Cai Xukun

2012–2014: Start of career

In April 2012, Kun participated in Hunan TV's variety show Up Young! and ranked in the national top 200, which allowed him to enter the stage.^[8] In August of that year, Kun began his acting career, playing the role of Du Yu Feng's teenage version (portrayed by Lee Joon-hyuk) in Half a Fairytale. After that, he also played the role of Xixi in Hunan TV's television series Female Criminal-Police Officer Li Chunchun.^[9] In 2014, he played the teenage version of Huo Ke (portrayed by He Jiong) in Lock Me Up, Tie Him Down.^[10]

2015–2017: Super Idol (星动亚洲)

In 2015, Kun returned from the U.S. to participate in the South Korean-based reality show Super Idol. The show was produced by Anhui TV, in partnership with the South Korean broadcast network MBC. During the two seasons of the show, Kun experienced constant pressure and fierce competition from other participants, receiving intensive idol training. After about two years on the show, Kun's performance skills saw an unprecedented improvement, earning him a spot in the Top 3.^[11][12] Upon the end of Season 2, Kun returned to China, where he debuted as a member of the Chinese boy group SWIN under Yihai Entertainment Company. As the group had already accumulated a sizable fan base, the debut was highly anticipated by both the members and their fans. However, the group's performance opportunities and public appearances were limited during its time with Yihai Entertainment, and observers reported a decline in the group's popularity. In the beginning of 2017, Kun filed a lawsuit against Yihai Entertainment Company to terminate his contract.^[13][14][15]

2018: Idol Producer (偶像练习生) and rise in popularity

After a period of dormancy from the entertainment industry, Kun decided to join Season 1 of reality survival show Idol Producer as an independent trainee at the end of 2017.

Kun performed his self-written and self-composed song "I Wanna Get Love" in the first episode. Despite some controversy, Kun attracted a large fanbase. He quickly rose to fame and became a hot topic for discussion on the survival show. In addition to receiving considerably high votes after each evaluation performance in the show, Kun also earned rank no. 1 multiple times and maintained a high ranking throughout the entire program.^[16] He received a total of 47,640,887 votes in the final evaluation, earning him the center position in the final line-up.^{[17][unreliable source?]} On April 6, 2018, Kun officially debuted as the leader and center of the temporary Chinese boy group Nine Percent.^{[18][unreliable source?]}

Soon after the end of Idol Producer, I Won't Get Bullied by Girls, the web-drama starring Kun filmed in 2017, was released. Kun took on his first lead role as Ye Lin, the love interest of Ren Xiaoqin (portrayed by Lu Yangyang).^[19] The show is a teen comedy series that features a distinctive wardrobe and draws heavy influence from Japanese manga as a means to achieve comic relief.^[20] By 3 May, the series had accumulated over 700 million views.^[21]

From April to May 2018, Kun's first single, "I Wanna Get Love," topped the 'Mainland China C-pop Single Chart' as China's number 1 single for almost three weeks. At the end of May, Kun was voted as one of the most influential celebrities in China. For the three months between May and July, Kun had a full schedule, consisting of fan meeting tours across China with Nine Percent. On June 2, Kun and other members of Nine Percent had their first group appearance on the variety show Happy Camp.

In July, Kun set up his own personal studio.^[22] On August 2, 2018, his 20th birthday, Kun released the EP 1 for free.^[23] It contains three songs, "Pull Up", "You Can Be My Girlfriend", and "It's You". According to QQ Music, 'Pull Up' achieved multiple sales/streaming milestones shortly after release.^{[citation needed]} "Pull Up" was co-written with UK songwriting team Mike Macdermid, David Brant (who is also the producer on the song), Rajiv Bukhory, Fidel Rosales and Ryan Curtis. He also edited the music video for "Pull Up".^[22] Kun later released another single, "Wait Wait Wait," on August 23, which quickly rose to the top of multiple music charts. His first stage performance of "Wait Wait Wait" aired during the first episode of Idol Hits on September 7.

