Kang Daniel – once dubbed “the Nation’s Center” – is one of South Korea’s most famous young men, selling over million albums globally as a soloist and over 4.2 million as part of Wanna One, the K-pop group with whom he shot to fame. He’s also the CEO of his own company (Konnect Entertainment) and a brand ambassador for Givenchy Beauty, just one in a long line of A-list endorsements. Today, the 24-year-old is makeup-free, approachable, and charming. Wearing a cream hoodie he looks like he could be the, albeit ultra handsome, guy next door.
That is, of course, partly why Daniel became a household name. Yet he remains shy by nature; when he speaks, his eyes drift away from the Zoom camera but the longer we talk, the more frequent is his recognisable hiccupping laugh (compiled across dozens of YouTube videos) and the brighter he becomes with that incandescence unique to very famous people. Our conversation ends with idle chatter about creatives in constant chase of the next adrenaline rush, and Daniel nods. “It’s gotten weirder and weirder (for me). I started thinking about