Kim Jun-su

Kim Jun-su (김준수), also known as XIA, sits in a rare lane where idol-era scale and musical-theater authority actually reinforce each other. He debuted with TVXQ in 2003, rebuilt his career through JYJ and a long solo run, then turned stage work into a prestige engine that now lands at the center of conversations around Korea's biggest awards. His 2026 Baeksang Arts Awards win for Beetlejuice made that crossover visible to a broader audience, and it sharpened the point of Baeksang's musical expansion.

As a recording artist, Junsu built one of the strongest solo catalogs to come out of second-generation K-pop. Tarantallegra opened his Korean solo era in 2012, later releases like Dimension kept the voice in motion, and his live business never really cooled off. He has sold concerts and musical runs on name value for years, the kind of draw Korean media regularly frames as ticket power.

That same pull explains why he matters in 2026. Junsu is still active as both a vocalist and a stage lead, still moving between arena-scale fan demand and theater credibility, and still appearing in the wider prestige ecosystem shaped by outlets and broadcasters like JTBC. For a sharper read on what that shift means, his Baeksang moment is part of the same story traced in our look at musicals entering Korea's prestige map.