On October 12, Kun performed "You Can Be My Girlfriend" live for the first time at the "'BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night" and donated 600,000 RMB for Bazaar's charity project.^[24] Over the next two days, Kun partnered with MiGu Music and successfully held his first set of small-scale fan meetings in Chengdu and Shanghai. On the last day of October, Kun delivered his first stage performance of "Pull Up" at the "Ellemen Movie Hero Gala" in Beijing. On November 7, Nine Percent released their first original song, "Rule Breaker", one of the tracks in their album To the Nines.^[25] Kun co-wrote the lyrics of "Rule Breaker" and "Good Things". Rule Breaker was written by some of the same writers as "Pull Up", namely Mike Macdermid, Rajiv Bukhory, David Brant, and in addition, US-based producer Kevin Chozen took the helm on production.

At the Twelfth Annual Migu Music Awards, held on December 8, Kun's "Wait Wait Wait" was ranked one of the Top Ten Pop Songs of the Year.^[26] This marked the first major award Kun received for his musical work. On December 28, TC Candler & The Independent Critics released their highly awaited List of The 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2018, taking into account the large pool of public opinion and suggestions,^[27] where Kun has been ranked as having the 27th Most Handsome Face in 2018. On December 30, Kun performed "You Can Be My Girlfriend" and "Wait Wait Wait" at Zhejiang Television's New Year's Eve Concert.^[28] On the very next day, he unveiled his first stage performance of "It's You" at the "Dragon TV New Year's Eve Gala" in Shanghai.^[29]

2019: Ambassador of China and Jamaica, new songs and solo tour

On January 10, 2019, Kun was awarded the title of "China and Jamaica's Goodwill Ambassador" by the Jamaican Embassy in Shanghai, China. With this honorable title, Kun called on mutual cultural exchanges between China and Jamaica. He said that he hopes to become a positive role-model for the younger generation.^[30] Less than a week later, the theme song of the movie The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, "The Lunar Song" (一起笑出来), was released. This song marks a noteworthy collaboration between Kun and Jackie Chan.

On January 18, the first episode of Cai Xukun's Unfinished, a documentary series initiated by Sina Weibo, was released. This short video series spans across various themes close to his heart and is expected to run for 12 episodes. The next day, Kun released an artistic music video for "Wait Wait Wait", directed by Dave Meyers. The award-winning director and his international team created a highly cinematic and storytelling music video using a series of symbolic elements, to allude to the message behind the song.

On February 5, the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2019, Kun performed an exclusive stage set at Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala, delivering a song he co-wrote with other musicians. "That Spring" (那年春天) marked the first time he performed a song that was written entirely in Chinese. He later revealed his intention to dedicate the song as an exclusive performance for Beijing TV, and hence he will not be releasing a studio version of it. On the 18th of that month, Kun released his first Chinese single, "No Accident" (没有意外). The song was a collaboration between two musicians, with composition by Yoga Lin and lyrics written by Kun. A week later, on February 26, an animated music video for "No Exception" was released. The music video, created by a group of artists from a South Korean-based publishing and film-making studio, VCRWORKS, employs abstract elements and snippets from Kun's life to recount his story. Attempting to relate his own story with a personal narrative while being aligned to the overall theme of the song, Kun chose a controlled and melodic singing style when delivering this melancholic ballad.^[opinion] "No Exception" once again rose to the number one position on multiple music charts in China, setting an impressive record on music streaming platforms for 2019.^[31]

On March 1, Kun announced the dates for his first solo tour, "KUN ONE North America/U.K. Tour 2019", which included Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London, from April 4 to April 12, 2019. The tickets for the Los Angeles and New York shows were sold out online within the first few minutes they went on sale. On March 15, Kun released his first DJ mix, "Bigger" on Spotify, and it was one of the tracks performed at his solo tour in April. The release date for "Bigger" was slated for March 22 in China.

