Lù Hán (born April 20, 1990 in Haidian) better known as Luhan is a Chinese singer. He was former member of EXO in December 2011, officially debuting in April 2012,[1] and in October 2014, left the group after filing a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment to reverse its exclusivity agreement.[2]
In December 2014, China National Radio ranked Luhan in sixth place among the top 10 most popular entertainers in the country.[3] He began his career as an actor in the film 20 Once Again, released in January 2015. In May of 2015.[4] Luhan made his debut as a solo artist with the release of his first extended play, titled Reloaded I, on September 14, 2015. He became the first celebrity born after the 1990s to be named the "Artist of the Year" by China Newsweek in 2016.[5]
Early years
He graduated from Beijing Shida Middle School and attended the Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Shi Yan School before leaving for South Korea to attend Yonsei University as an exchange student.[6] While studying in Seoul, he was observed by an S.M. Entertainment agent, who advised him to do an audition for the agency, being placed in a dormitory with other SM interns, and trained in singing, dancing, and acting.[7]
Luhan was the second member of EXO to be formally presented to the public on December 27, 2011.[1] Along with Tao, Chen, and Kai, he made his first television performance at the SBS Gayo Daejun event on December 29 .[8] The group's first single, "What Is Love," was released on January 30, 2012.[9] The group released their second single, titled "History" on March 9.[10] The pre-show showcase of the group was held at the Seoul Olympic Stadium on March 31, 2012. The group held a press conference and showed their performances at the Great Hall of the University of Economics and International Business in Beijing, China on April 1, 2012.[11] On April 24, along with D.O., Baekhyun, Chen, BoA, Kangta, TVXQ, Taeyeon, Yesung, Jonghyun and Luna, released a song for the soundtrack of the film I AM., titled "Dear My Family".[12] On August 23, 2012, S.M. Entertainment announced that Luhan would perform with BoA in the song "Only One," for the August 24 episode of Music Bank. Luhan became the fourth to perform with the singer after Yunho, Eunhyuk, Taemin and Sehun.[13]
On October 16 of the same year, it was announced that he would participate in the 6-member dance group Younique Unit, alongside Eunhyuk, Hyoyeon, Taemin, Henry Lau and Kai performing the veloster theme song titled "Maxstep" for the album PYL Younique Album. A video teaser of the song was shown on the PYL Younique Show the next day.[14] The song was officially released on October 31, 2012.[15]
On June 23, 2013, he participated in the Chinese team for a football match at the 2013 Asian Dream Cup in Shanghai.[16] In January 2014, he participated in the Idol Star Athletics Championship.[17] On April 23, 2014, he was cast in the cast of 20 Once Again, directed by East Chen. The film is a Chinese version of the Korean film, Miss Granny, in which an old lady returns to be young, and premiered in January of 2015. On August 13, 2014, a post by Luhan on his official Weibo account reached over 13 million comments, thus entering the Guinness World Records as the person who has the most comments in a Weibo post.[18] On August 19, S.M. Entertainment posted a photo of Luhan with his Guinness World Records certificate and a world record holder medal.[19] On October 10 of the same year, he filed a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment to cancel its exclusivity agreement, mainly due to health problems.[2] Still in October, he starred in the remake of the music video for "The Last Game" made for EXO 90:2014.[20] On December 1, he released the song "Our Tomorrow" for the soundtrack of 20 Once Again.[21] The song peaked number one position on Baidu Music Chart.[22]
2015–2016: Acting career, Reloaded series, Xperience and Xplore
On January 26, 2015, it was announced that he would sing the theme song for the release of the movie Comrades: Almost a Love Story, in China.[23] The song titled "Tian Mi Mi," was officially released on February 3.[24] On January 28, it was announced that the South Korean film Blind would win a Chinese version, titled The Witness, starring Luhan.[25] The film was released in China on October 30 of the same year.[26] In February of 2015, appeared in the movie 12 Golden Ducks.[27] On March 11, Legendary Entertainment announced that Luhan would be cast in The Great Wall, directed by Zhang Yimou along with Matt Damon, Andy Lau and Pedro Pascal.[28] On May 27, 2015, it was revealed that Luhan and Taiwanese singer David Tao had recorded the theme song for the 2022 Winter Olympics.[29] The song titled "Please Come to the Great Wall to Ski" had its music video released in July 2015.[30] On August 28, he became a fixed member of the Chinese version of Running Man program, titled Hurry Up, Brother.[31] On September 11, he was confirmed in the movie version of the popular web drama The Lost Tomb, titled Time Raiders, playing Wu Xie.[32]
Luhan performing "Our Tomorrow" at Dream Star Partner on January 2015.
