elated: Baek Jinyoung

[Clementine Hamilton]

original character
faceclaim: byun baekhyun

Baek Jinyoung (born May 06, 1994), better known for his artistic name elated, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor.

He was born in Busan and lived there until the age of twelve when he moved to the United States to live with his father. He created his Youtube channel at fourteen, posting endless covers of songs he loved, in hopes of joining an agency back in his home country and debuting as a soloist. Jinyoung went back to Busan at the age of sixteen after his grandmother's death and finished his education there, graduating high school and planning on going to college. However, in early 2014 someone uploaded a side-by-side comparison of his ballad cover of Demi Lovato's Heart Attack and the singer's performance. The reaction to his talent was explosive overseas. So, Jinyoung moved back to Los Angeles after signing his exclusive contract with Diamond Records.

Under his full name, in 2014 alone, Jinyoung featured in over 15 tracks with several underground artists connected to his label. Out of all these collaborations, "Teach Them How" from Hernan Keilty, released October 30th, was the only one that managed to chart of Billboard Top 100 at #98, making it Jinyoung's first entry. In October, 2014, through Keilty, Jinyoung met the American influencer Deanna Harrower and they began officially dating in November. He began officially working on his solo music not long after it.

⸻  2015: Debut, ECSTATIC, Commercial Success...

Jinyoung began his promotions for his upcoming single in December, appearing on podcasts, radio shows, and television. That same month, he announced he'd be releasing music under the stage name: elated. On January 19th, 2015, the single 'all i got' was released. It's a slow, vocal-heavy R&B track about devoting yourself completely to your lover, in the hopes of earning the same from them. It reached #1 Worldwide, selling over 3.5 million (counting physical, digital, and streaming) in just three weeks. At the end of that same month, it was confirmed elated and Deanna Harrower had broken up.

In February, elated featured in Jason Mraz's Bombtrack and Alyssa Brelsford's Collides With Beauty. In early March, it was reported 'all i got' had sold over 8 million copies (counting digital, physical and streaming sales). On March 30th, elated released his second single 'cry for love'. The song continued the story started in the singer's first single, with elated confessing to crying for the lack of love he so desperately craved. It reached #1 on Billboard, selling 1.2 million in its first week. The single's explosive success shot Jinyoung further into stardom.

During one interview on his first week promoting cry for me, the singer was asked whether or not the song was written about his past relationship with Harrower. Baek Jinyoung said, "Hm, it's funny you ask. I can see why people would think that. The timing was definitely something, huh? But yeah, no, definitely not about her. I wrote these songs before I even met Deanna, before my label and I had even talked about preparing for my official debut. I was just scribbling in pieces on papers during my breaks, 'cause I was featured in a lot of songs back then. I was in the studio a lot. The lyrics hold true memories, yes, but I have moved on from them in specific. I have yet to pick up my pen to write about our past relationship... Not that I intend to, to be honest. There's not much to say. She's great, yeah."

When asked about his future projects, during an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Jinyoung asked people to ancitipate for his upcoming album, coming as soon as early May. In mid-April, 'all i got' reportedly reached a total of 10 million total sales, becoming the best-selling debut single of all time. That same week, the name of elated's debut album was announced: ECSTATIC. To end the month, elated featured in Alessia Cara's World of Chances.

On May 4th, ECSTATIC was released. Jinyoung surprised critics not only with his mature and powerful vocals sided with his smooth tracks, but his crude, realistic, emotional and quite explicit lyrics. It reached #1 Worldwide, selling a total of 110,000 physical copies in its first week of release. In one month, the album sold 2 million copies (counting physical, digital, and streaming), remaining at #1 all throughout. cry for love and all i got reportedly reached over 8.6 million and 13 million sales respectively. all i got became the best-selling single of all time, surpassing Ed Sheeran's Nothing Lasts Forever.

On June, 2015, Jinyoung started dating influencer Donata Mussellwhite.

ECSTATIC's 3rd single 'un village' was released on July 13th to continue the insanely successful streak of elated's debut era. The single went straight to #1, selling over 120,000 physical copies in its first week, with a total of 1.2 million, counting digital, and streaming sales. The Ecstatic Tour began on July 15th to end on November 02 with over 30 dates.

On August 10th, elated took home three Teen Choice Awards: Best R&B Album and Best Album for ECSTATIC, and Best Music Video for cry for love. Just six days later ECSTATIC became the best-selling album of all time with 4.8 million copies sold.

By the end of 2015, Jinyoung participated as a supporting actor on Netflix's original movie 24/7. In early December, elated and Donata Mussellwhite reportedly broke up. When asked about it as he promoted 24/7, he said, "Huh? Ah, yeah... we broke up, yes. Our schedules were... we barely had time for one another, so, we decided to call it quits, yeah. There's no bad blood between us." He later dodge the same question after Mussellwhite's shady tweets went viral, "I know it's useless to tell people not to focus on it, because gossip is what makes things go nowadays, but, you know what's more important? I got new music coming out soon! Working on the final touches for elated2."

elated wrapped the year having sold over 38 million singles and 5 million albuns (counting physical, digital, and streaming).

ecstatic (2015)
genre: R&B                         [E] for explicit

1. kissland
2. talk slow [E]
3. going down [E]
4. un village
5. all i got
6. cry for love
7. pie [E]
8. when you were mine [E]
9. idon'tknowyouanymore [E]
10. perfect little thing [E]
11. drown [E]
12. i'm not sorry [E]
13. kiss of fire [E]

[TobyLouis]

More🥺 i like it, so detailed 

[Clementine Hamilton]

continuation. pt. 1 of 2016, because i'm lazy.

⸻ 2016: LIBIDO Era, Acting Roles, Growing Popularity...

To start the year, Jinyoung featured in Ysobel Water's Who's Loving You Now, and Maude Hemmer's When Did You Know, however, his next big musical project came officially at the end of February with the release of the single: feverish, the synth, vocal-heavy track inspired by retro music and modern R&B. The single received some mixed reviews from critics, but still managed to get #1 Worldwide, selling 1.2 million copies in its first week of release. In early March, Jinyoung was confirmed to be in a relationship with singer Atmaja Lockley and featured in Louise Skipp's Rock n Roll Bull.

The negative comments on feverish made a lot of people especulate this would be the end of elated, that he'd only have one succesful era in his career and become a nobody. On March 17th, however, elated won a Grammy - Best Album for ECSTATIC. During his acceptance speech, Jinyoung hinted on his upcoming project, a new single coming very soon and an album at around September, or even sooner.

Like he said, two weeks later, on April 11th, elated released 'who am i tonight?', a punk-pop song inspired by the early 2000s. Unlike the previous single, it received critical acclaim. The singer's lyricism was complimented to no end, and many applauded his music video for the amazing visuals. The song reached no. 1 on several countries and in two weeks, it sold over 240,000 copies Worldwide. However, the same day the song dropped, Atmaja Lockley made some seriously shady tweets about elated and basically announced to the whole world she had dumped him. elated did not let the comments phase him, and celebrated that feverish reached 7.8 million copies sold (counting physical, digital and streaming sales). In May, he starred in another Netflix original movie, titled Cupid's Mistakes. feverish and who am i tonight? reached 8.5 million and 4.2 million copies sold, respectively.