RAIN

Date of Birth
25 June 1982, Seoul, Korea

Birth Name
Jeong Ji-Hoon

Nickname
Puppy

Height
6' 0½" (1.84 m)

Mini Biography
Rain was born in Seoul, South Korea, on June 25, 1982 with the birth name Jung Jihoon. He was extremely shy in elementary school, stating in interviews that he barely spoke a word. He caught the desire to become a dancer when, at a school talent show in sixth grade, no one from his school stepped forward to dance so he gave it a try, imitating the moves he saw on TV. The applause was extremely gratifying and he decided on the spot to become a professional dancer. In order to learn, he sought out older street dancers, who sometimes helped him, sometimes bullied and beat him up. Rain and his younger sister, Hana, enjoyed a comfortable life until the Korean recession of 1997, when his father's mill and bakery businesses failed. Bankrupt, his father left for Brazil to pursue economic opportunities, leaving Rain's mother to try to support the family as a food vendor. Rain's mother was ailing from diabetes due to lack of money for medical care and insulin. Rain got a start in the entertainment business briefly as part of a six-member boy-band called Fanclub. Revealing abuses in the Korean entertainment industry, Rain described the Fanclub members as "caged animals" locked in the rehearsal room for up to ten hours without food. After Fanclub released only two CDs, the company promoting the band failed and Rain was back to square one. During his junior year of high school Rain lived with some of his dance group members, subsisting mostly on cups of ramen noodles. He auditioned eighteen times for entertainment companies but was told that, although he was talented, he was too ugly to become a star. He was told that he should have plastic surgery to create "double eyelids", a common Korean practice to obtain more western-looking eyes. Finally in 2000, he was accepted by JYP Entertainment as a trainee. CEO Park Jin Young, who put Rain through a grueling 3-4 hour audition, described Rain as "desperate" and "like a tiger who was about to starve to death" (2008 Discovery Channel documentary "Hip Korea"). JYP stipulated that Rain had to attend college so, after studying "ferociously," Rain got accepted to Kyunghee University and became a music major. Rain spent three years as a trainee and back-up dancer for JYP, who has stated that he was particularly critical of Rain in order to push him to be the best and keep him from "getting a swelled head." During Rain's time as a trainee, his family was living in poverty and his mother was becoming increasingly ill due to lack of money for medicine. Rain drove himself hard in order to prove himself ready to make his debut, but did not achieve success in time to save her life. She died from complications of diabetes a year before his debut. This event had a huge impact on Rain. He has said in interviews that he regrets having had conflict with her over skipping school to go to dance practice, and that he believes she is in heaven where she can see him. He says that a major motivation in his life is to make her proud and he still visits her grave before embarking on each new project. Another motivator Rain has mentioned is remembering what it was like to be hungry. He is a self-professed workaholic and after acting alongside him in Speed Racer, John Goodman called him "the hardest working man in show business."


Trivia
Collects shoes as a hobby.

His first U.S. concert on Feb 2, 2006 at Manhattan Madison Square Garden Theater (5000 seats) in New Your City sold out immediately so another performance on Feb 3rd was added which also sold out. P. Diddy, JoJo and Omarion appeared with him on stage and Omarion danced to his song Nappun Namja (Bad Guy).

His favorite artists are Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.

On April 24, 2002, Rain debuted on the KM TV Music Tank program performing the song Nappun Namja (translated "Bad Guy" or "Evil Man" in English). His first album, released in the same month, was also known by this hit title track.

Rain was named in Time Magazine's Most Influential People in the World issue in May 2006 (http://www.time.com/time/2006/time100/) with an article which labeled him the "face of pop globalism" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187264,00.html). He attended the Time 100 red carpet gala event at the Time Warner Center in New York City on May 8, 2006.

Was a back-dancer for famous Korean artists such as Park Jin Young before he made his debut as an artist.

Close friends included Korean actress Yeong-ae Lee.

His mentor was singer/danger/music composer Park Jin Young. In order to become a trainee, Rain had to dance for 5 hours straight.