On April 19, Kun released a song titled "Hard to Get". Prior to the song's release, Kun updated his social media accounts with three photos in succession, captioned 'H', 'T' and 'G'. The song was first performed during his first solo tour. The music video was released on May 3 through Kun's new YouTube Channel.

On May 16, Kun attended the opening ceremony of the Asian Film and TV Week. On May 24 and 25, Kun finished the last two shows of his KUN ONE tour in Toronto and Vancouver.

Kun was invited to be a guest judge for the 11th episode of the World's Got Talent, filmed in Hunan, China. He also delivered a special performance with a mix of "It's You" and "Hard to Get".^[32] The episode was broadcast on June 28 and immediately became a Hot Topic on Weibo. For the first time in its history, the program was the Most Discussed Variety Show of the day.

On July 26, Kun released the single Young. Its music video was filmed in multiple locations around the world, including Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing and LA. Kun actively took part in the creation process, including production, developing ideas for the music video, editing, helping out with the choreography and designing the cover of the EP.^[33] The EP reported 63 million digital sales/streams in 2019, which the report described as a leading figure for that year. In just 1 minute and 21 seconds, the EP achieved 9 of QQ Music's awards and caused the creation of two more certifications. Altogether the EP earned more than 20 million yuan.^[34][35]

On October 31, Kun performed his single "Rebirth" (重生) at the 2019 Fresh Asia Music Awards and released it on November 15. It was re-released in January 2020 as a collaboration with the renowned American producer and DJ Kshmr. This was a breakthrough for Kun, as it was the first time he had ever collaborated with a foreign artist on a single. The song expresses Kun's desire to break through his shell and show a fearless side to him. The arrangement creates a sense of emptiness and the mysterious EDM elements are combined with his bursting attitude. The lyrics were written by Kun himself which makes the song personal to him and describes another step in his journey.^[36][37]

2020: Youth With You and "Lover"

In the beginning of January 2020, it was announced that Kun would be the Youth Representative of iQiyi's Youth with You Season 2. It is the third season of the Chinese survival show Idol Producer, which created Kun's former group Nine Percent from the first season and Unine from its second season. He was on the show as a mentor alongside Lisa of Blackpink, Ella Chen, and Jony J.^{[38][unreliable source?]}

In March, Kun and actress Tong Liya released a song titled "The Mountains and Rivers Are on My Chest" (山河无恙在我胸) to help boost the morale of those fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic,^[39] which won the 2020 Migu Music Public Welfare Influence Award.^[40] In April, he joined the cast of Keep Running alongside Lucas of WayV/NCT and Yuqi of (G)I-dle.^[41] He also released the single "Home" that same month to help support those who were under lock-down during the COVID-19 pandemic. After its release, #蔡徐坤新歌 (#Cai Xukun new song) started trending on Weibo, Douyin, QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Xiami Music and other search lists, reaching the top of trending lists in 20 minutes.^[42]

On May 24, Kun released his newest single "Lover". The day after its release, it ranked first on QQ Music's charts. "Lover" was first released to the public on the Chinese survival show Youth with You Season 2 as a collaboration between Kun and the trainees on the show, this version ranked second on QQ Music's charts. Kun took part in the songwriting process, and co-produced it with Korean YG producer Choice37.^[43] "Lover" was the most downloaded collaboration stage song of the competition with more than 100,000 downloads after its release.^[44] Due to its success, the hashtag #情人舞挑战 (#Lovers Dance Challenge) has been used over 400 million times on Chinese social platforms, including Weibo and Douyin, and the studio version of the single (without the trainees) has been listened to over 30 million times with 1 million daily listeners.^[42]

At the end of the year, he ranked 31st on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list.^[45]

2021–2022: First studio album, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong and "Hug Me"

