2006–2009: Career beginnings Kyuhyun officially made his debut in 2006 as a new member of Super Junior (formerly Super Junior 05, the first generation of SM Entertainment's 12-member rotational boy band). Kyuhyun made his first appearance as a part-time model of Super Junior in a news broadcast on May 23, where the group introduced their new single,
U. He debuted a few days later on May 27 at
SBS's
I-Concert with "U", which was also the group's first comeback performance as a permanent group. The CD single "
U" was released on June 7 and remained the group's most successful single until the release of "
Sorry, Sorry" in 2009. Shortly after his debut, Kyuhyun along with members
Yesung and
Ryeowook formed Super Junior's first sub-group,
Super Junior-K.R.Y. The trio debuted on November 5 on
KBS's weekly music program
Music Bank. Kyuhyun subsequently released a solo track titled "Smile" for The
tvN drama
Hyena. In 2008, Kyuhyun joined Super Junior Chinese sub-group
Super Junior-M. The group debuted in China at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards with the release of their first music video, "
U" on April 8. The debut was followed by the release of the group's studio album,
Me, in selected provinces throughout China and Taiwan. Kyuhyun also collaborated with
The Grace in early 2008 to perform "Just For One Day" () for The Grace's first album
Hanbeon Deo, OK?. Later that year, Kyuhyun, alongside member Ryeowook, featured in the song "Wish" () in labelmate
TVXQ's repackaged edition of
Mirotic. In 2009, Kyuhyun sang the remake of Yoo Young-suk's "7 Years of Love" (7년간의 사랑) for Yoo's 20th-anniversary tribute album. Kyuhyun first performed the song on the television program ''
You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook''. On June 30, the song was released as a digital single as well as on Yoo's tribute album, with all proceeds donated to
UNICEF. Following the success of his solo track, Kyuhyun alongside bandmate
Donghae and actress
Han Ji-min appeared in the music video "Happy Bubble," a commercial theme song for facial wash product Happy Bath on August 20.
2010–2013: Original soundtrack, S.M. The Ballad, Musical roles and Television roles On January 6, 2010, Kyuhyun released his solo track "Listen To You" for the Korean drama
Pasta. The song peaked at number one on real-time music portal charts. On August 5, Kyuhyun released his third solo song "Hope, a dream that never sleeps" () for the television drama
Baker King, Kim Tak Goo. , December 29, 2012 In November, Kyuhyun along with label mates
TRAX's
Jay,
SHINee's
Jonghyun, and newly debuted singer
Jino (now a member of
Pentagon) formed the project group
SM The Ballad. The group was described as SM Entertainment's vocal unit group, but the original members would only promote that winter together. The group released their debut album,
Miss You on November 29 and debuted on the music program
Inkigayo the day before. The group remained inactive until 2014, when Kyuhyun along with TRAX's Jay and Jino left S.M.The Ballad, leaving Jonghyun as the only original member in the group. From December 15, 2010, to mid-January 2011, Kyuhyun rotated as
D'Artagnan with TRAX's Jay in
The Three Musketeers at Chungmu Art Hall in Seoul, where the singers co-starred with Yoo Jun-sang, Im Ki-jun, Kim Mu-yul and
Dana Hong. His performances as D'Artagnan placed him first in an online poll for the Musical Rising Star Award at the 2010 Golden Ticket Awards. In 2011, Kyuhyun contributed to group mate
Siwon's drama
Poseidon with the track "The Way to Break Up." The single was composed by Yoon Jong-shin and was also included in Yoon's monthly project album. Kyuhyun sang "Late Autumn" for Yoon's November monthly project later that year. He also appeared on KBS's music competition program
Immortal Songs 2, replacing group mate Yesung on the show. Kyuhyun went on to win two rounds. Kyuhyun was one of four fixed MCs on Super Junior's show
Foresight, and in September he replaced fellow member
Heechul as an MC on
MBC's
Radio Star. He later appeared on
We Got Married as part of
Fighting Junior, supporting fellow member
Leeteuk and his on-screen wife actress
Kang So-ra. In 2012, Kyuhyun was cast as
Frank Abagnale Jr., rotating with
Um Ki-joon,
Kim Jeong-hoon,
Park Gwang-hyun and
Key of
SHINee in the Korean production of the Broadway musical
Catch Me If You Can. The musical ran from March 28 to June 10 at the Blue Square Samsung Card Hall in
Hannam-dong, Seoul. From December 2012 to February 2013, Kyuhyun was again cast as Frank Abagnale Jr. for the re-run of
Catch Me If You Can. From March 2013 to April 2013, he was cast as D'Artagnan for the re-run of
The Three Musketeers. In May 2013, it was announced that Kyuhyun would replace labelmate SHINee's
Minho as the new MC of KBS 2TV's
Mamma Mia. Later in June, Kyuhyun featured in labelmate
Henry's debut solo song "
Trap" alongside SHINee's
Taemin. In August, Kyuhyun graduated from
Kyunghee University's postmodern music department with a
bachelor's degree. He enrolled for his master's the following month. News sources reported the graduations of Kyuhyun and classmate
Kim Yeon-ji as unusual examples of entertainment stars taking their academic work seriously, to which Kyuhyun remarked, "I worked hard to get into university, so I was very attached."