Lived in poverty, his mother died when he was in his teens.

Discovery Channel featured Rain in a documentary called "Hip Korea: Seoul Vibes" which began airing in 170 countries in January 2009, starting with Australia and New Zealand, followed by Asia and then Europe.

Rain is known for his many charity efforts, a few notable examples: In 2005 He donated money to have 50 drinking water wells built and in 2007 to have playgrounds built in Cambodia. In 2006 Rain participated in the Love Photography Exhibition to help find adoptive parents and was appointed World Vision HIV/AIDS Ambassador. A percent of his 2006-2007 World Tour concert proceeds were donated to assist children orphaned by AIDs. In 2007 he participated in the MTV EXIT campaign against human trafficking. In 2008 he volunteered in the Taean oil spill cleanup and donated 300 million won. In 2009 he performed in Jackie Chan's "Good Friends" concert (all proceeds donated to charity) and participated in the Green Ribbon Hope Walking Campaign to raise funds for prevention and to help find missing children.

Rain was named in People Magazine's Most Beautiful People in the World issue on May 7, 2007.

The "Rain's Coming" World Tour began with two concerts in Las Vegas at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, then ran from Oct 13, 2006 to Oct 27, 2007 covering 12 cities in 10 countries. Over 250,000 people attended. The tour Production Designer was Roy Bennett, who designed Madonna's "Confessions" Tour, and the Tour Director/Choreographer was Jamie King, who staged world tours for Madonna, Ricky Martin, Pink, and Christina Aguilera.

In his "Rainy Day" Concert Tour from Jan 29, 2005 to Feb 3, 2006, Rain performed in 10 cities in 6 countries. All 162,000 seats of the tour were completely sold out, including the two final concerts at Madison Square Garden on Feb 2nd and 3rd, 2006. Chosum Ilbo News reported US ticket sales as 11000 and total seats sold as 170,000.

On Jan 9, 2008, Forbes Magazine named Korean Pop as one of twenty global trends and showed Rain as its exemplar in their segment "In Pictures: 20 Trends Sweeping The Globe" and it's accompanying article "Planet Pop".

As part of a group of pan-Asian artists, Rain sang in front of 91,000 people at the 2008 Olympics Closing Ceremony in the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing

Rain created a clothing design company, JTune Creative, and launched his Six to Five fashion brand with a combination runway fashion show and mini-concert in Seoul, Korea, on Dec 23, 2008. Expansion abroad began with his star-studded fashion show concert in Hong Kong on June 6, 2009 and another in Macau on June 27th.

His favorite actress is Gong Li.

He founded the K-pop idol group MBLAQ in 2009.


Personal Quotes
[Rain's motto:] Endless effort, endless humility, endless modesty.

I dedicated my 20s, my passion and energy to the name 'Rain.' I always did my best and I thought if I did, it would eventually show and even if it didn't turn out well, I wouldn't have any regrets.

The biggest competition is myself. I am not looking to follow others or pull them down. I'm planning to test my own boundaries.

[on training for 'Ninja Assassin'] I trained for six hours a day for six months. Five hours on martial arts and one hour on total body fitness. Their system is amazing. It's not just about lifting weights and cutting out chocolate. It combines a re-growth diet and a lot of core strength building. It's about the entire body, inside and out, not just single muscle building. It was hard, but it was incredibly rewarding.


Where Are They Now
(October 2006) Promoting his 4th Album "Rain's World" in Korea

(November 2006) Preparing for a World Premiere Concert (Nov, 2006)

(November 2009) Promoting release of the movie Ninja Assassin and performing in his "Legend of Rainism" concert tour in Hong Kong.

(December 2009) Legend of Rainism concert tour in Jakarta Indonesia and Las Vegas, Nevada in the USA; Japan fan meeting.

(May 2010) Promoting his Special Album "Back to the Basic" (released 4/10) in Korea.

(October 2011) Uijeongbu, South Korea: Korean Army for compulsory service.