In recent years, reality TV show emerged as a new trend in the Korean entertainment industry as more and more television programs began to showcase the real lives of Korean celebrities. Among the list of reality TV shows, the reality TV show that was centred on celebrity Dads and their children (“The Return of Superman”, “Dad, Where Are You Going?”) emerged as the dark horses for gaining the highest viewer ratings in TV history.
As the shows frequently feature other celebrity guests, we spotted a few celebrities who could be a great father in the future judging by the way they express their unconditional love for their “children”. To celebrate this Father’s Day, here’s a list of our favourite father figures in the K-Pop industry:
1. Yang Hyun Suk
“Yang Hyun Suk treats me really well and I feel like he’s becoming more like a father figure every day.” – solo singer Lee Hi
Almost all the artistes under the care of YG Entertainment agreed that Yang Hyun Suk (the founder of YG Entertainment) treats them well and has always been a father figure to them. He can be very strict at times but he mostly gives his artistes the freedom to do whatever they want including composing and producing songs for their albums. Artistes aside, Hyun Suk has two children with his wife Lee Eun Joo. He’s known for his immense love for his daughter and even considered to have his son be his successor for YG’s CEO position.
2. Tablo
Rapper Tablo and his daughter Haru have always been K-Pop’s favourite father-daughter duo long before they appeared in the reality TV, “The Return of Superman”. Tablo expresses his love for his daughter through Instagram every once in a while and he even created an Instagram account for his daughter! Cool Dad is cool, yo. Can he adopt us please?
3. Lee Soo Man
SM Entertainment is one of the most famous record companies in South Korea and also partially responsible for the success of K-Pop alongside YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. Founder Lee Soo Man worked hard to bring the company up to the level that it’s at today and his efforts are an inspiration to the artistes under his label including H.O.T, TVXQ, Boa Kwon, SHINEE, Super Junior and EXO. Just like YG, Soo Man is like father and mentor to the artistes under his care.
4. MBLAQ’s Seungho
Seungho’s fatherly love was first shown in KBS’ variety show “Hello Baby”. In the show, he’s known to treat his daughter, “Lauren”, like a princess in the show. Out the five members of MBLAQ, Seungho was chosen as the best father in the show as his parenting skills were similar to that of a child-rearing expert. Besides being a father in that show, Seungho also takes care of the members as he is the leader of the group.
5. EXO’s Suho
As a leader of EXO, Suho takes on the role of a father in the group to make sure the members’ behaviours are not out of control. In their own variety show, “EXO Showtime”, the members often talk about his leadership skills and he would have the members attend family meetings every once in a while. His stage name “Suho”, which means “guardian” in Korean. Thus, protecting the members is automatically his responsibility in the group.
