Nikita Punia, Mumbai, Maharashtra

Imagine that you practised for this one sport so hard since the age of seven and went on to achieve international feats in it and at the end of it all decided you wanted to become a singer. That would mean leaving something you have been doing for years to venture into something you know nothing about. That’s exactly what everyone around Jackson Wang thought, that he was kicking a bright future at sports away when he expressed his wish of auditioning for JYP after having won at the 2011 Asian Championship in fencing and setting himself at the Summer Youth Olympics, 2010 rank number 11.

But Jackson, who had already lived it all in his mind, wasn’t swayed by others’ sharp doubts about his choice of life. He says that the beginning of his music career was the Garage band app, where he would create his music and experiment with it. Playing basketball one day, he was scouted by a representative of JYP entertainment for an audition, which he passed in successive months. After a competition on a reality survival program with other trainees from YG entertainment, he was selected as a member of the famous boy band group Got7. Going through training for the following years, he debuted as part of Got7 with the single “Girls Girls Girls”, released on 16 January 2014.

He went on to become highly popular after appearing in the second season of the variety show SBS’ Roommate. His appearance was so well received that he was awarded the Newcomer Award at the 2014 SBS Entertainment Awards. If you already know him or have seen any of his variety show videos, you can very easily vouch for how loveably funny and original he is, no matter the circumstance. Variety shows, apart from his music career, became his ‘thing’ as later on he was part of a handful of them, from Star King to Happy Together to Saturday Night Live Korea and the list doesn’t end. But does Jackson know any limits? Nope, and this he proved with his Chinese television debut as one of the presenters of the variety show called Go Fridge.

He is also a composer, with ‘I love it’ and ‘We Only Live Once’ being the first songs he got to perform at the maiden concert Got7 had in 2016.

Jackson Wang then headed towards forming his very own company in 2017 that goes by the name ‘Team Wang.’ Whoo! Can the man be more versatile? To see him progress over the years is what having to compete with only yourself looks like because in June 2017 he released his first solo album in China. His first single song was an English track titled “Papillon” and it did wonderfully by debuting at No. 1 on Billboard’s China V Chart. The thing to note about him is that he tries to get across a very profound message via his songs. Papillon is a song that is based on self-struggle and his second single “Okay” promotes self-love. More tracks followed and soon he was seen endorsing big names like Pepsi, Adidas, and Lenovo, to name a few. Success was his when he was appointed as the envoy of Hong Kong Tourism in 2018 and just a few months later had his wax figure displayed at Madame Tussauds, Hong Kong. To add to his inexhaustible list of achievements, in 2019 he also became the new ambassador of Fendi China.

Say what you will, but his best work has been “100 ways” by far. In 2020, Wang released a new self-written single, “100 Ways.” It became the first song by a Chinese and K-pop solo artist to debut on Mediabase’s U.S. Top 40 radio chart. And stepping ahead on the red carpet that he had laid out for himself, he ranked 41st on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list, in 2020.

Quiet recently, with a pang of immense sadness in the hearts of their millions of fans, Got7 left JYP after the expiration of their contract. Soon after that, it was revealed that Jackson had partnered with Sublime Artist Agency. Two months after that he released his new English single, “LMLY”, along with a self-directed 90s Hong Kong movie-inspired music video. Wang made his U.S. late-night television debut performing this very song live on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

His latest work include his album “Magic Man” for which he kickstarted a world tour with sold out shows in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, London, Paris, continuing with North America, Mexico, and South America. Jackson Wang recently recently visited to India (which was one of his wishes to visit the country since a long time), to perform at the Lollapalooza music festival in Mumbai as he rocked the stage with his music on 29th January 2023. Following the news of his visit and performance, “Welcome to India” was trending for Jackson as all the Indian Ahgase and Jacky could not contain their excitement as he arrived India. That has been his blossoming life of fulfillment so far and he never fails to amaze! We are looking forward to all the future endeavours of Jackson and hoping he would continue to share his love for the music for a long time!

Jackson Wang, the Magic Man himself at #LollaIndia 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1WgaBq0EYN

— Lollapalooza India (@LollaIndia) January 29, 2023

What do you think about this iconic career of Magic Man Jackson? Tell us in the comments!