![\"Ahn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c0d3d270-fee6-4fe3-b781-9623f46e4dce.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ahn Hyo-seop, right, and R&B singer Khalid \/ Courtesy of Musicow, Roc Nation<\/p>\n
From an early age, Ahn Hyo-seop always had a burning passion for music. After school, he would always talk about music and would even produce tracks with his friends for fun. This passion led him to train under JYP Entertainment with the hopes of becoming a K-pop idol.<\/p>\n
However, Ahn decided to follow a different career path as an actor and became a household name with performances in “Dr. Romantic” (2016) and “Business Proposal” (2022).<\/p>\n
After starring in movies and shows for over ten years, Ahn recently surprised fans as he announced his solo music debut in a collaboration with U.S. R&B star Khalid.<\/p>\n
The unexpected duo will release “Something Special” on May 22, a cross-cultural track which blends K-pop and U.S. R&B seamlessly with a summer-infused sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic has been a hidden passion for me for a long time. This project came to me very naturally. It was a good opportunity to be part of a fun project with a very creative team. And of course, Khalid, I\u2019ve been listening to his music for a very long time. To be able to make music was a great honor,\u201d said Ahn.<\/p>\n
Ahn has previously performed soundtracks for the film “Kpop Demon Hunters” (2025) and K-dramas “A Time Called You” (2023) and “Top Management” (2018). <\/p>\n
However, he admitted that he feels both \u201cnervous\u201d and \u201cthrilled\u201d about releasing solo music and sharing this with fans because he is baring personal experiences and showing a new side of himself creatively.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic needs to have a message. Everyone has personal experiences that they want to share and I was doing that through acting. But, this time I got the right opportunity and I\u2019ve always had a passion for music, so I wanted to [pursue this] at some point in my life,\u201d said Ahn. \u201cMusic connects to people on an emotional level globally. It doesn\u2019t have to have language barriers; it cuts across cultures, so I wanted to send my personal experiences and messages through my music.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty nerve-wracking to think that something I love so much is going to be out in the world. I\u2019m very curious to see what people will think. But, at the same time, I don\u2019t care what people think because I\u2019m doing what I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ahn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a498683a-f638-41bd-abd9-fe869f28516e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Ahn Hyo-seop arrives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “Costume Art” exhibition in New York, May 4. AP-Yonhap<\/p>\n
‘I just want to make good music day by day’<\/p>\n
Having made his official debut as a solo music artist with \u201cSomething Special,\u201d Ahn wants to continue to make new music for a long time to come. However, he insists on taking the process day by day and living in the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagined myself performing on big stages for a long time, but that shouldn\u2019t be my goal. I\u2019m the type of person who tries my best every day to survive. I don\u2019t reach out for big dreams or goals. I just try to make good music day by day,\u201d said Ahn.<\/p>\n
“Something Special” will be featured on the upcoming Fandom album, a project which brings together Korean and Western artists to showcase how genre, geography and audience are becoming less defined.<\/p>\n
\u201cK-pop stands as its own genre, but there are a lot of artists who are collaborating and all of the language and cultural barriers don\u2019t really matter anymore. After all, we are all just human beings. We experience the same life, we have the same feelings, and to be able to connect in this way is so amazing,\u201d said Ahn.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI love the fact that K-pop is now globally known as K-pop; it\u2019s not just music from somewhere. They know it\u2019s K-pop and that\u2019s great. When I was a kid, I could never have imagined that K-content would be recognized globally in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rise in popularity of Korean culture was encapsulated by the record-breaking success of Netflix\u2019s “Kpop Demon Hunters” in 2025. Ahn made his voice acting debut in the animated musical film as Jinu, the leader of the Saja Boys and he witnessed first-hand the powerful impact the movie had across the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of art, music and movies, even if you don\u2019t know the deeper side of the culture, you still have an image of what it\u2019s like and you feel friendly to it. It\u2019s not just Korea, other countries have amazing culture and amazing food and their own specialties,\u201d said Ahn.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cFor people to share that through music and movies is so amazing. As a kid, I wouldn\u2019t be able to bring Korean food to lunch, but I\u2019ve heard many stories about how people enjoy Korean food now and those little differences are very big to me. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s all shared globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Davidson is a London-based arts journalist who specializes in music and movies and has contributed to publications such as LA Times, Radio Times and The Boston Globe. He can be reached at adam4726@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahn Hyo-seop, right, and R&B singer Khalid \/ Courtesy of Musicow, Roc Nation From an early age, Ahn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-452485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}