Taeyong explained his dad had a “premonition dream” about a dragon (태몽 = TAEmong) soaring (용 = YONG) from a box before he was born! That’s where his name came from
Stage name: Taeyong (태용)
Nicknames: TY, Tyong, Taeyongie, Yong, Bubu
Representative emoji: Rose 🌹
Nationality: Korean
Birthday: July 1, 1995
He has an older sister born in 1988 and a younger nephew
Shoe size: 27cm
Height: 175 cm
Blood Type: O
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Position (NCT): Leader, center, visual, main rapper, main dancer
Taeyong said in an interview that if he wasn’t an artist he would like to be a firefighter, but recently for NYLON he mentioned that if he wasn’t an artist he would be a farmer
Debuted: April 9, 2016 – ‘The 7th Sense’
In 2021 Taeyong created his Instagram and SoundCloud accounts and in 2022 he created his YouTube channel
He made a 3 hour long Vlive and opened his Instagram account right after
Dazed Korea – 2016
Random facts
Taeyong loves sweets:
He is known for having a sweet tooth
He really loves dried sweet potato
He is very sensitive to sour food! Like… very much!
He likes it since he was young, but he didn’t want to be teased about it… So he used to say he likes the sky color, because sometimes the sky turns pastel pink too
Taeyong has a fanmade doll called Tyongya
Taeyong is often compared to the rice ball Koongya, he even used it as his profile picture on bubble
Taeyong loves animals and they love him too
He had a puppy named Ruby, but unfortunately, she passed away in 2020. He also raised a lot of animals such as a Dalmatian named Danbi who had 9 puppies, a Golden Retriever, a Husky, plus a turtle, beetles and fishes
Currently he has an aquarium and he went viral on the internet for being a “fish surgeon”
He likes insects too, but Taeyong hates mosquitos, so he wanted to raise dragonfly (predators of mosquitoes)
Taeyong likes to play games on computer a lot!
When he was younger his mom scolded him once because he was secretly playing games at night
He played ‘Among Us’ and ‘PUBG’ with fans once
Once he made a Vlive and he decided to play Animal Crossing on his Nintendo Switch
Taeyong likes to share some of his interests with his fans
He loves Studio Ghibli, once he recommended the movie ‘My Neighbor Totoro’
Taeyong likes Pokémon
He also collects SpongeBob figures by Jason Freeny
Taeyong has many tattos in his body
Taeyong said his tattoos have meanings, he thinks he wouldn’t have done those if the tattoos didn’t mean anything
Many of his tattoos were made when he was having a hard time, some are related to his songs
A lot of his tattoos’ meaning remain unkown for the public
Once on an Instagram live Taeyong explained the meaning of 5 of his tattoos (the only ones he had at that time): On his left arm there’s a drawing of Ruby made by his sister. The other 4 were designed by Novo: an anchor and the word UNDeR above his left elbow, and above his right elbow the word STAND and a compass with the N and the S pole, which stands for NCT and SuperM respectively
Taeyong doesn’t like strong scents
That’s why he doesn’t wear cologne neither perfume
People have said many times he smells really good! His scent was already compared to vanilla and flowers
He is the only SM artist to have writing and composing credits for a number 1 album on the Billboard 200. The album is SuperM – The 1st Mini Album and he has credits in ‘No Manners’
He is also the only SM artist to have song credits on 5 albums that debuted/peaked at Billboard 200’s Top 5
Taeyong was invited by LOEWE to attend their Fall Winter 2023 women’s runway show, it was the first time he participated in an event like this
In June of the same year Taeyong was announced as LOEWE’s Global Brand Ambassador
Taeyong also had a successful debut as a soloist in June 5th 2023
Taeyong won Inkigayo Hot Stage and received 2 awards at the 2023 K-GLOBAL HEART DREAM AWARDS:
🏆 Bonsang
🏆 K-Global Artist Chosen by Journalists Award
His first mini-album SHALALA exceeded the mark of 500,000 sales as of June 19. It became the highest 1st day sales on Hanteo by an SM soloist for debut album, SM highest best-selling Male Soloist on Circle Chart in 2023 (Jan-Jul) and the best result for SM in 2Q 2023.
SHALALA’s 1st week sales based on Hanteo Chart was:
The highest for an SM Solo Debut Album
Highest for an SM Solo Album in 2023
3rd highest for overall SM solo album
4th highest for an SM album in 2023
11th highest for overall K-pop male solo artists
After 24 hours of its release, SHALALA reached 1,225,200 streams on Melon and entered the Melon Hall of Fame. On Spotify the number of streams was 1,054,352 after the first day and on YouTube the MV surpassed 2,504,103 views in 24 hours.
📈 The mini-album reached 1st place in:
iTunes Top Album Chart in 31 countries
Worldwide iTunes Album Chart
China’s QQ Music Digital Album Sales Chart
iTunes Top Song Chart in 14 regions worldwide
Japan’s AWA Realt-Time Rising Chart
Last but not least, SHALALA has also ranked #5 on Billboard Japan’s Download Albums Chart
Taeyong dislikes messiness
Cleaning his room is one of the ways he has to release stress
He likes to wash his clothes by hand
Taeyong has talked about dating when asked about it
In an interview for ELLE Japan (2021.03.25) Taeyong said: “I don’t have experience in dating but while making love songs I’ve thought that I want to be the kind that wants to love.” [translation: @alientyong]
On the first date, Taeyong would like to go to the amusement park, because it’s a place where you could do a lot of skinship naturally, with emphasis on naturally! [NCT 127 TALK about “The First”]
Taeyong once said he would like to get married and have 3 kids