the release of Angel Part 2.
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On the 27/06 Jimin's solo profile appeared on Billboard and serves as a permanent reminder of everything that has happened in the short space of 6 months. It has been a roller coaster ride and I am still hopeful that we will still get more music from Jimin before he has to enlist. I wanted to make this post so that no one forgets what he has achieved and the permanent mark he has made on the global music industry since he took his first steps towards a solo career.
I’ve been seeing a lot of people overly excited of the possibilities once we get the TRACK LIST tomorrow, but we also need to be conscious that EVERYTHING that was discussed during FESTA2022 was “subject to change”.
Which also begs the question or theory that FESTA2022 was pre-recorded:
#01. Notice how they weren’t reading comments, but instead were reading pre-established questions.
#02. RM mentioned that the order of Solo-ALBUM releases & debuts would be: Jhope►Himself►JK►Suga►Jimin.
Despite the fact that we knew since MAY that Jhope would be the first to drop his album & debut in Lollapalooza. On that same kmedia article it was announced that HYBE would debut JK for the US right after Jhope’s.
#03. There were vague mentions of “possible” collabs in each other’s albums. Starting with Jimin having shown his songs between Jhope, Suga and even Jin. But neither of the 3 actually heard the same songs. And it was SUGA who brought up the topic that “Jimin’s been working on this one song...” and then proceeds to “reveal” (but was NOT confirmed) that Jimin asked him if he wanted to be featured in said song (note that not even Jhope knew about this song since Jimin showed him a different one). So in the end and after much teasing Suga said he would work with him or any of them for free.
But what REALLY happened was:
[rest of 2022, July-onward]
A) Jhope debuted with JITB during July ► went to Lollapalooza.
B) JK did that collab with CP.
C) Tae did that one photoshoot with Vogue Korea & went to Paris Fashion Week for the Celine show along with L*sa & P*rk Bogum (but in the end it was Bogum who got the BA contract for Celine during November).
D) We started getting photos & info of Jimin working or having worked with multiple producers for his album and also hints of him doing photoshoots on his own.
E) The Busan Concert happened, one final concert as a group of 7.
F) Jin was debuted with “The Astronaut” ► sang with Coldplay in Argentina. (Despite the fact that Jin hadn’t been planning to debut yet until AFTER his MS, but the producers apparently pressured him to finish at-least ONE song before this happened).
G) JK performed in the WC with “Dreamers” (a song that was originally a group collab/project due to their contract with HYUNDAI, but JK was sent alone instead of the whole group and BTS is credited in the song along with his name).
H) The choir that was featured & sang in the background of “Friends/Chingu” drops a surprise announcement through twitter and Instagram congratulating Jimin who was allegedly dropping a Single AHEAD of his upcoming album. But not even 12hrs later both of these announcement mysteriously disappeared.
I) RM debuts with “INDIGO” (Note: before his official debut, a Kmedia article, the same one that announced Jhope & JK’s solo debuts, said that INDIGO would feature collaborations between RM x Pharrel, as well as RM x JK, but neither of these happened).
J) Jimin is rumored to feature in a collab with Big Bang member, Taeyang, for his album in Jan.
K) Jin leaves for MS.
(I’m gonna skip the end of year awards ‘cause we’re drawing a timeline of debuts to compare with FESTA. There was also a Weverse post or conv between Taehyung & an army where Tae expressed that he scrapped his entire album/mixtape and will start working from scratch again despite him having almost finished it and Suga even told him during FESTA “Don’t be afraid just drop it and see what happens”)
[Start of 2023-onwards]
A) The collab between Jimin x Taeyang is revealed to be true & drops mid-January.
B) W.Korea Magazine drops a session of photos with Jimin.
C) Later on Jimin is also revealed as DIOR’s Global Brand Ambassador & that his first mission as GBA was to do this photoshoot with W.Korea (which was done sometime during August or so, but his contract with Dior happened as soon as BTS made their hiatus official) ► attends Paris Fashion Week where he is officially introduced as the Face of Dior.
**Note: Jhope also attends PFW as a guest to multiple brand shows.
D) A week or so later Suga is also announced/revealed as Brand Ambassador to Valentino under a special campaign (his contract with the brand had also been signed since BTS’ hiatus announcement) ► Attends Paris Fashion Week.