On April 6, 2021, Kun announced on both Weibo and Instagram that his new album would be available soon, and on April 9, 2021, he released the names of the first 4 tracks.^[46] The album, 迷, exceeded 1 million pre-orders within 2 hours of release on QQ Music, making him the fastest artist to do so in 2021.^[47] He took part in the album's production and A&R plannin, and also served as the director of the MV for "#0000FF". Within 24 hours of its launch, the album won the top five album sales award on Tencent Music.^[48]

On December 16, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong revealed Kun's wax figure, which wears the outfit he wore on World's Got Talent in 2019 and joins the attraction's "Fashion Zone".^[49]

On July 2, 2022, Kun released the single "Hug Me". The single became a hit, becoming one of the top ten most streamed songs of 2022 on the two major Chinese music platforms, QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music.^[50] He released a remix of "Hug Me" On June 22, 2023.^[51]

2023: Art Lab1, Kun World Tour 2023 and new song release

On February 23, 2023, Kun announced his first live concert Kun 2023 Art Lab Live.^[52] On March 22, Kun announced his 2023 World Tour-迷宫重启, which included stops in Macau, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.^[53]

On October 9, after his Kuala Lumpur Concert, Kun released his new song "Spotlight" live version during his concert.^[54] On November 22, Kun released the single "Spotlight".^[55][56]

2024–2025: New songs, Grammy Global Spin, Billboard Global No. 1 and more

On January 31, 2024, Kun released the single "Ride or Die". After its release, the song quickly climbed to No. 1 on QQ Music; it also became the most recommended song of the week and the best-selling song of the week.^[57] In June, Kun released another single, "Afterglow," which is a collaboration with Versace. The song rose to the top in many Chinese music platforms after it was released. It was on the Top 7 of US iTunes and Top 1 of Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong iTunes, and was also on iTunes in Macau, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Netherlands, Australia, and Belgium.^{[citation needed]}

On May 28, 2025, Kun released his single "Deadman".^[58] In June 2025, Kun was announced as a special guest performer at Head in the Clouds Los Angeles.^[59] Kun was also announced as part of the line-up for Head in the Clouds New York, which will be held on September 20.^[60] In July, Kun announced that he will have a One Night Only show at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, which will be held on August 2, 2025, as his birthday present for his fans.^[61]

2026: Self-titled album, tour, Met Gala, and more

In 2026, Kun released his second studio album KUN, on February 6 through 88rising. The self-titled album marked his first full-length English-language project and featured the singles "Deadman", "What a Day", and "Colder".^[62] The album was co-written and co-produced by KUN and explored influences from pop, rock, soul, jazz, and R&B.

In April 2026, Kun embarked on An Evening With KUN, a concert tour in support of the album. The tour visited cities across North America and Europe, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., London, and Paris. The setlist featured songs from KUN alongside selections from his previous releases.^[63] The opening show at The Novo in Los Angeles sold out with approximately 2,400 attendees, compared with a sold-out performance at the Fonda Theatre in August 2025 that drew about 1,200 attendees.^[64]

In May 2026, Kun attended the Met Gala in New York City, making his second appearance at the event. He wore a custom Thom Browne ensemble inspired by the visual concept of his single "Deadman", featured on his new album.^[65][66]

In 2026, KUN announced The Deadman Tour, with its opening concerts taking place at The Venetian Arena in Macau on 2–3 August 2026. Following the successful launch of the tour, the second stop was announced for Singapore, with the concert scheduled for 24 October 2026 at Singapore Indoor Stadium.^{[67] [68]}

Influences

Kun has said to be influenced by Stevie Wonder, Lana Del Rey, Elvis Presley, and David Bowie.^[3][163]

Themes and genres

Kun has composed and produced most of his solo works by himself, including "I Wanna Get Love", his EP 1 and "Wait Wait Wait".^{[164][165][166]} He also co-wrote lyrics of "Rule Breaker" and "Good Things", two tracks from Nine Percent's album To the Nines.^[25] He's said to have very diverse music styles, ranging from future R&B, urban R&B, hip-hop, pop, dance to electronic soul.^[23]