On September 14, he released his first mini-album titled Reloaded I, along with the title track "That Good Good", via QQ Music Charts.[33] The album sold 880,000 copies on the first day, the highest number of sales recorded on the first day of official release, and also reached more than one million sales at QQ Music, setting the record for faster digital album sales.[34] Days later he released the song "Your Song".[35][36] He broke his own record on Guinness World Records as the person with the highest amount of comments in a Weibo post, surpassing 87 million comments.[37] On October 14, 2015, he released the song "Medals" as a single and soundtrack for the movie The Witness.[38] Being released on iTunes on November 4 of the same year,[39] debuting at number one position on the China V Chart[40] as well as Billboard Hot 100.[41] Also in October he released the single "Football Gang".[42] In early November he released the music video for the song "Promises".[43] On December 1 he released the mini-album Reloaded II, containing the songs "Lu" and "Deep".[44][45] The song "Deep" was also included in the soundtrack of Kung Fu Panda 3.[46] He released his first studio album, titled Reloaded, on December 22, 2015.[47] The album topped the Tower Records chart in Japan, and became the only album from mainland China to enter the Top 5 of Taiwan's G-Music chart.[48]
On January 6, 2016, he released the song "The Inner Force" for the soundtrack of Star Wars: The Force Awakens,[49] debuting at number two on the China V Chart.[50] On February 16 he released the mini-album Reloaded+, along with the title track "Excited".[51] In March he released the music video for the song "Adventure Time".[52] On March 26, 2016, Luhan began his first solo tour, titled Luhan Reloaded: 2016 Luhan 1st China Tour, in Beijing and Guangzhou on April 2, and Shanghai on April 9.[53][54] In June 2016, he landed the lead role of Chen Changsheng in the Hunan Television series, Fighter of The Destiny.[55] On October 21 he released the Xperience mini-album,[56] with the title track "Catch Me When I Fall".[57] In December 2016, he made an appearance in the film See You Tomorrow.[58] In December he released the mini-album Xplore,[59] along with the songs "Winter Song" and "Skin to Skin".[60]
2017–present: Venture and Imagination
In 2017, Luhan starred in his first television drama, Fighter of the Destiny, a series of wuxia fantasy.[61] In February he was also cast for the film 5 Centimeters Per Second adapted from the Japanese novel of the same name.[62] On January 21, it officially launched the single digital album Venture along with the single "What If I Said" on QQ Music, KuGou Music and Kuwo Music, selling 60,000 copies in just 3 minutes and 160,000 in 10 minutes.[63] The song "Roleplay" was released as a single on February 27.[64] He released the mini-album Imagination on April 19, 2017,[65] accompanied by songs "On Call" and "Say It".[66]
Image
Luhan at the EXO The Lost Planet in Singapore on 2014.
On October 10, 2013, the survey on the "Top 10 of Asia's Most Beautiful Men" organized by Youth Entertainment's website reported that he was chosen as Asia's most handsome man 2013 with over 40 million votes.[67]
On May 11, 2015, it was the cover of Forbes China magazine, where it ranked 37th among the richest celebrities for making a profit of 28.5 million yuan (about $ 4.6 million).[68][69] Forbes described Luhan as: "In less than five months, attracted the most attention by the Chinese entertainment industry, becoming a new force on the rise."[70] Also in May, Models.com selected Luhan as one of their "Five Faces of China".[71] The he is followed by millions of fans (especially in social media), he remains humble.[72] In July 2015, during the press conference of The Great Wall, Matt Damon revealed that he was impressed by Luhan's popularity, saying, "I think the first night we started filming there were about 400 flower arrangements that came to Luhan."[73]
From 2015 to 2016, Luhan appeared on the cover of more than 20 magazines. He became the first Chinese celebrity on the covers of China Elle, GQ Style, China Forbes, Harper's Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. He received the Guinness World Record for having more than 200,000 people buying a limited edition of 20,000 copies of a magazine cover in a second. Luhan won his own wax statue in January 2016, from the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Beijing.[74] In October 2016, Luhan was featured in the "BOF 100" ranking of Business of Fashion, becoming the only Chinese celebrity to reach the ranking and received the title of "Most Anticipated Chinese Star".[75]
Endorsements
In April 2014, he endorsed a commercial to Chinese cosmetics company KanS.[76] During 2015, he starred in campaigns for the French cosmetics company L'Oréal,[77] as well as endorsing for Baidu Maps OPPO's R7 Plus, Lenovo, KFC and Sony. He became the first Asian artist to endorse for Puma.[78] In December 2015, he was introduced as the official Star Wars ambassador to China.[79] He released a single titled "The Inner Force", which is the official Chinese theme song for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[80] In May 2016, he became a spokesman for Volkswagen.[81] In July of the same year, it became the face of Cartier SA.[82]
Controversies
Legal action against S.M. Entertainment
On February 5, 2015, S.M. Entertainment released an official statement that stated that Luhan had left the EXO without permission and announced that the company had filed lawsuits against not only Luhan but also the advertisers who used him as a spokesperson.[83] According to Chinese entertainment source Sina Entertainment, a representative of Luhan issued an official statement .[84] They said: "We are launching this official statement in order to clarify the truth and protect the reputation of Luhan. SM filed a lawsuit for the Shanghai courts, claiming that 'Luhan has been participating in activities in China without permission.' However, according to the rules of jurisdiction, SM has no right to bring a lawsuit over [Luhan's] exclusive contract to a Chinese court. The results of [our] investigation show that SM sued an advertiser affiliated with Luhan for copyright infringement. This does not correspond with the reasons given for their actions. The statement that SM issued through the press is misleading. To say that he [Luhan] left EXO for no reason other than his own gain "is a malicious attempt to defame Luhan. We will take legal action against all the full reports which defame Luhan's reputation."[84]
In July 2016, the court ruled that Luhan's exclusive contract with S.M. Entertainment would be in effect until 2022, as originally decided.[85] The press further revealed: "Excluding areas in Korea and Japan, Luhan will entrust rights entirely to S.M. Entertainment, and will share a portion of its revenue with the agency.[86]
Others
In May 2016, it was revealed that Luhan was banned from entering Taiwan for five years. Several Chinese media reported that Luhan went into hot water after filming for Chinese variety show Back to School in Taiwan with a tourist visa.[87] A tourist visa prohibits a person from working in the country in which he or she is visiting.[88] In June of 2016, he was filmed screaming with a taxi driver, after being followed during the filming of a series.[89]
