Paul Kim (born March, 1981) is a Korean American musician, singer and rapper.

Background

Kim grew up in

Saratoga, California Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Located in Silicon Valley, in the southern Bay Area, its population was 31,051 at the 2020 census. Saratoga is an affluent residential community, known for its wineries, restaurants, and attra ...

, and attended

Monta Vista High School Monta Vista High School is a four-year Public school (government funded), public high school located in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino, California, Cupertino, California, US. Part of the Fremont Union High School District, the school serves ...

Cupertino, California Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...

. As can be seen in his

Season 6 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' segment, Kim's motivation for auditioning for the show was to dispel and shatter the stereotypical Asian images that

William Hung William Hing Cheung Hung (; born January 13, 1983) is a Hong Kong motivational speaker and former singer who gained fame in 2004 as a result of his unsuccessful audition singing Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the ...

perpetuated during prior seasons.

On ''American Idol''

Kim's initial performance on

of ''

'' garnered all "yes" votes from the judges, and

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive and television presenter, perhaps best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bas ...

declared that Kim had one of the best male vocals he heard that season, in

. When Kim made it as one of the top 24 semi-finalists, it was mentioned that the judges were divided by "a split decision". It is notable that he sang barefoot during all of his performances.

Work, YouTube channel, and career

Kim currently has a YouTube channel that has over 337,000 subscribers and over 189,830,000 total views as of 2020. Some of his most popular videos are: his cover of an English version of

Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

's ''Bad Girl'' (the music video also starring Eunice Kiss), his cover of

Taeyang Dong Young-bae (; born May 18, 1988), better known by his stage names Taeyang (meaning "sun" in Korean) and SOL (when performing in Japan), is a South Korean singer, songwriter and dancer. After appearing in Jinusean's music video "A-yo", Taey ...

's "I Need A Girl" (with David So), his cover of

G-Dragon Kwon Ji-yong (; born August 18, 1988), also known by his stage name G-Dragon (지드래곤), is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer, known as the " King of K-pop". G-Dragon is the recipi ...

's "That XX" (with David So), and his cover of

Bruno Mars Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical s ...

' "Locked Out of Heaven" (Paul Kim x John Ho remix). Kim has also done covers of songs by

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

Robin Thicke Robin Alan Thicke (born March 10, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his 2013 hit single " Blurred Lines", which is one of the best-selling singles of all time. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, h ...

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with sales of over 88 million records. Timberlake is the recipient of numerous awards and ac ...

, Miguel,

Omarion Omari Ishmael Grandberry (born November 12, 1984), better known by his stage name Omarion, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, actor and dancer. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the boy band B2K. The group achieved success in the e ...

Usher Usher may refer to: Several jobs which originally involved directing people and ensuring people are in the correct place: * Usher (occupation) ** Church usher ** Wedding usher, one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony ** Fiel ...

Boyz II Men Boyz II Men (pronounced ''boys to men''), also known as B2M, is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan M ...

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...

and others. Kim has also worked with other YouTube artists such as

Dumbfoundead Jonathan Edgar Park (born February 18, 1986), known by his stage name Dumbfoundead (), is an Argentinian-born American rapper and actor. He began his career in the 2000s as a battle rapper in Los Angeles and has since become one of the most pro ...

/Parker, David So,

Joseph Vincent Joseph Vincent Encarnacion (born August 15, 1989), better known as Joseph Vincent, is a Filipino-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Joseph has been twice featured on NBC’s ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' and has performed at well-known ...

, Z. Woods, Baiyu, Eunice Kiss, Jennifer Chung,

Megan Lee Megan Lee (born September 18, 1995) is a Korean-American singer-songwriter and actress best known for her role as Sun Hi Song on ''Make It Pop'' and her singing talents on YouTube. From February 2013, Megan Lee was signed to Kim Tae-woo's (lead ...

, Danakadan (afterschoolspecial) and other artists. Among his original songs include "No Turning Back" with

/Parker and

CHOPS CHOPS is the stage name of Scott Jung, also known as Scott Chops Jung, an Asian American hip hop producer, rapper and former member of the Asian American Hip-Hop group, the Mountain Brothers. Jung grew up in Philadelphia and has Chinese ancestry ...

(the music video directed by

Timothy Tau Timothy Tau (born Timothy Tau Hsieh ( ); Chinese: 謝韜; pinyin: Xiè Tāo) is a Taiwanese-American writer, engineer, attorney, law professor and filmmaker. Tau won the 2011 ''Hyphen magazine, Hyphen'' Asian American Writers' Workshop Short St ...

and JL Jupiter), "You Left Me for That" (the music video directed by Anthony Bui and starring Grace Su and

Timothy DeLaGhetto Tim Chantarangsu (born March 6, 1986), formerly known as Timothy DeLaGhetto (and previously Traphik), is an American internet and television personality. He is best known from the improv comedy show ''Wild 'N Out'' where he was a cast member bet ...

), "Outta My Head" (music video directed by Alexandher), "Today" (music video directed by Daniel Kwan), "Getaway" (music video directed by Evan Asato), "She Is The Reason" (music video directed by Edward Park), "Make Believe" (feat.

Baiyu (singer) Sara Baiyu Porritt, known professionally as Baiyu, is a Chinese-born American singer-songwriter and actress. In the early 1990s, her family moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland where she was then given the American name of "Sara". Baiyu has appeared ...

) (music video directed by Anthony Bui), "Still Not Over You" (feat. Eunice Kiss) (music video directed by Ebling Howard), "You Had Your Chance" (music video directed by Dan Fisher), "Give Into Me" (music video directed by Evan Asato) and more. Most of his original songs and remixes are available for purchase over iTunes. Kim also has started his own apparel line along with

David So David So (born March 30, 1987) is an American comedian, YouTuber, actor, entrepreneur, and musician. He is known for his comedy videos on YouTube. As of January 2020, his main channel David So (formerly DavidSoComedy) has amassed over 1.45 m ...

, entitled "Go For Broke Apparel". Kim has released an album titled ''My Word'' which includes fifteen tracks on January 21, 2015.

References

External links

AARising Profile: Paul Kim

Paul Kim - Season 6, American IdolPaul Kim on American IdolAssorted Paul Kim Discography on iTunes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Paul Living people American people of Korean descent American Idol participants 1981 births People from Saratoga, California