Henry Lau (born October 11, 1989), referred to as Henry, is a Chinese Canadian singer, rapper, dancer, composer, beatboxer, entertainer and actor mostly active in South Korea. He debuted in 2008 as a member of Super Junior-M. Aside from group activities, he has also produce several songs for various artists, television drama and also a part of a composing team NoizeBank.
In June 2013, Henry debuted as a solo artist with his first extended play, Trap. It peaked at #2 on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and spawned the single with the same name, which peaked 28 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, also peaked at #18 on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100 Weekly singles.
In April 2018, Henry left SM Entertainment following expiration of the contract and effectively left Super Junior-M.
Video Henry Lau
Early life
Henry is of Hong Kong and Taiwanese descent. His father is from Hong Kong with Teochew ancestry and his mother is from Pingtung, Taiwan (formerly part of Takao Prefecture. He was raised in the middle-class neighborhood of Willowdale located in the district of North York in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He attended Kenollie Public School in Port Credit, Mississauga, Steelesview Public School, Zion Heights Junior High School, then North Toronto Collegiate Institute in grade 9, and attended A.Y. Jackson Secondary School in Toronto for the rest of his high school years before being chosen at the 2006 S.M. Entertainment Global Audition in Toronto, Ontario. Only two people, including Henry, out of 3000 were recruited through the auditions. He briefly attended the University of Toronto (Music Performance Major) in 2007. Henry revealed that his younger sister, Whitney Lau, was born in 1993, and was a former Miss Toronto Chinese Pagent in 2013, who can also play the violin on I Live Alone.
Henry possesses a diverse repertoire of musical talents. He plays the piano, violin and guitar and is well-versed in different dance forms. Henry started to learn to play the piano from his mother at the age of 5 and also learned to play the violin at the age of 6. Henry later learned to play the electric violin in 2005. Additionally, he learned a unique form of dancing called boogaloo popping while in high school. After only one year of dancing, Lau was competing in dance (popping) competitions and shows. He also achieved the Canadian Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) Regional Gold Medal (formerly known as the Silver Medal) for Level 10 in both the violin and piano. Lau said he had planned to become a professional violinist, but never expected to become an idol star before being selected by S.M. Entertainment in 2006.
Henry is quintilingual. Aside from speaking native English, Lau is also fluent in Mandarin, Korean, French and Cantonese.
Maps Henry Lau
Career
2007-2010: Career beginnings
Henry appeared as a violinist in South Korean group Super Junior's music video for "Don't Don" in September 2007. The song includes a violin part, which is played by Lau.
In October 2007, S.M. Entertainment announced that Henry would debut as a member of Super Junior China sub-group, Super Junior-M in 2008. They debuted with released first promotional single U, a Mandarin remake of Super Junior's 2006 best-selling Korean single on April 8, 2008 and also made their debuted in China on the same day, at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards. Their debut album, Me was released on April 23 with lead single U
Henry made a cameo appearance in CCTV2 drama, Stage of Youth in 2009.
Lau returned to the music industry after a year-long break with the release of Super Junior-M's first mini-album, Super Girl, on September 23, 2009. The mini-album became very successful, won many awards, and even earned the group a nomination for "Best Vocal Group" at the 21st Golden Melody Awards, the Chinese equivalent to the Grammy Awards.
Henry featured as a rapper on Zhang Li Yin's first single album, Moving On, released on October 29, 2009, on the track Love Me (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Ài w?).
He performed on Super Junior's second Asia tour, Super Show 2, as part of Super Junior-M, and also performed a solo song called Sick of Love. The song was produced, composed, and wrote by himself. The song is sung in English and hasn't been released yet.
He went on hiatus to study music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
He had composed a song with Super Junior's leader Leeteuk called All My Heart (Korean: ??; Revised Romanization: Jinsim) for Super Junior's 4th repackaged album, Bonamana, released on June 28, 2010.
He was featured as a rapper in a Jonghyun and Jino R&B duet titled Don't Lie from SM the Ballad's first album Miss You, released on November 29, 2010.
Henry had rearranged Justin Bieber's "Baby" and used the song to perform for the Super Show 3 Tour.
2011-2012: Solo activities
He worked with Super Junior's leader Leeteuk again, and together they composed a song called "Andante" (Korean: ???; Revised Romanization: Andante) for Super Junior's 5th repackaged album, A-CHa, released on September 19, 2011.
He was toured with Super Junior as a member of Super Junior-M for their 4th tour, Super Show 4. He performed "Baby" by Justin Bieber once again during Super Show 4's opening stops in Seoul with another new arrangement with f(x)'s Amber performing alongside him as a featured rapper. He also performed different songs. At Osaka, Japan, he performed a medley of songs by American singer Bruno Mars: he started by singing "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy with his guitar, then he sang "the Lazy Song" with a band, and finally sang "Lighters" by Bad Meets Evil with the piano, and finished by playing the violin. In Singapore, he also performed his solo song "Off My Mind".
Super Junior with Lau and fellow Super Junior-M member Zhou Mi released the single "Santa U Are The One", taken from SMTown's eighth winter album, 2011 Winter SMTown - The Warmest Gift, released on December 13, 2011.
Henry participated in the OST for Taiwanese drama series Skip Beat! by featuring as a rapper on the track "This is Love" (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Zhè shì ài) sung by fellow Super Junior-M member Donghae. The OST was released on February 24, 2011.
He featured on BoA's single "One Dream" with SHINee's Key. The song was released on March 18, 2012, and serves as the opening song for the audition program K-pop Star on Seoul Broadcasting System. The single was included in BoA's 7th Korean studio album, Only One, released on July 22, 2012.