2014–2015: Solo debut with At Gwanghwamun and Fall, Once Again From January 18 to February 23, 2014, Kyuhyun starred in the musical adaptation of MBC's
Moon Embracing the Sun at the Seoul Arts Center, alongside
Girls' Generation's
Seohyun. In May, it was announced that Kyuhyun would star in the musical ''
Singin' In The Rain'' as Don Lockwood, opposite
Girls' Generation's
Sunny. The musical was produced by SM C&C, a subsidiary of
S.M. Entertainment, and ran from June 5 to 22 at Chungmu Art Hall in Seoul. Later that month, Kyuhyun was cast in his fifth musical,
The Days. He played the second lead character, Moo-yeong, a witty and free-spirited security guard at the Blue House. Kyuhyun rotated the character alongside actors Kim Seung-dae, Oh Jeong-hyuk, and
Ji Chang-wook. The musical ran from October 21, 2014, to January 2015. On November 13, 2014, Kyuhyun released his debut album, titled
At Gwanghwamun, making him the first Super Junior member to debut alone. Kyuhyun made his first music show appearance on KBS2's
Music Bank on November 14. Just 12 hours after the album's online release, the title track, "At Gwanghwamun", achieved an 'all-kill' by topping all nine digital Korean charts. All of the songs on his album eventually climbed to the top 10 on most music sites. In December, it was announced that Kyuhyun would star as Prince Phillip for the musical
Robin Hood. He rotated the role with
Beast's
Yoseob and actor Park Sung-hwan. The musical opened in January 2015 at the D-Cube Arts Center in Seoul. . In early 2015, Kyuhyun was cast in news-based
KBS reality show
Fluttering India () alongside TVXQ's
Changmin, Shinee's Minho,
CNBLUE's
Jonghyun,
Infinite's
Sungkyu and
Exo's
Suho. Filming took place in
Mumbai throughout February and the first episode was released on April 10, 2015. On March 25, it was announced that singer-songwriter
Lee Moon-se chose Kyuhyun to be his duet partner in his new album,
New Direction. The duo's duet track, "She is Coming" was released on April 7. On October 14, 2015, Kyuhyun's second EP,
Fall, Once Again with the title track "A Million Pieces, was released." In November 2015, Kyuhyun held his first solo concert '''And it's Fall Again''', as part of SM Entertainment's concert series
The Agit at the SMTOWN Theatre in SMTOWN's Coex Artium. Kyuhyun held six concerts, and tickets sold out in 46 seconds. Later that month, he released his next single, "
The Day We Felt The Distance". From November 2015 to January 2016, Kyuhyun played the lead role in the 15th-anniversary production of the musical
Werther. He rotated the role with actors
Um Ki-joon and
Cho Seung-woo. Kyuhyun also participated in the OST album of the musical.