E) Jimin comes live twice in a span of two weeks where he gives us little snippets of what he’s been doing and working on, becoming GBA for Dior, how his album is doing. During the second time he comes online he tells us that his album would probably drop sometime in February and to look forward to it.
F) Tae starrs in a reality tv show that was secretly filmed in Mexico last year while on a “vacation trip” with wooga squad.
G) Mid-February Suga is announced to be going on a solo tour starting April.
H) Jimin’s album gets moved to March 24th.
Where am I going with all this?
That no matter WHAT happens when the track list drops tomorrow lets not feel sad or disappointment if certain things DON’T happen.
If we get collabs great, if not then also great. Its not the end of the world.
After-all, we know that PDogg was involved in the production of Jimin’s album and it is PDogg himself who has been against certain collabs between members in the past.
So lets just focus on supporting JIMIN to the fullest during his first and much anticipated solo album. Know where to buy so that it counts for charts, stream on all platforms that you can.
Jimin, JK - “We don't talk anymore” (gift for the Festa, 2017)
“So Far Away (SUGA, 진, 정국 Ver.)” (gift for the Festa, 2017)
“2U (cover)" (2017)
“Oh Holy Night (cover)" (for Christmas, 2017)
“그때 헤어지면 돼 (cover)” (only then) (2018)
“이런 엔딩 (cover)” (Ver 2)(2019)
“Euphoria (DJ Swivel Forever Mix)” (gift for the Festa, 2019)
“Still With You” (gift for the Festa, 2020)
“10000 Hours (cover)” (2020)
Jung Kook (정국) - ”Stay Alive (Prod. SUGA of BTS)” (OST for the 7FATES: CHAKHO webcomic, 2022)
”My You” (gift for the Festa, 2022)
--- Chapter 2 ---
Charlie Puth - “Left And Right” (feat. Jung Kook of BTS) (2022)
“Dreamers” (2022) (official song for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022)
“Seven” feat. Latto (2023) (see this post)
“3D” feat. Jack Harlow (2023) (see this post)
The Kid Laroi, Jung Kook, Central Cee - “Too Much”
GOLDEN (2023) (see this post)
For more details about the songs that don’t have their own post, I listed all the info I had here. For Chapter 2 songs, please check here.
Shows
Mr. Mon’s 1minute English (2015, guest)
episode 1 “Pardon”
episode 2 “July”
Directing
“Life Goes On” MV
Art
Album cover of “Seesaw X I NEED U REMIX” (2018)
Magazines
DAZED Fall: interview, bonus
VOGUE KOREA 2023 October issue: tweets, interview (in Korean)
Brand endorsement
Global ambassador for Calvin Klein (2023): teaser tweet, first campaign tweets, second campaign tweets, Youtube videos, Rolling Stone article, VOGUE digital cover (Hong Kong) and interview (Korea), Episode of the Calvin Klein Commercial Shoot Sketch, third campaign tweets, tweets for Jung Kook’s performance in Time Square presented by Calvin Klein, tweet comemorating “Standing Next to You”
Interviews
BE comeback interview: “I hope this feeling never fades”
Butter release interview: “I think we’d better not ever stop”
Proof release interview: “I want to prove myself through my music”
Trivia
Weverse magazine: “Listening to Jung Kook”
Weverse magazine: “Jung Kook’s playlist”
Jung Kook has a studio named Golden Closet, in reference to his Golden Maknae nickname (which means he’s the yonugest and talented in everything he does). The Golden Closet studio has offered us several works, notably:
7 G.C.F (Golden Closet Film)
some G.C.P (Golden Closet Picture) and #golden_closet_photo
a few G.C.S (Golden Closet Sketch)
As revealed in In The Soop Season 2, Jung Kook has a dog named Bam.
230813 | 9th win and 2nd Triple Crown for "Seven by Jungkook (feat. Latto)" on Inkigayo! #Seven9thWin (1).
230813 |Tae weverse live (1).
14 August
230814 | Tae W Korea - BTS’ V 10 selfie poses (1).
230814 | JK x Calvin Klein (1). (2). Vogue HK (3). Elle Singapore (4). JK x Calvin Klein (5). Quick change accelerated. (6). You tube vids (1). (2). (3)