Hongjoong of ATEEZ: Member and Artist Profile, Music, Career and 2026 Guide

Kim Hong-joong (김홍중), known as Hongjoong, is a current ATEEZ member and solo-recording artist under KQ Entertainment. This canonical page links the complete eight-member “Lemon Drop” and “In Your Fantasy” videos to the individual solo track “NO1” without splitting one person into competing member and artist biographies.

Quick profile

• Born: November 7, 1998
• Current group: ATEEZ
• Working file: leader, rapper, songwriter and producer
• 2025 solo track: “NO1”
• Exact local Reacts: In Your Fantasy and Lemon Drop

ATEEZ is eight, and eight renewed

ATEEZ’s current lineup is Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho. In July 2025, KQ Entertainment announced that all eight renewed their contracts for another seven years. That is the controlling 2026 roster fact. Temporary health absences from individual schedules do not become departures, and no profile should convert one missed stage into a lineup change.

The name points toward possibility

ATEEZ was introduced as “A TEEnager Z,” a name built around the idea of representing everything young people can pursue from A to Z. The members have outgrown the literal teenage frame, but the useful part remains range. Pirate rebellion, dystopian resistance, workplace comedy, summer R&B and mature fantasy can belong to one group when performance logic and recurring narrative ambition connect them.

KQ Fellaz built the pre-debut evidence

Before the October 2018 debut, the trainees appeared as KQ Fellaz and trained in Los Angeles. Performance videos made dance competence visible before a large catalog could carry identity. Hongjoong’s early mixtape submission and the company’s decision to build a trainee system around the developing team matter because ATEEZ did not arrive as the next guaranteed act from a dominant idol conglomerate.

Treasure began with movement

Treasure EP.1: All to Zero introduced “Pirate King” and “Treasure” on October 24, 2018. The pirate language was not only costume. It gave the group a grammar of maps, doubles, pursuit and chosen direction that could expand across albums. Early choreography used low centers, sharp level changes and commitment strong enough to make a small-company debut feel physically larger than its promotion footprint.

The story has distinct eras

The Treasure series established pursuit; Zero: Fever moved through youth, anxiety and heat; The World turned resistance into an industrial-scale narrative; Golden Hour brought ambition into more immediate adult settings. Lore can deepen a song, but it must never become a substitute for hearing rhythm, melody and performance. Each release still needs to work for a listener who did not bring a theory document.

Wonderland made scale legible

“Wonderland” is a useful early test because it converts march rhythm, brass and formation into forward pressure. The members do not merely stand inside an expensive concept; their bodies create its command structure. Later competition and festival stages could enlarge the arrangement because the original already contained clear roles for attack, vocal lift, rap disruption and a final chorus that feels earned through accumulation.

Kingdom was exposure, not origin

ATEEZ competed on Kingdom: Legendary War in 2021 and used the platform to reinterpret existing work at extreme scale. The program introduced their theatrical instincts to new viewers, but it did not invent those instincts. Treating the show as their beginning erases years of touring and story construction. The better chronology asks what competition resources allowed them to amplify, then follows what survived after weekly ranking disappeared.

Guerrilla turned resistance into sound

“Guerrilla” makes distortion, shouted release and choreography feel like parts of the same uprising. It is intense because the arrangement controls escalation; noise without hierarchy would exhaust itself. The performance divides pressure across members, uses Jongho’s climactic vocal as structure and lets Hongjoong and Mingi cut different rap shapes through the center. That division of labor remains a reference for later songs that choose seduction instead of revolt.

Bouncy understood the hook as an event

“Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers)” translated the group’s scale into a hook simple enough to travel beyond existing lore. The slowed movement, pepper imagery and elastic vocal phrase created an instantly reproducible object without making the full performance basic. International discovery accelerated because one piece could circulate independently, then lead viewers backward into a catalog with much denser narrative machinery.

Coachella changed the context, not the standard

In 2024 ATEEZ became the first K-pop boy group to perform at Coachella. The milestone matters, but the useful evidence is live: projection, breath management, band-scale arrangement and the ability to communicate beyond a fan-event room. Festival praise should not become a permanent exemption from critique. Every later stage still has to solve its own audience, pacing and sound problem.

Golden Hour moved into adult labor

“WORK” and the surrounding Golden Hour material brought money, ambition and absurd workplace imagery into the catalog. The shift allowed humor and swagger to carry narrative weight without abandoning performance precision. “Ice On My Teeth,” “Lemon Drop” and “In Your Fantasy” then explored polish, summer restraint and seduction, proving maturity did not require one fixed dark palette.