2016–2017: Japan promotions, Waiting, Still and military enlistment From April 11 to June 5, 2016, Kyuhyun held his solo tour in Japan, titled
Super Junior Kyuhyun Japan Tour 2016 ~Knick Knack~. He performed in several cities, including Fukuoka, Sapporo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Tokyo. Following his tour, Kyuhyun also released his debut Japanese single titled "Celebration ~Bridge to You~", on May 25. On August 22, SM Entertainment announced that Kyuhyun would take a break from his activities due to vocal cord nodules. He underwent surgeries and temporarily halted his activities, including his performance in an ongoing musical that he was cast in,
Mozart, as well as two weeks of recording on
Radio Star. In October 2016, it was announced that popular singer
Sung Si-kyung would be a participating composer in Kyuhyun's upcoming album, which was scheduled to release within the year. Kyuhyun performed the new track at his concert
Reminiscence of a novelist on October 29 to 30 at Ehwa Womans University and Busan from November 5 to 6 at Bexco Auditorium. His third EP,
Waiting, Still, was released on November 10. The album includes the double title tracks, "Blah Blah" was produced by popular singer-songwriter
Yoon Jong-shin and "Still" was produced by popular ballad singer
Sung Si-kyung. In December 2016, Kyuhyun confirmed he would release his first Japanese album
One Voice on February 8, 2017 and held his second Japan tour,
Super Junior-Kyuhyun Japan Tour 2017 ~One Voice~, from January 18 to March 5, 2017.
One Voice reached number 1 on Oricon's daily chart, and it ranked number 1 on Oricon weekly album chart in less than a week. With this album, Kyuhyun became the first solo foreign male artist from a group to top the chart. In May 2017, it was announced that Kyuhyun would release a single titled 'Goodbye for Now' on May 24, a day before his enlistment date.
2019: Return from military, The Day We Meet Again, and King of Masked Singer Following his discharge from his mandatory military service on May 7, 2019, Kyuhyun held a fan meeting, Meeting Again Today, on May 19 at the Peace Hall in
Kyung Hee University. He declined to return as an MC of
Radio Star; and ''
Kang's Kitchen''. He also participated in Super Junior's 9th Album
Time_Slip. On May 14, 2019, Kyuhyun released his first single since his discharge, "Time with You". He also released a new EP,
The Day We Meet Again, featuring the lead single "Aewol-ri", on May 20, 2019. Since his discharge, he also started his own YouTube channel KYU TV. Kyuhyun also competed in
King of Mask Singer, first appearing in episode 211 (broadcast on July 14, 2019) as "Jinie". Kyuhyun obtained 5 consecutive wins as "Jinie", becoming the first male idol to win the title of "Mask King". Kyuhyun covered a variety of songs during the competition including
Kim Dong-ryool's "Should I Say I Love You Again?",
Park Hyo-shin's "Breath",
Lee Hi's "Breath",
Naul's "Memory of the Wind",
Wanna One's "
Energetic",
Yoon Jong-shin ft.
Jung-in's "Uphill Road" and
SHINee Kim Jong-hyun's solo song "
Y Si Fuera Ella". On December 19, it was announced that Kyuhyun would return to the musical scene after four years since his last musical appearance. It was also his first musical appearance after being discharged from military service. He was cast in the musical "
The Man Who Laughs", and was set to perform in January 2020.
2020–2021: When We Were Us and Project: 季 The song "All Day Long" was recorded by Kyuhyun as Part 3 of the OST for drama
When The Weather is Fine. The song was released on March 16, 2020 and peaked at 142 in the Gaon Music Chart. The Super Junior member also recorded a remake version of the hit 1993 song "Confession Is Not Flashy" by
Lee Seung Hwan for OST Part 4 of the popular
tvN drama
Hospital Playlist. The remake was released on April 3, 2020 and peaked at 8 on the Gaon Music Chart. The album peaked at 1 on the Gaon Music Charts. On July 23, 2020, Kyuhyun released the music video for his single "Dreaming" as the first part of his
Project: 季 series. According to the concept of this project, Kyuhyun released a single for each season for a year with "Dreaming" being the single which represents Summer season. On August 23, 2020, Toon Studio unveiled the OST "The Moment My Heart Flinched" recorded by Kyuhyun for the webtoon
She Is My Type. The song peaked at 5 in the Gaon Music Chart. "Daystar" represents the Autumn season and the music video stars actor
Yoo Yeon Seok. On January 13, 2021, EMK Musical unveiled the cast teaser for the musical "
Phantom" in which Kyuhyun has been cast in the titular role of "Phantom" alongside Park Eun-tae, Kai, and Jeon Dong-seok. "
Phantom" is a musical based on
Gaston Leroux's iconic 1909 novel "
The Phantom of the Opera (''Le Fantôme de l'Opéra)''". Ticketing for the musical began on January 19, 2021, and is set to run from March 17, 2021, to June 27, 2021. Kyuhyun returned with his new series
2021 Project: 季, starting with the first single "Moving On", released on January 26, 2021, representing the winter season. The music video stars actor
Gong Myung and actress
Chae Soo Bin. The second single from the
2021 Project: 季 series, titled "Coffee", was released on April 13, 2021, representing the spring season. The third single from the
2021 Project: 季 series, titled "Together", was released on July 5, 2021, representing the summer season. On September 13, 2021, it was announced that Kyuhyun was cast to be in the musical "
Frankenstein". He took up the role of "Victor Frankenstein", alongside Jeon Dong-seok and Min Woo-hyuk. Kyuhyun released his fourth EP,
Love Story (4 Season Project 季), featuring the lead single "Love Story", on January 25, 2022, to conclude the
