Jung Yong-hwaLeader
정용화- Name
- Jung Yong-hwa
- Born
- 22 June 1989
Sings and plays guitar; his first solo album, One Fine Day, came out in January 2015.
Their story
How it started
CNBLUE is a rock band from FNC Entertainment. The name is short for Code Name Blue. Before their Korean debut the members released indie music in Japan and played on the street and in live clubs there. Jung Yong-hwa also became known in Korea through the 2009 SBS drama You're Beautiful. The band debuted in Korea on 14 January 2010 with the EP Bluetory and the single "I'm a Loner".
The breakthrough
"I'm a Loner" won Music Bank on 29 January 2010, only 15 days after the debut. At the time no act had won a music show that fast. A second step came in Japan. In February 2012 "Where You Are" topped Oricon's weekly singles chart, with over 60,000 copies in its first week. No foreign band had reached No. 1 on that chart since Canada's Mashmakhan in 1971.
Their sound and style
CNBLUE play their own instruments, with Jung Yong-hwa on vocals and guitar, Kang Min-hyuk on drums and Lee Jung-shin on bass. Their first studio album, First Step (2011), was led by "Intuition" and held songs written by the members. Over the years they moved between guitar-driven tracks such as "I'm Sorry" from Re:Blue and softer love songs like "Love". In 2024 the tenth mini album X brought them back after three years, led by "A Sleepless Night". Kang Min-hyuk explained that the X stands for the Roman numeral 10.
Where they are now
Guitarist Lee Jong-hyun left in 2019, and CNBLUE has continued as a trio since then. All three members renewed with FNC Entertainment in October 2020. In January 2026 they released 3LOGY, their first studio album in 11 years. The title refers to the three members, each acting as one axis of the band. Its lead single "Killer Joy" topped YouTube Korea's daily music video chart, and the album reached No. 1 on Circle's retail album chart. The 3LOGY world tour opened in Seoul and went on through Asia, Australia and Japan.