Contract dispute

On February 10, 2017, Kun filed a lawsuit against his then-company, Shanghai Yihai Entertainment, for poor treatment and the right to terminate his contract. Yihai was allegedly in arrears, and members of SWIN were said to have paid for all expenses of their activities, including their albums and fan meetings, without being reimbursed. Furthermore, Yihai demanded that each member sign a Debt Acknowledgment Letter for 1.1 million RMB (approximately US$165,000) to share the production costs for season 2 of Super Idol. In addition, the members had to sign an amendment to their original contract within an hour of notice. This new document decreased the share of the artists' pay and also extended the length of their contracts.^[176]

Soon after the broadcast of Idol Producer, Yihai filed another case in March 2018 to countersue Kun for the breach of contract, asking that he pay the company 1.1 million RMB for liquidated damages and compensation for their losses. They demanded that Kun continue to abide by the terms of the contract, allowing the former to be entitled to 70% of the income Kun earns from dramas, endorsements and variety shows.^[177]

In October 2018, the Court of First Instance rendered a decision favouring Kun, prompting Yihai to submit an appeal. In January 2019, a second trial was held. The court did not announce the verdict until February, with the final ruling issued on February 19, 2019.^[178] iQiyi released an exclusive report stating that the two-year dispute between Kun and Yihai has finally been settled, with Kun winning the case, hence being free from his contract.^[179]

NBA meme

On January 18, 2019, the NBA announced that Kun would be its first Chinese New Year greeting ambassador and released a holiday commercial featuring him as a basketball fan alongside three NBA star players.^[180] False claims that Kun was appointed the Ambassador of the NBA led to parody videos of a basketball clip from Kun's introductory video on Idol Producer circulating in response. Kun's Studio subsequently issued a legal notice to facilitate the possibility of legal recourse against the creators of the videos, arguing that they amounted to harassment, defamation and an infringement of Kun's rights. In response to the statement, "to issue a legal notice" quickly became a popular internet meme on Chinese social media sites.^[181]

Allegations and winning lawsuits

On June 26, 2023, an Internet user alleged that Kun had engaged in sexual relations in 2021 with a woman identified as "Ms. C", who underwent an abortion several months later, with Kun paying her 500,000 yuan (approximately 70,000 USD) in compensation. The same source also alleged that Kun's mother hired a private detective to surveil Ms. C and installed a pinhole camera outside her home, and that the matter was settled after Ms. C discovered the surveillance and contacted the police. Shortly after, another Internet user identified as “Ms. W” accused Kun through a paparazzi outlet of committing a date rape when she was 17. Amid the allegations, Kun's videos were removed from China Central Television's streaming platform, suggesting a potential blacklisting by the authorities.^[182]

On July 3, 2023, Kun posted an apology on Weibo, stating that the relationship with Ms. C was between two consenting adults and that the abortion was voluntary.^[183][184] Later that day, Kun denied Ms. W's allegations, citing false evidence presented by the paparazzi outlet on Weibo. In 2024, he sued both Ms. W and the involved paparazzi for defamation.

In 2025, the court ruled in Kun's favor, declaring the accusations false and defamatory. As part of the verdict, the defendants were required to issue a public apology on Weibo (China's leading social media platform), which was also published in the Shanghai Legal Daily. They admitted to fabricating and spreading malicious rumors about Kun and were ordered to compensate him 20,000 Chinese yuan (CNY) for the false allegations.

Kun later donated the compensation to charity as a gesture of goodwill. Following his legal victory, Kun deleted the statement he had posted on Weibo on July 3, 2023, in response to the rumors. This action suggested that the original post had been made under pressure and did not reflect his true stance, contrary to public perception.^{[185][186][187][188]}

Films

Television series

Television shows

Awards and nominations

Forbes China Celebrity 100