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Jackson Wang — news, coverage & facts — IJR

1994–2011: Early life and fencing career

Wang was born in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, on 28 March 1994. He was raised into a family of athletes: his father Wang Ruiji was an Olympian fencer, his mother Zhou Ping was a gymnast of the Chinese national team, and his older brother Winston, born in 1986, did gymnastics and played rugby. At the age of seven, Wang started learning gymnastics floor exercises from his mother, but three years later, despite having been selected for the Hong Kong team, he gave up because it was hindering his height growth. He moved to fencing after his father took him to see the national team training and after taking an enrichment class in primary school. For the next two or three years, his father, who at the time was the Hong Kong team's head coach, taught him the basics, then Wang was selected for the youth fencing team and began formal training.

At the age of twelve, he participated in the national games and won his first gold medal. In 2010, he finished fifth at the Senior World Satellite Cup and third at the Asian Junior and Cadet Championships; he was ranked number one in cadet and junior sabre in Hong Kong, and in youth sabre in Asia, and number 11 in world junior sabre. As part of the Hong Kong national fencing team, he won in total 1 Asian gold medal, 3 national gold medals, and 9 internationals and Hong Kong gold medals, including first place at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship in 2011. During his career as a fencer, he lived in Budapest, Hungary, from the age of 13 to 16, and in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Sicily, Copenhagen and Ireland.

Wang became interested in music in his sixth grade after his mother bought him a DVD of a Michael Jackson concert to entertain him while he was sick; he ended up watching it over and over again for four or five days. He then joined the American International School dance club, performing "Where is the Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas in the school talent competition, which made him contemplate a future as a singer. He has stated multiple times that even during fencing tournaments, he had always felt like he was performing and putting on a show. His love for music also prompted him to try composing his own music with GarageBand.

Wang was first approached by an idol scout who was looking for members for Exo-M at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In 2010, while playing basketball at his school, he was noticed by a representative of South Korean talent agency JYP Entertainment and invited to participate in the global auditions in Kowloon, which Wang did despite never having taken vocal lessons. Five months later, in December 2010, it was announced that he passed the audition, ranking first out of 2,000 applicants. At that time, Wang was preparing for the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship and the 2012 London Olympics, and his parents told him they would give him permission to go only if he won the championship. After winning the gold medal, he moved to Seoul, South Korea for his K-pop training in July 2011. He dropped out of school and turned down two scholarships offered by the Hong Kong University and Stanford University for fencing as a result of the successful audition.

2017–2020: Early musical releases and Mirrors

In June 2017, Wang founded Team Wang for his solo activities in China and established a partnership with Snake or the Rabbit, a distribution company based in the United States; however, as he was still under JYPE, he couldn't promote nor release his solo music in South Korea and in Japan. In July he released his first self-written, self-composed solo song, "Generation 2". His first English-language single titled "Papillon" was released on 26 August and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard China V Chart on the week of 16 September. On 30 August, he released "Novoland: The Castle in the Sky" (Chinese: 九州天空城), the theme song for iOS game Novoland: The Castle in the Sky 3D, breaking away from hip-hop and making a first try with melodious and classical music.

In September, Wang dropped out of Got7 activities in Japan due to health concerns and conflicting schedules. Throughout a year, he'd spend half of his time in China for his solo stuff, and half in Korea with the group. On 30 November, he released his second solo single, "Okay": similar to "Papillon", he wrote the lyrics, and composed and arranged the song together with Boytoy. In December, he was named the Breakthrough Singer of the Year at the Tencent Video Star Awards.On 20 April 2018, Wang released his third self-written single, "Dawn of Us", which speaks of appreciating the present and living with enthusiasm. His subsequent release "Fendiman", a collaboration with Fendi China, appeared at No. 1 on both the iTunes Singles chart and the iTunes Pop chart in the United States, making Wang the first Chinese solo artist to achieve that feat. In August 2018, he was awarded the Next Big Thing award at 2018 Teen Choice Awards. On 22 October, Wang signed with Canxing Culture to enter the international market; the following month, he released "Different Game", featuring Gucci Mane.

In March 2019, Wang performed a show titled "328 Journey Festival" at the Beijing Olympics Sports Center, selling out 5,000 tickets in 98 seconds. On 24 September, he released "Bullet to the Heart", the first single from his first album Mirrors. The song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard China chart. The second single "Dway!" was published on 22 October. Mirrors, for which Wang supervised the whole process, and was personally involved in arrangements, lyrics writing, and music video shooting, was released on 25 October, reaching No. 32 on the Billboard 200 and becoming the highest-charting debut album for a Chinese artist in the history of the chart.