Henry was cast as the main role for the movie Final Recipe (originally known as Cooktales) alongside Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, who also produced the film. The film tells the story of young aspiring chef Mark, played by Lau, who participates in an international cooking contest to save his grandfather's restaurant from going out of business.
He became a member of the project group Younique Unit with fellow Super Junior-M member Eunhyuk, SHINee's Taemin, EXO's Kai and Luhan, and Girls' Generation's Hyoyeon, for a collaboration between S.M. Entertainment and Hyundai. Their single "Maxstep" was released on October 31, 2012.
2013-2014: Solo debut
Lau featured on Girls' Generation's comeback performance Romantic Fantasy on MBC's Music Core. He performed "I Am" (Korean: ??; Revised Romanization: Naneun) by Yoon Mi-rae with Yuri and Hyoyeon on January 1, 2013.
Super Junior-M second studio album, Break Down, released on January 7, 2013, along with lead single of the same name. The album includes two songs produced and composed by Lau's music production team, Noize Bank, titled "Go" and "It's You". The lyrics for both songs were written by fellow Super Junior-M member Zhou Mi. Noize Bank is a music production team composed of Lau, Gen Neo, Neil Nallas, and Isaac Han. Their Break Down Korean version released on January 31. They made official debuted in Korean on music programs Mnet's M! Countdown on January 31.
On February 6, he was confirmed to be a contestant in O'live MasterChef Korea Celebrity, the celebrity version of MasterChef Korea.
On May 30, 2013, it was announced that Henry will be made their solo debut and also S.M. Entertainment's first male in 13 years since Kangta. His first solo extended play, Trap was released on June 7, 2013. The titular title track, featuring Super Junior's Kyuhyun and SHINee's Taemin. The Chinese version of extended plays,Trap was released on August 14. Follow-up promotions for a re-release of his song 1-4-3 (I Love You) from Trap as a digital single featuring label mate, Amber of f(x) on August 23.
In February 2014, Lau joined the cast of the Korean real-time military-variety show Real Men, with fellow celebrities, Chun Jung-myung, Park Gun-hyung, K.Will. He quickly became the break-out star and variety favorite because of his natural optimism and eagerness to learn Korean culture, despite being Canadian-born and completely unfamiliar with the Korean military. In addition, his appearance in Star King further cemented his skills, along with his appearance in Real Men propelled his rising popularity, leading to more variety show opportunities like being chosen as the first guest star in JTBC's Crime Scene and his first solo endorsement opportunity with KFC Korea and netting his second solo endorsement with Sprite Korea. After almost seven months of production, his follow-up EP, Fantastic was released on July 14, 2014. Henry made his Japanese debut with releasing single Fantastic on October 8. The single includes Japanese version of Fantastic and Trap.
2015-present: Television roles, departure from SM Entertainment
In 2015, Henry guest starred on popular reality show, SBS's Roommate. In March, SM Entertainment had confirmed that Henry has joined a sitcom, We Got Married and was paired up with Yewon. Henry released a single on March 20, titled "Love +" in collaboration with Persevere, Goo Haera star Yoo Sung Eun. Henry was preparing for his third solo album to be released in 2015 but the project was delayed for an unstated reason.
On October 10, 2016, SM Entertainment announced that Henry will collaborate with Soyou (Sistar) for a song called "Runnin'" released on October 14 through SM Station.
Henry additionally helped to compose Se7en's latest title track "Give It To Me", released October 13, 2016.
On October 26, 2016, Henry, alongside NCT's Mark released the OST "I Want To Enter Your Heart" for the upcoming television series Sweet Stranger and Me. The track was written and composed by Henry.
Early 2017, Henry released a self-written and self-composed digital single titled "Girlfriend." The track was briefly revealed during his first appearance on MBC's "I Live Alone," then fondly titled as "What should I do?". It gained attention for being an impromptu self-composed song. The track continues to receive favorable responses through Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook appearance for its beautiful melody, and eccentric "revolutionary" lyrics. It leads to floods of requests for an official release."Girlfriend" was released on March 18, 2017 and was well received. The song peaks at #1 on multiple South Korean daily digital charts and #3 on Gaon Download Chart. The track is a soulful R&B piece that incorporates the sound of string and piano. The memorable lyrics delicately expressed the heartfelt sadness and longing for a dearly missed past lover, which correlates with the Korean title of the song "????" (Missing you).
In July 2017, Henry joined Snowball Project, as a regular cast member. Since then, he has co-produced the song, which is sung by NCT's Mark and singer Parc Jae Jong, "Lemonade Love" with Mystic Entertainment CEO, also known as singer Yoon Jong Shin. He has also rearranged a song released by Yoon Jong Shin in 1996, "Rebirth", for Red Velvet on the show for a competition between SM Entertainment and Mystic Entertainment.
On April 30, 2018, it was announced that Henry has completed his contract with SM Entertainment and he decided to leave the agency.
On May 4, 2018, Henry opened Xiao Zhan, a Chinese restaurant in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam. On July 3, 2018, the restaurant is forced to temporarily close due to a fire in nearby units. No casualties are reported.
Discography
Filmography
Controversy
Before debuting as a member of Super Junior-M, Lau originally debuted as a "mystery violinist" in Super Junior's 2007 single "Don't Don" which caused a controversy among the fans after SM Entertainment officially announced Lau to be a member of a new Super Junior sub-unit. Previously, there were rumors stating that Henry was to be the fourteenth member of Super Junior, stemming from SM's statement regarding the controversy, which led fans to form an "Only 13" campaign.
Awards and nominations
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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