Lemon Drop uses restraint as heat

“Lemon Drop” is R&B hip-hop with a sweet-and-tangy confession rather than the explosive architecture casual viewers expect from ATEEZ. Its difficulty is control: keeping groove alive while withholding the giant release. Hongjoong and Mingi share lyric credit, but all eight participate in the official video. The local React tracks how vocal texture, camera proximity and small movement make restraint feel intentional.

In Your Fantasy chooses direct seduction

Released July 11, 2025, the title track of the edition album draws on 2000s pop and makes fantasy crossing into reality its premise. Hongjoong and Mingi again share lyric credit. The official video uses the complete eight-member lineup. The local React reads power, invitation and choreography without collapsing mature performance into a list of attractive screenshots.

Eight solo tracks change the archive

The edition album adds one solo per member: “NO1,” “Skin,” “Slide to me,” “Legacy,” “Creep,” “ROAR,” “Sagittarius” and “To be your light.” These are not detached fan-service stages. They are released recordings that make each canonical member page an artist route too. A future solo object belongs on the same page, preventing separate biographies from drifting into conflicting facts.

Performance is not one kind of intensity

ATEEZ are often praised for “stage presence” as if that phrase explains technique. It can mean San sustaining character between centers, Yunho keeping a formation readable, Seonghwa shaping line, Wooyoung sharpening groove, Yeosang using stillness, Jongho protecting a vocal climax, or the rappers changing rhythmic scale. The profile identifies which mechanism Hongjoong uses instead of handing every member the same compliment.

Hongjoong and Mingi have different rap functions

Both write and rap, but their tones do not duplicate each other. Hongjoong often attacks with quick articulation and a high, cutting edge; Mingi supplies low resonance and physical weight. Alternation lets a track change dimensions without abandoning its beat. Credits should remain exact: shared authorship is documented song by song, not expanded into the assumption that either member wrote every lyric.

Jongho’s voice is architecture

A high note can become a reaction clip, but Jongho’s deeper value is structural. Arrangements can build toward him because pitch security and tonal focus make a climax feel inevitable. The group is strongest when earlier voices create enough contrast that the final lift changes emotional altitude. Treating him only as “the one who can sing high” erases phrasing, lower register and ensemble responsibility.

The dance line is distributed

ATEEZ do not need one body type or attack style to read as synchronized. Yunho’s length, Wooyoung’s groove, San’s character intensity, Seonghwa’s line and the remaining members’ different centers create a formation with internal contrast. Synchronization means shared timing and intention, not visual sameness. Camera blocking works when it lets those differences register before cutting to the next impact.

Health context needs boundaries

Mingi’s earlier hiatus and later member schedule notices show why health reporting must stay exact and humane. The archive records official absence, return or modification without diagnosing private conditions. Protecting health can be a professional decision that preserves a longer career. A missed city or broadcast changes participation in that object; it does not automatically change the roster named by KQ.

ATINY is the fandom route

ATINY combines ATEEZ and destiny, framing fans as people who meet the group along its path. The official platform, tour notices and membership system provide primary routes through an international fandom fragmented across apps and languages. Fan translation is valuable, but schedule and health claims should return to the official notice so urgency does not harden into misinformation.

World touring is part of the music file

The 2025–2026 In Your Fantasy tour carries group songs and all eight solo stages across arenas and stadiums. Touring reveals how recorded objects survive breath, weather, distance and changing audiences. A solo track may be current artist evidence even without a standalone music video. The tracker labels the object accurately instead of pretending every performance upload is a new official single.

Contract renewal changes the future question

Seven-year renewals for all eight remove immediate disbandment speculation but do not guarantee artistic growth. The useful question becomes how the members use that runway: more authorship, individual projects, controlled rest, new production relationships and a group sound that can age. Renewal is evidence of shared intent and company agreement, not permission to stop evaluating the released work.

Image cards must identify the person

This page uses a real portrait unique to Hongjoong. Featured image, first hero, static landing card, Open Graph and Twitter preview match within the page, while every sibling uses a different attachment. A group photograph belongs to the hub. That visual filing order lets a reader recognize the person before opening a long profile and prevents eight URLs from wearing one repeated image.

International discovery needs exact objects

Search ATEEZ plus the member name, Korean name when needed, exact song title and official video ID. Start with KQ’s official platform and YouTube uploads, then use the Japan official discography and credited reporting for release context. Lore explainers and fan databases can help navigation, but a circular unsourced profile is not evidence for a date, role or health claim.

