Born Kim Ho-kyung in Ulsan on April 4, 1983, the South Korean singer known simply as Tei made his breakthrough in the early '00s when a high school performance was shared online and caught the attention of Korean entertainment powerhouse JYP Entertainment. He stepped out with his first album of sophisticated Korean balladry, The First Journey, in 2004 and rocketed to number four on South Korea's GAON chart. Album chart-topper "Love Leaves Its Scent" (사랑은 향기를 남기고) also received a nomination for Best New Male Video at the Mnet Asian Music Awards later that year. Tei's second album UcuPraCacia came in 2005, named for an imaginary plant in a novel by South Korean writer Kim Ha-in. The LP shot to the top of the GAON chart and was followed by third album Crazy in Love in 2005, which mined much of the same sentimental, soft-centred ballads and acoustic mellowness. He tugged even harder on the heartstrings for 2007 offering Lover, which rose to number seven in South Korea. The Note turned up the following year. Tei's most recent, self-titled full-length emerged in 2010, but he has since released a steady stream of singles, including 2022's "Monologue." In parallel to his music career, he has also appeared in several South Korean dramas, making a cameo in the 2022 romantic comedy television series Business Proposal.
