From a boy who looked up to his idols to a singer and actor who became part of someone else’s youth… Kim Min-jong’s exciting beginnings and the memories that have remained with him
SEOUL, South Korea – November 9, 2026 – The busiest period of Kim Min-jong’s life was from 1993 to 1995. He released albums and filmed television dramas and movies. When he stepped off the stage, a film set was waiting for him. Sometimes, he stayed awake for two full nights. At the time, he complained about how difficult it was. But after many years had passed, he came to look back on those days as the happiest time of his life.
Even the young star who frequently appeared on screens and stages at the time had nights when he just wanted to sleep. Even when it was work he had started because he loved it, getting through each day was not easy. On stage, applause followed when a song ended. But the singer’s day continued even after that. The two sleepless nights Kim recalls carry the weight of his busy youth.
It was the film Our Joyful Young Days that made him dream of becoming an actor. Ahn Sung-ki’s performance moved him. The boy watching the person on the screen began to want to act himself. Before becoming an actor who would remain in someone else’s heart, he, too, was an audience member captivated by another actor.
On the set of his debut film, Don Quixote on Asphalt, released in 1988, he met Choi Jae-sung and Park Joong-hoon. Just seeing the senior actors he had regarded as idols in person made him excited and nervous. At the time, he still had more to learn than opportunities to make his name known. The nervous excitement of that day remains in his memories of his first film set.
His love for singing had been growing since middle school. When he heard Cho Deok-bae’s “In a Dream,” he felt a shiver run through his entire body. He began singing and learning to play the guitar. He did not want to stop at simply listening to songs he liked. He wanted to try performing them with his own voice and hands.
For him, “In a Dream” is a song that played a major role in his life. He knows how deeply a single song moved him. That is why he still recalls the song alongside his own beginnings. Before there was Kim Min-jong the singer, there was always Kim Min-jong the listener. Even before he stood on stage, music was teaching him what he wanted to do.
Along the path he took toward becoming an actor, he also encountered an opportunity to become a singer. While appearing in the film White Rainy Sunday, he received an offer from composer Seo Young-jin. That was how he came to sing “Back in Your Arms Again” for the film’s original soundtrack. His acting and his voice were brought together in a single work.
He was excited but also nervous. His first experience performing music for a film remained a powerful memory. While following his dream of becoming an actor, he had found an opportunity to sing. The starting point of his career in both fields came less from a grand plan than from an offer that arose on set.
In a commercial for “To You,” he appeared as a model and also sang the commercial song himself. Both the advertisement and the song became popular. More people began to appreciate his voice, but at first, he was bewildered. It was something he was happy and grateful for, yet the popularity did not easily feel real to him.
The place where he witnessed that affection firsthand was Andy Lau’s concert. Appearing on stage as a guest, he faced an audience of more than 10,000 people for the first time. People responded to the songs he sang. Kim Min-jong has never forgotten the overwhelming emotion he felt at that moment.
The newcomer who had once trembled simply at the sight of his senior actors was now standing before countless eyes. The audience responded as he sang. Hearing that he had become popular was different from directly experiencing the response of a large audience. The response he received that day became a memory he could return to even after many years. The affection he felt for the first time did not fade with the passing of time.
In 1992, he officially debuted as a singer with “For Another Encounter.” For “Under the Sky,” the first song for which he wrote lyrics, he drew on his own memories. While using his imagination, he also recalled difficult times from his childhood. The words he chose himself became lyrics, and he sang those lyrics in his own voice. He experienced how his past could become material for a song.
The public hears a completed song. Listeners do not know every memory contained within it. Even so, there are moments when they listen to a song and feel that it is telling their own story. It is the point where words written by one person reach another person’s heart.
In The Blue, there was Son Ji-chang. “Feeling Only You” and “Together with You” are songs of youth that the two performed together. Kim sometimes felt lonely when standing on stage alone. But when he was with Son Ji-chang, he did not feel lonely at all. He felt happy and had fun. In his words as he looks back on the memories of those glamorous stages, what emerges first is the joy of being together with the person beside him.
Having someone to share the same stage with was also a great source of strength for a singer. For fans who remember The Blue, the songs and images of the two performers remain. For Kim himself, there is also the older colleague who made him feel less lonely on those stages. What remains in memory after a performance ends is not only how well a song performed. The person with whom that time was shared also remains.
His solo ballads, such as “Good Love” and “Beautiful Pain,” were also loved by audiences. Some people first encountered him as a singer, while others first came to know him as an actor. As his films, television dramas, and albums accumulated side by side, the stories of the people who remembered him also became different in their own ways.
When recalling those years, Kim does not choose only the good stories. He also thinks that he should have carried out his activities with a greater sense of responsibility. He looks back and considers whether there were things he could have done better, despite having received so much love. These days, he takes time to reflect on and examine himself in that way.
Looking back on one’s youth is not always a pleasant experience. Alongside the things one did well, there are also things that remain troubling. Kim accepts even those regrets as his own. It is a moment that makes the reflections of someone who has been active for many years feel a little more personal.
The feelings he brings to singing “Good Love” have also changed. He now feels that he can express the emotions and depth of a middle-aged man in a way that suits his age. He still sings songs he performed in the past, but the emotions he can put into them have accumulated over the years.
Just as much time has passed for the people who listen to his voice again. They may have left the room where they first heard those songs. They may have grown apart from the people they listened to them with. There may also have been days when they were so busy with life that they forgot the songs. A single line of lyrics that they barely noticed when they first heard it may now sound especially meaningful. The song remains the same, but the daily lives and hearts of those listening have changed.
On the December 3, 2025, broadcast of MBC’s Radio Star, he also performed a medley of his familiar songs.
We cannot remember every day clearly. Even so, songs we once loved sometimes remain with us for an unexpectedly long time. For Kim Min-jong, “In a Dream,” which he heard during middle school, is such a song.
As he passed through his own youth, he left behind songs. People listened to those songs as they lived through their own youth. Although they lived in different places, they remember the same voice.
Now, Kim Min-jong sings “Good Love” with the heart of a middle-aged man. We, too, are no longer the same people we were when we first heard that song. A verse we once listened to without much thought now touches our hearts deeply.
The person who sang those songs back then, and all of us who listened to them, have come this far.
