K-pop star ‘consumed by depression and pressure of fame’, note to friend reveals
A NOTE reportedly written by one of South Korea’s most popular boy band stars before his suspected suicide on Monday has revealed his struggle with depression and life in the public eye.
“The depression that was slowly devouring me at last consumed me,” wrote Kim Jong-hyun, 27, in a message to his friend Nine, a member of another pop group called Dear Cloud.
Kim, known simply as Jonghyun, was the lead singer of the five member band Shinee. He died in an apartment in Seoul shortly after sending a “final farewell” to his sister by text message.
After consulting with his family, Nine posted the note on Instagram yesterday, telling fans that Jonghyun had instructed her to make it public if he “disappeared from the world”. It referred to his battle with the crushing pressure of celebrity life, saying, “I was broken from the inside” and “the life of fame was never meant for me”.
The star, also a successful solo singer-songwriter, questioned his life choices. “Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be known to the world; I’ve learned that’s what (makes my life) difficult. How come I chose that,” he wrote.
The performer’s sudden death has prompted an outpouring of grief on social media from fans and fellow celebrities. But it has also shed a critical spotlight on the multi-billion pound K-pop industry, where artists are drilled to perfection at gruelling song and dance academies from a young age and must meet high standards of behaviour and physical appearance.
Variety, the US entertainment magazine, reported that several young Korean talents had committed suicide since K-pop burst on to the scene in the late Nineties.