Taeyang태양태양
Taeyang is the main vocalist of BIGBANG and records solo with The Black Label. His 2008 mini album Hot was the first solo record by a BIGBANG member, and on 18 May 2026 he released QUINTESSENCE, his first full album in about nine years.
Taeyang is the main vocalist of BIGBANG and works as a solo artist with The Black Label. His mini album Hot (22 May 2008), led by ‘Only Look At Me’, was the first solo record by any member of BIGBANG. The next year it won both best R&B and soul album and best R&B and soul song at the Korean Music Awards, where selector Kim Bong-hyun wrote that “with this one album Taeyang proved his effort and his will toward Black music”.
His first full album, Solar, came out on 1 July 2010, with G-Dragon on ‘I Need A Girl’, and it too took the Korean Music Awards’ R&B and soul album and song. ‘Eyes, Nose, Lips’, the title track of his second full album RISE (3 June 2014), reached number one on the Circle Chart digital chart. IZM’s Kim Do-heon called it “the most striking signature single since ‘Only Look At Me’”.
WHITE NIGHT (16 August 2017) came with two title tracks, ‘WAKE ME UP’ and ‘DARLING’, and the tour that followed visited nineteen cities in eleven countries. Idology’s Mimyo wrote of Taeyang as a singer “who can express both a glamorous darkness and a sincere sorrow”. The following January, as an ambassador of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, he co-wrote the cheer song ‘LOUDER’ and first sang it at a torch-relay event.
‘VIBE’ (13 January 2023), featuring BTS’s Jimin, was his first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100. Down to Earth, that April, was his first record with The Black Label.
His fourth full album, QUINTESSENCE, came out with ten tracks at 6pm KST on his birthday, 18 May 2026 — his first full album in about nine years, since WHITE NIGHT. “‘Quintessence’ means the essence, the heart of something,” he explained, and he described the title track ‘LIVE FAST DIE SLOW’ as the fastest song he has released. Tablo wrote the lyrics of three songs, and The Kid LAROI joins him on ‘OPEN UP’.
The album was finished while BIGBANG prepared for Coachella. “It’s been a really busy year. I finished the album while preparing for BIGBANG’s Coachella performance,” he told The Korea Times. At the listening event on release day he set it first in the year’s order: “I’ve started a big project with my solo album, and after this I’ll come to you with BIGBANG in all kinds of ways, so please look forward to it.” The album is covered in this story, and the run of his solo records in Hot to QUINTESSENCE.
20th-anniversary digital single BiiiG
Released at 6 p.m. KST, the group's first new music since the digital single Still Life in April 2022 — a gap of about four years and four months.
Explainer · Read the storyFourth full-length album QUINTESSENCE
Released on his birthday, his first full-length record since White Night in 2017, led by the single Live Fast Die Slow.
Explainer · Read the storyThird full-length album WHITE NIGHT released
The title track is 'DARLING', written and composed by Teddy. His first full-length album in 3 years and 2 months, counting from RISE.
Feature · Read the storySecond full-length album RISE released
Its title track 'EYES, NOSE, LIPS' took number one on 9 streaming charts.
Feature · Read the storyFirst full-length album Solar released
Released at midnight, with 'I Need A Girl' as the title track. The deluxe edition was limited to 30,000 copies and orders passed 50,000.
Feature · Read the storyFirst solo mini album Hot released
Six tracks, with 'ONLY LOOK AT ME' as the title track.
Feature · Read the storyBIGBANG is the group of G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung, whose 2026 records come through YG Entertainment while the three record solo under different agencies. In August 2026 they marked their 20th debut anniversary with the single BiiiG and opened the world tour XX : COSMOS in Goyang.
Taeyang released his fourth full-length album 'Quintessence' at 6 pm on 18 May 2026, his first full-length album in about nine years, Newspim reported. The title track is 'LIVE FAST DIE SLOW', and he called the album the start of BIGBANG's 20th anniversary year.
BIGBANG — G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung — released the digital single 'BiiiG' on 19 August 2026 and opened the XX : COSMOS world tour in Goyang two days later. Here is what the charts recorded and where the official routing's 33 shows in 19 cities lead.
BIGBANG released its first single on 29 August 2006, two more on 28 September and 22 November, and its first full-length album on 22 December. Four records in four months. Here they are, with the release dates, tracks and credits YG's official discography records.
BIGBANG's G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung appeared on Episode 116 of Pinggyego, posted to the YouTube channel 'DdeunDdeun' on 22 August 2026. G-Dragon brought up a video impersonating RESCENE's members saying 'Geoje yaho', and said his own part goes by too short and too fast.
Taeyang has released five albums under his own name between 2008 and 2026. The first was the mini album Hot; four full-length albums followed — Solar, RISE, WHITE NIGHT and QUINTESSENCE. Here are the five in order, with their release dates, formats and what the reporting of the day recorded.
BIGBANG closed the Goyang leg of their 20th-anniversary world tour 'XX : COSMOS' on 23 August 2026 at Goyang Stadium. G-Dragon described the 20 years as the culmination of all their history, and the new song 'BiiiG' had its first live stage; the tour runs to 33 shows in 19 cities.
Daesung released his first solo mini album \"D's WAVE\" on 8 April 2025, opened the tour of the same name in Seoul and played 11 Asian cities, closing with a Seoul encore in January 2026 and Osaka shows on 31 January and 1 February. R&D Company said the Seoul encore sold out.
KAIST said on 5 June 2024 that it had appointed the singer G-Dragon as a visiting professor in its Department of Mechanical Engineering, for two years from 4 June 2024 to June 2026. On 9 April 2025 the university said it transmitted his track 'HOME SWEET HOME' into space.
BIGBANG joined the Coachella lineup announced on 17 September 2025 and played the Outdoor Theatre in Indio, California on 12 and 19 April 2026. The first set ran 60 minutes and 17 songs; on the second night G-Dragon announced a 20th anniversary world tour starting in August.
CJ ENM revealed the 2026 MAMA AWARDS nominees in a nomination broadcast on 12 October. BTS, BIGBANG, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, aespa, ATEEZ, IVE, LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT are each nominated in several categories. The ceremony takes place on 20 and 21 November at Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan.
Translated from the Korean original.
Spotted a word or sentence that reads wrong or unnaturally? Tell us
