A singer, songwriter, producer, and actor as well as a Chinese cultural and fashion icon, Kun’s soulful, genre-blending pop takes influence from artists spanning Stevie Wonder and Lana Del Ray but arrives at a dramatic sound all his own. A onetime child actor, alumnus of the boy bands SWIN and Nine Percent, and cast member or competitor on several television series (including winning 2018’s Idol Producer), he went to number one on China’s C-pop singles side chart with his first solo release, “I Wanna Get Love.” Kun made his full-length solo debut with Lost (迷) in 2021; its title track went to number one in China. By the end of 2025, he was appearing regularly on streaming charts around the world and had collected over a dozen chart-topping singles in China, including that year’s classic soul-steeped “Deadman” from his sophomore LP, 2026’s KUN. He has also acquired dozens of brand deals and global ambassadorships, including in the high fashion, perfume, and beverage industries, among others.

Born Cai Xukun in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China, Kun spent part of his childhood in Huaihua, Hunan, then moved to Shenzhen, Guangdong, for middle school. In April 2012, at the age of 13, he participated in the Hunan variety show Up Young!, leading to acting roles on series including Half a Fairytale and Female Criminal-Police Officer Li ChunChun. In 2015, he began a two-season run on the South Korean music reality show Super Idol, eventually finishing in the Top Three. He returned to China to briefly join the boy band SWIN in 2017. The following year, he competed on the reality show Idol Producer, where he performed his own song, “I Wanna Get Love,” which became his solo debut single. The song spent three weeks at number one on the Mainland China C-pop Single Chart, and his success on the show won him the position of leader of the band Nine Percent. The group released two albums (2018’s To the Nines and 2019’s More Than Forever) before disbanding. Meanwhile, Kun could be seen on the romantic-comedy series I Won’t Get Bullied by Girls, which he had filmed in 2017. By this time, he was polling as one of the most influential celebrities in China.

Kun began performing his solo material at events and in concert venues more frequently as he charted with singles like “Wait, Wait, Wait” and “It’s You,” and he had his first number one hit on China’s main singles chart with 2019’s “没有意外” (“No Exception”). That same year, he collaborated with Jackie Chan on “The Lunar Song,” the theme song for the Chan movie The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang. In 2020, his sultry single “Lover” went viral as a social-media dance challenge. Released in April of 2021, Kun’s debut album, Lost (迷), included three Chinese number one singles (“Lost,” “怪,” and “感受她”). He got his own wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong before the end of the year.

Over the next few years, Kun released two live albums and racked up a half-dozen Chinese number ones with stand-alone singles like 2024’s “Afterglow,” an electro-rock track, and 2025 “Deadman,” which invoked classic soul. They foreshadowed the genre-hopping approach of his second album, February 2026’s KUN. – Biography by Marcy Donelson