The Evolution of Mark Lee
If you follow South Korean boy group NCT, you will be familiar with the Canadian rapper and singer-songwriter, Mark Lee. He may have only debuted in NCT less than four years ago but has already made a name for himself. He writes songs for NCT and SuperM, while also acting as their spokes
In 2012, Mark joined South Korean’s largest entertainment company, SM Entertainment, after passing the SM Global Audition in Canada in 2010. Just over a year later he was introduced as a member of pre-debut training team, SM Rookies. This same team put together girl group Red Velvet. While on this programme Mark appeared on EXO’s reality show EXO 90:2014, in which he performed alongside other members of the SM Rookies in which they also recreated music videos of 90s K-pop idols.
In April 2016, it was confirmed that Mark would debut as a member of NCT, in subgroup, NCT U. He was confirmed alongside Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten and Jaehyun, who debuted with a digital single called “The 7th Sense” which he co-wrote with Taeyong. Three months later, SM confirmed Mark as a member of NCT’s second subgroup, NCT 127, alongside Taeyong, Taeil, Yuta, Jaehyun, Winwin and Haechan. They made their official debut with NCT 127 and title track “Fire Truck” on 10 July 2016. He explored into his first solo venture since debuting under NCT in August 2016 as he featured on Henry Lau’s “Going Through Your Heart”, an original soundtrack for the KBS drama, Sweet Stranger and Me. In the same month, he debuted as a member of the third unit, NCT Dream, with the single “Chewing Gum”. In July 2017, he joined High School Rapper, a survival hip hop reality TV show which aired on Mnet. He made it to the finals, in which he performed his original song “Drop” featuring labelmate, Seulgi of Red Velvet. In the end he placed seventh. In the same month, Mark collaborated with EXO’s Xiumin on single, “Young and Free”, which was released through Season 2 of SM Entertainment’s digital music project SM Station. In March 2018, NCT released their first full album as part of a large-scale project uniting all the subgroups — NCT 2018 Empathy. In December 2018, Mark became the first member to officially graduate from NCT Dream.
In August 2019, Mark was confirmed as a member of SM Entertainment’s “K-pop supergroup”, along with his fellow NCT 127 member Taeyong. The group also consists of Taemin from Shinee, Baekyun and Kai from EXO, and Ten and Lucas from WayV. They debuted with their self-titled EP with lead single “Jopping”, as the group’s promotion started in October, focused at the American market.
On 6 March 2020, NCT 127 released their second Korean studio album, Neo Zone. They were due to announce a tour, but with the worldwide health pandemic, this is some uncertainty as to when this will happen. But from his debut, Mark’s future is looking brighter than ever, being in two K-pop boy bands which are taking over the industry.