On 20 March 2020, Wang released the self-written single "100 Ways", mixing western and Chinese culture. It became the first song by a Chinese and K-pop solo artist to debut on Mediabase's U.S. Top 40 radio chart: it entered the chart in May, ranking 39th, and maintained its spot with a steady rise, ranking #24 on 19 July. On 7 July, Wang launched his fashion brand Team Wang Design, for which he served as the designer and creative director, after three years of development. On 4 September, he released the EDM single "Pretty Please", a collaboration with Swedish duo Galantis. He was behind the whole planning and editing of the music video, which paid homage to Hong Kong's love movies from the 90s, and directed it with Conglin. On 5 September, it was announced that Wang had invested in esports organization Victory Five. In December 2020, he released the Chinese-language single "Should've Let Go" with JJ Lin.

At the end of the year, Wang ranked 41st on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list.

2021–2023: Departure from JYPE and Magic Man

In January 2021, Wang, along with the other six members of Got7, chose not to renew his contract with JYP Entertainment. Wang relocated to Beijing, while he partnered with Sublime Artist Agency for activities in South Korea, and Team Wang started to run his international activities. Later that month, he released the self-produced Chinese single, "Alone."

In March 2021, Wang was featured on three new singles: "Magnetic" by Rain, "So Bad" by Vava, and "M.I.A." by Afgan. On 26 March, he released his new English single, "LMLY", which was included in Teen Vogue's list of the best K-pop songs of 2021. He performed the song at the Harper's Bazaar Fashion Icons Party, where he was named Musician of the Year. In June 2021, Wang ranked in the top 10 on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list and was listed on Tatler Hong Kong Asia's Most Influential individuals in the culture field. The following month, he began serving as a mentor on the Tencent variety show, Girls Like Us. His next single "Drive You Home" was released on 29 July in collaboration with Internet Money. In August 2021, Wang announced hip-hop group Panthepack under Team Wang, consisting of himself, rapper Ice, J.Sheon, and Karencici. Their single "Buzz" was released on 28 August, followed by their 10-track debut album, The Pack, in September.

Throughout 2021, Wang was honored with numerous awards, including Best Male Artist of the Year at the NetEase Indie Music Awards, Most Influential Male Singer in Asia at the Chinese Top Ten Awards, and Best Original Music Award for the single "Alone" at the Global Chinese Music event.

On 31 March 2022, the singer released "Blow", which preceded the release of his full album Magic Man. On 16 April, he performed at Coachella with "100 Ways", "Blow" and the unreleased song "Cruel". In May 2022, he joined Got7 to release the eponymous extended play. On 12 July, he held a one-hour long show at Rajamangala Stadium, opening the football match between Manchester United and Liverpool. Magic Man was released on 9 September 2022, and debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 in the US, also ranking third on the Top Album Sales and on the Top Current Album Sales. The album was promoted through a world tour that started in Bangkok on 26 November, selling out shows in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, London and Paris. After the Asian and European stops, the tour continued in North America, Mexico and South America.

On 17 April 2023, he presented a short snippet of his collaboration with Ciara, "Slow", which was released on the same day. Since December 2023, Wang was forced into hiatus to address his depression and mental exhaustion.

Endorsements

In December 2016, Wang's first solo commercial for Midea was released in China. After establishing his own studio Team Wang in 2017, Wang began endorsing beverages, clothing brands and electronics, which include Pepsi, Snow Beer, VIVO X21, Adidas, Douyin Application, Lenovo in China, and Hogan in Hong Kong. He terminated his working relationship with Adidas in March 2021, after their previously made public statement regarding alleged forced labour in the cotton-producing region of Xinjiang resurfaced.

Wang attended the 2017 MTV Europe Music Awards as an ambassador of Great China on 12 November. On 13 November, he was appointed as Alibaba Group Tmall Global's Chief Wonderful Goods Officer.

On 9 February 2018, Wang was appointed as envoy of Hong Kong Tourism. In 2019, he became the new ambassador of Fendi China, Cartier, and Armani Beauty. In March 2020, Fendi launched its first ever velvet collection called "Fendi X Jackson Wang Capsule Collection", for which Wang designed clothes, shoes and accessories, which sold out immediately after the launch.

In 2020, he was the new face of L'Oréal Paris Men Expert and Ray-Ban, while in 2022, he partnered with the Singapore Tourism Board for the SingapoReimagine global marketing campaign.

In January 2023, he was appointed as brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton. He was also named ambassador for Thai brand C2, joining their campaigns over the years to deliver clean drinking water to communities and the underprivileged, and to aid charitable organizations focused on child welfare and disability care.

In 2024, Wang became one of Hennessy's global brand ambassadors, and released the song "Henny" on 22 May for the launch of the Hennessy V.S.O.P Night Blaze bottle. At the end of the year, he signed with Nike & Jordan as a global brand partner and creative director. In 2025, he became Asia-Pacific brand ambassador for Japanese suncare brand Anessa, and global ambassador for Chinese skincare company Kans.

In April 2026, Chinese sugar-free chewing gum brand Stride announced Wang as its new global ambassador. In July 2026, he became FIE first ever global ambassador to promote the Los Angeles Olympic Games 2028.