2021 Project: 季 series.
2022–2025: Soundtrack songs, departure from SM, new agency and new albums The OST recorded by Kyuhyun for the drama
Forecasting Love and Weather, titled "Promise You" was released on March 6, 2022. Kyuhyun also recorded an OST titled "Departure from a Country" for the drama
Sh**ting Stars, which was released on May 21, 2022. He participated in the release of Super Junior's eleventh album,
The Road, in 2022. The album was released in three parts, which were
The Road: Winter for Spring,
The Road: Keep on Going and
The Road: Celebration. Kyuhyun appeared in the fifth episode of
Hidden Singer Season 7 on September 16, 2022, as the singer of the episode. He was shockingly being eliminated in the second round, receiving 51 out of 100 votes from the audience. On July 14, 2023, it was announced that Kyuhyun, along with his fellow group members Eunhyuk and Donghae, had decided not to renew their contracts with SM, but will continue group activities for Super Junior with SM. On August 7, Kyuhyun was announced to join
Antenna as his new label. On July 19, 2023, the official teaser for the musical "
Ben-Hur" was released by EMK Musical, where Kyuhyun plays the lead role of Judah Ben-Hur, having been cast alongside Park Eun-tae and
Shin Sung-rok. This news comes after an almost two year gap from his previous musical appearance. The musical premiered on September 2, 2023, and has its finale on November 19, 2023, at the LG Signature Hall at LG Art Centre Seoul. Musical Ben-Hur is based on the 1880 novel
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace, which tells the story of a hero, Judah Ben-Hur, who meets his childhood friend, Messala, leading to a series of events involving betrayal, slavery, revenge, compassion and forgiveness. During an appearance on SBS Power FM's "Cultwo Show" alongside Park Minsung and Choi Ji-hye, Kyuhyun revealed that he had injured his left foot during the musical. On January 9, 2024, Kyuhyun released an extended play called
Restart, marking his first release with Antenna. Following his mini album, he released his first full album,
Colors, in the same year, on 27 November. On August 22, 2025, Kyuhyun began touring with the rest of Super Junior for their 20th Anniversary tour, "
Super Show 10". The Asia tour is set to continue until early 2026, with its last tour stop in Saitama, Japan. On September 19, 2025, an upcoming album was announced for a comeback slated for November 2025. A new EP or mini album, titled 'The Classic' was released on November 20, 2025. It included 5 new songs, with 'Like Our First Snow' as the title track. The music video was released at 6PM KST, featuring tripleS' Jiyeon and actors Chun Jongmin and Kim Namji. It showed the premise of a story where a young Kyuhyun, parted ways with a ballerina, his first love from high school, to debut as a singer.
2026–present: Death Note: The Musical On November 19, 2025, Kyuhyun was announced to be added to the cast of OD Company's
Death Note: The Musical, a musical adaptation of the original anime series. He was cast as
Light Yagami, with actor Kim Sung-cheol also cast as
L. They will be officially added to the line-up schedule from January 27, 2026. The musical runs from October 14, 2025, to May 10, 2026 at D-cube Arts Center in Seoul. == Artistry ==