Cho Kyuhyun, the maknae, the youngest member, of the top boy group in South Korea — Super Junior — is one of the most famous soloists in South Korea. Being the main vocalist of Super Junior, the sub-unit Super Junior M, and the sub-group containing all the main vocals of Super Junior, called the Super Junior KRY, he made his solo debut on Nov. 13, 2014 on various online music sites with his first solo song “At Gwanghwamun” and released his first solo EP, “At Gwanghwamun”. This was followed with his second solo album “Fall, Once Again” on Oct. 15, 2015 and his surprise single “The Day We Felt Distance” on Nov. 3, 2015. Packed with solo concerts and fan meetings, he still managed to release his third mini album “Waiting, Still” on Nov. 10, 2016. With his constant releases in the fall, he establishes the public image of an Autumn Ballad Prince, portraying the heartbreaking love stories of fall.

First off, his first mini album “At Gwanghwamun” contained seven songs, including: “At Gwanghwamun”, “Eternal Sunshine”, “At Close”, “Moment of Farewell”, “One Confession”, “Flying, Deep in the Night”, and “My Thoughts, Your Memories”. Kyuhyun’s solo debut was a huge success; the title song “At Gwanghwamun” was #1 on 9 different music sites 14 hours in a row and achieved a total of 34 All-Kills on Real-Time Charts. His album is very soothing and placid. With his music video featuring Red Velvet’s Irene, he acted like a feelingless robot who just acts routinely. His album covered by a calming mint-blue, with autumn leaves everywhere, placates ELFs’ hearts and ears. The sad ballad song talks about a painful break-up, giving autumn a feeling that many listeners love to hear. Kyuhyun’s sweet and emotional voice could be heard in the song’s background, accompanied by string instruments and drums. With the love of many Chinese ELFs, Kyuhyun also published the Chinese version of “At Gwanghwamun” for the Chinese ELFs, illustrating his lament in Mandarin. Containing mostly ballads, the album has only one upbeat song named “Flying, Deep In the Night” that wouldn’t be jarring. Being a whimsical tune with a soft rock tune, the lyrics talk of fairy tales and flying in the night toward a castle. One highlight of his first solo album is his self-composed song, “My Thoughts, Your Memories”, which had lyrics that were written by one of his best friends in the Kpop industry, TVXQ’s Changmin. Even though the song is still lovelorn, the song contains more hopeful lyrics, which blend with the violin and piano.

Following with his second mini album, Kyuhyun still retains the sad image of an Autumn Ballad Prince. Ahead of the album release, Kyuhyun released a surprise comeback promo clip parodying a famous commercial that was debuted through Naver Starcast at noon on Oct. 8, 2015, teasing his fans and heightening their anticipation. The title song for his second mini album “Fall, Once Again” is “A Million Pieces”, among six other songs, including: “Remember Me”, “Autumn Sleeves”, “Piano Forest”, “Because I Miss You”, “Wind”, and “Ways To Say Goodbye”. His title song “A Million Pieces” contains an upbeat message, singing to a girl he loves, saying he can’t live without her. The music video for “A Million Pieces” features Kyuhyun’s SM Entertainment labelmate actress Go Ah Ra as his leading lady. The pair filmed the scenes in Switzerland, and the video shows them flirting shyly when they first meet by accident. They then keep bumping into each other, which leads to them taking a romantic adventure together. The scenery of the music video is fascinating, and being a professional actress, Go Ah Ra portrayed the heartbroken feeling of despair and sadness of their romance expertly. Similar to his first album, the photos in his second album also display the feeling of loneliness, especially the ones in black-and-white. Yet, the second mini album contains more groovy songs than the first one, including “Piano Forest” and “Wind”; even though they are not pieces to dance to, the music will definitely bring you to your feet. “Piano Forest” belongs in the soft rock realm and wouldn’t have been out of place on a ’70s radio station, his vocals giving you a bittersweet feeling. In addition, “Wind” is a piece with acoustic guitar and piano that expresses how much he misses his lover. Lastly, he composed one song for this album again, “Ways to Say Goodbye”, which is a song that starts off slow, but slowly builds up the tension of telling his lover that if she stills want him, he can still be hers anytime! I am impressed that Kyuhyun didn’t use any English words in any of his songs; Kpop idols nowadays are using too many words in English to get their messages across, while Kyuhyun just expressed all his ideas in his own language beautifully and touchingly. Finally, he closed up his promotion with his first solo concert, which is part of the SM concert series brand “The Agit” along with Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon and Shinee’s Jonghyun.

Not long after his solo promotion, Kyuhyun surprised his fan with the single “The Day We Felt Distance”, which is a ballad song that combines Kyuhyun’s voice with a string orchestra. The song describes the sorrowful breakup of a couple, who had once loved each other deeply. Kyuhyun depicts the song with a grieving voice. He then continued with his Japan Tour “Super Junior Kyuhyun Japan Tour 2016 ~Knick Knack~” and released a new Japanese Single “Celebration ~Bridge to You~ “ on May 25, 2016.

Finally, with his latest mini album “Waiting, Still”, Kyuhyun had a collaboration with his role model Sung Si-Kyung and his long time partner on Radio Star, Yoon Jong-Shin. His third EP, again, contained seven songs, including the double title songs: “Blah Blah” by Yoon Jong-Shin and “Still” by Sung Si-Kyung, along with “Last Good-bye”, “Fall in You”, “Love in Time”, “When with Me”, and “ And We”. With his first title song, “Blah Blah”, Kyuhyun takes you on a journey down memory lane, recounting how he was nervous the first time he talked to her lover. The vocals here are top-notch despite lacking vibrato. His second title song, “Still”, is more pensive than the first one, with his skill of transitioning into high notes and the chorus making the song more enjoyable and admirable. The music video of “Blah Blah” gave tears to lots of ELF because of the car accident Kyuhyun had in both the music video and in reality. This time, Kyuhyun released the Thai version of “Blah Blah” for the Thai ELFs. Yet, both music videos connect into a tragic love story. He didn’t have as many melancholy ballads this time, but more coffee-shop types of music, like “When With Me” and “And We”.

After promoting for his third EP, he continued with his first Japanese album “One Voice” and his second Japan tour Super Junior-Kyuhyun Japan Tour 2017 ~One Voice~. The album includes five new songs, Japanese single Celebration ～Kimini Kakeru Hashi～ (include B-side track: Lost my Way and Beautiful) and Japanese version of “At Gwanghwamun” and “Blah Blah”.

In conclusion, Kyuhyun has affirmed his public image as an Autumn Ballad Prince and his amazing vocals depict the sorrows of heartbreaking love stories.