제이
Jay is a member of ENHYPEN, the six-member BELIFT LAB group that debuted on 30 November 2020. A lover of the electric guitar and rock, he featured on and co-wrote Japanese band GLAY's 30th-anniversary single in 2024, and in June 2026 Epiphone released a signature guitar in his name.
Jay is a member of ENHYPEN, the six-member group formed on Mnet’s I-LAND. BELIFT LAB’s official profile gives his birthday as 20 April 2002 and the group’s debut date as 30 November 2020.
He is tied to Seattle in the United States. Weverse Magazine, interviewing him on 22 November 2024, called Seattle his hometown, and Jay described returning there on that year’s world tour, eight years after his last visit: “Coming back to the land where I was born and being welcomed made me proud.” On the same trip he threw a ceremonial first pitch at a Seattle Mariners home game with the other members. “I got to throw the first pitch for the team that represents my hometown, so it felt like a reward for all the hard work,” he said.
A language he learned as a child has been useful inside the group. Ni-Ki told News1 in 2025 that during I-LAND, when he struggled because he could not make himself understood, Jay, who speaks Japanese, helped him a great deal. Jay himself, speaking to Weverse Magazine on 5 June 2023 about the cover he released with the Japanese musician Yuuri that March, said: “If I hadn’t thought of learning Japanese when I was young, Yuuri’s songs wouldn’t have reached me the way they do now.” The point of that passage was that experiences link up, so none of them is ever wasted.
The guitar story begins in that 2023 interview. Jay said he kept one practice electric guitar at the dorm and one at the company and played whenever he had time. He had chosen a versatile model that could cover most genres on one instrument, and later he hoped to learn the basics of bass, piano and drums as well.
His first guitar stage was at the 2023 Weverse Con. ELLE Korea reported in a March 2025 interview that his mind went blank with nerves that day but the habits in his hands carried him through, and that he had felt more confident in whatever he did ever since. In 2024 he said he practises by watching guitarists he admires, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan: “I think the key point is always keeping a guitar within reach of my hands.”
His interest in rock led to a collaboration. MK Sports reported on 25 April 2024 that Jay would feature on, and write lyrics for, ‘whodunit-GLAY × JAY(ENHYPEN)-’, the Japanese rock band GLAY’s single for its 30th anniversary. The song was due on 29 May, and it was his first attempt at lyrics in Japanese. The same report noted that he had taken part in writing the lyrics of ‘Sweet Venom’, the title track of the previous year’s fifth mini album ORANGE BLOOD. “It became a special memory, not only writing the lyrics but recording together with the members of GLAY,” Jay said through his agency.
GLAY’s leader, TAKURO, said in the same report that the band “came across Jay’s vocals and passion for rock and thought an interesting chemistry could happen between us, so we pursued this collaboration”. Of performing at GLAY’s 30th anniversary concert, Jay told Weverse Magazine that November he had thought: “The passion I have for the things I love has reached someone.”
That rock texture has come into the group’s songs too. Of ‘No Doubt’, the title track of ROMANCE : UNTOLD -daydream-, Jay said: “From the first time I heard the guide, I felt I should sing it with a rasp.” His voice, he said, sounds better rough than in a clean, nasal delivery, and it was something he had studied on purpose. For the fan song ‘Highway 1009’ on the second studio album he wrote the line “now just trust me and follow / now just look at me and walk”.
The guitar has also led to work with a brand. Sports Kyunghyang reported on 18 June 2026 that the guitar brand Epiphone was releasing a Jay signature model: on sale in Korea from 19 June and in Japan in July, in rubine red. “When I first started playing guitar, ENGENE cheered me on so much,” Jay said. “That strength drove me to work harder at practice, and thanks to that it’s an honour to be part of such a good project.” ENGENE is the group’s official fandom name.
At the media conference for the eighth mini album THE SIN : BLISS he said: “We monitor the music, the choreography and the music video fiercely on every album, and this time, unusually, every member said the same thing: ‘the quality of everything is perfect.’” When the group took its fifth music-show win on SBS Inkigayo on 30 August, he told the audience: “ENHYPEN has made a grand slam for the first time, six years after debut. Thank you.”
Jay’s guitar and voice are closest to hand in GLAY’s ‘whodunit-GLAY × JAY(ENHYPEN)-’ and in ENHYPEN’s ‘No Doubt’. The group’s six trophies are in the story on the six music-show wins, and ‘Sweet Venom’, which he helped write, can be followed on the ORANGE BLOOD release page.
BELIFT LAB
ENHYPEN is a six-member boy group under BELIFT LAB, formed on Mnet's I-LAND and debuted on 30 November 2020. Its albums run as series from BORDER to THE SIN, and since March 2026 Jungwon, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo and Ni-Ki have promoted as six; THE SIN : BLISS became the group's first No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Epiphone · signature model
'Bloody Paradise', the title track of ENHYPEN's eighth mini album THE SIN : BLISS, took six No. 1 trophies on five Korean music shows from 26 August to 3 September 2026. CBC News and MK Sports wrote that it is the group's highest music-show tally, and the 30 August win made it their first grand slam.
ENHYPEN's eighth mini album THE SIN : BLISS sold 2,099,048 copies in its first week on sale, from 21 to 27 August. The count is Hanteo Chart's, released on 28 August. It is the group's fifth double-million seller, and all five domestic albums it has released in three years have passed two million.
ENHYPEN's eighth mini album THE SIN : BLISS entered Oricon's Weekly Album Ranking at number one on the chart dated 7 September. Oricon put the tally week at 24 to 30 August and estimated sales at 189,859 copies. It is the eleventh ENHYPEN album to top that chart.
ENHYPEN's eighth mini album THE SIN : BLISS is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated 5 September. Of its 98,000 album units, 92,000 were pure album sales, and it is the group's first time atop the chart since its 2020 debut.
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