Participation-aware tracking is mandatory

Both requested Reacts attach to all eight current members because the exact official videos include all eight. A solo attaches only to its named performer. A future stage with a health absence must record the lineup visible in that stage without rewriting the studio recording. This object-level rule prevents a green relationship cell from claiming more than the evidence supports.

What the next release must prove

ATEEZ have already demonstrated scale, touring power, lore and multiple routes to intensity. The harder future test is selection: knowing when a song needs less plot, when a vocal needs air, and when individual authorship should alter the group’s musical center. Another huge performance can be excellent, but longevity will depend on contrast strong enough that listeners recognize growth before reading the era title.

Solo work is not a ranking exercise

Eight solo tracks invite comparison, but difference is the point. Club pressure, sensual groove, cinematic scale, rock edge and emotional balladry expose preferences that a full-group title track must negotiate. “NO1” does not prove Hongjoong matters more than another member. It gives the archive a clean individual object and gives future group analysis better language for what this performer contributes when eight colors are recombined.

The camera must earn the close-up

ATEEZ videos cut quickly because the music often carries dense rhythmic information. A close-up works when it changes the scene: a gaze answers a lyric, a breath prepares impact, or stillness makes the next formation feel larger. Counting screen seconds cannot explain that function. For Hongjoong, the useful question is whether the edit captures a complete performance decision or interrupts it simply to prove every member appeared.

Maturity should expand choice

“Lemon Drop” and “In Your Fantasy” use adult confidence differently from the group’s early rebellion concepts. Maturity is not synonymous with sexual styling, darker color or slower movement. It can mean control, clearer consent language, comfort with silence and the ability to perform desire without surrendering musical detail. The profile follows how Hongjoong handles that wider range rather than declaring every mature concept automatic growth.

Credits belong beside interpretation

Hongjoong and Mingi’s documented writing on both requested singles changes how those songs are read, while other members have credits on their solo tracks. The page separates a credited fact from an inference about meaning. A performer can shape delivery without holding a lyric credit, and a credited writer does not single-handedly control a collaborative production. Exact credit language respects both kinds of labor.

A current profile needs a dated status

This page records Hongjoong as a current ATEEZ member as of August 2026, supported by the eight-member renewal and current KQ platform. If a health notice modifies one schedule, the notice belongs to that dated activity. If the roster ever changes, update this canonical page in place and preserve earlier participation. Do not clone a “new version” or silently rewrite old videos around the newest lineup.

The editorial standard after the click

A static card promises more than a name and portrait. The page must explain why Hongjoong changes the sound or stage, identify the exact solo route, connect verified group releases, and show sources a reader can follow. That is why this profile exceeds a database biography. It is designed to help someone return after the next comeback and recognize development rather than reread the same fixed list of positions.

What remains open

The record is current, not closed. New music can complicate this reading, a live arrangement can reveal a different strength, and a verified credit can change the authorship map. The page will absorb that evidence without pretending earlier analysis was timeless. A canonical profile earns authority by making correction possible and visible.

Why Hongjoong changes ATEEZ

He submitted a mixtape to KQ before the company had an idol-training system, then became the first trainee around whom the eventual team formed. His writing on “Lemon Drop” and “In Your Fantasy” makes authorship part of both requested React relationships.

“NO1” is the current solo evidence, but the next update must follow released credits and repeatable performance choices rather than turning one track into a permanent limit. The profile will distinguish individual work, full-group participation and temporary schedule boundaries while preserving the same canonical URL.

Official starting points

• In Your Fantasy — official MVDaily+45.1KTotal views45.6M
• Lemon Drop — official MVDaily+38.6KTotal views45.8M
• Canonical ATEEZ group guide
• ATEEZ official platform

Sources

• KQ official platform, notices and current activity
• Japan official In Your Fantasy Edition tracklist
• KQ contract-renewal announcement reporting
• KQ-supplied concept portraits and edition context

RaeRae Reacts

MATZ: Hongjoong and Seonghwa Set the Room on Fire and Called It Unit Chemistry — exact playlist upload 3PA5FG1NX9U.

RaeRae Reacts

Hush-Hush: BE:FIRST and ATEEZ Build a Fifteen-Person Conversation — exact playlist upload 6KEqMEmyuIs.

React image cards

Static cards route each exact official upload to its own in-depth React. Every card repeats that React’s featured and hero image so the archive stays visually traceable.