MoonBin : A member of the boy band Astro and its spin-off combo Moonbin&Sanha, Moon Bin passed away on Wednesday (April 19), according to his record label and management company. He was 25. At the moment, the reason of death remains unknown.
The agency for ASTRO issued a statement on his demise and funeral arrangements in response to local reports that the singer, songwriter, actor, and model was discovered dead in his Seoul residence by a manager who promptly alerted the police. Moon Bin’s bandmates, label mates, and company personnel are all grieving his passing, according to a Korean news report from Fantagio. A statement was also posted on social media by Moonbin&Sanha’s representative with a U.S. base, Helix Publicity. “We are saddened to the core. We are sending our sympathies, prayers, and thoughts to Moon Bin’s family, friends, loved ones, and the AROHA [fans] who have always been there for him.
Fantagio further stated that Moon’s family wants a private burial attended by close friends, relatives, and coworkers. Moon Sua, the younger sister of Moon Bin, is the oldest member of the girl group Billlie and also works in the K-pop business.
MoonBin of ASTRO, a K-pop star
Along with four other ASTRO teammates, Moon Bin extended his contract with Fantagio in December 2022. Along with his ASTRO bandmate Yoon San-ha, Moonbin&Sanha released Incense in January, their third EP. It was the middle of Moonbin&Sanha’s Diffusion Fan Con Tour, which had started in Seoul in February and was scheduled to stop in several locations around Asia until May. On Weverse, the world-wide fandom site created by HYBE, the pair had also just started an official fan community page.
As a member of ASTRO, Moon Bin charted seven albums on Billboard’s World Albums list, with 2017’s Dream Part.02 reaching the No. 5 spot, and seven songs on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart, with 2019 single “All Night” hitting at No. 6.
Using the official ASTRO staff Twitter account, Fantagio made the following statement:
— ASTRO OFFICIAL (@ASTRO_Staff) April 19, 2023
MoonBin made his K-pop debut with ASTRO in February 2016, however he has been involved in the country’s entertainment business since he was a young boy.
Growing up in the sizable, central city of Cheongju, South Korea, Moon Bin worked as a child model and played the “mini” version of MoonBin member U-Know in the “Balloons” music video for TVXQ! in 2006. When he was chosen to play the younger version of So Yijung in the well-known Korean drama Boys Over Flowers in 2009, the role would go on to define the acting career of Korean actor Kim Sangbum. After starting his study with Fantagio in elementary school, Moon Bin joined as a full-time student in middle school, and he later attended and graduated from Seoul’s Hanlim Multi Art School, a school that placed a strong emphasis on practical music.
As a member of ASTRO, Moon Bin played a key dancer and lead vocalist role for the boy band that Billboard hailed as one of the greatest new K-pop artists to make their debut in 2016. A year later, on the tune “You & Me (Thank AROHA),” which was dedicated to ASTRO’s devoted following, he received his first writing credit on an ASTRO song.
Also Read : ASTRO member Moonbin, age 25, passes away
The band’s 2020 single “One & Only,” as well as his solo tune “Let’s Go Ride,” were both co-written by Moon, who kept adding to his list of accomplishments. These songs both featured on ASTRO’s most recent full-length album Drive to the Starry Road from 2022. In addition to the breezy duet “Language” with his Fantagio label mate Ji Suyeon of the duo Weki Meki, Moon Bin has had other solo opportunities, such as the snappy and slick R&B single “Desire” from Moonbin&Sanha’s most recent EP Incense from January.
Moon Bin’s career also easily expanded into other fields, such as modelling (he was the first muse for the Korean clothing line NEIKIDNIS), hosting (he was an MC on the weekly live K-pop performance programme Show Champion from 2020–2022), and acting (he joined the casts of several K-dramas and even the Korean version of Saturday Night Live).
Moon Bin was well-known outside of work for having a gleaming, cheery smile that some have compared to the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. In interviews, he always presented a future-focused mindset.
In a track-by-track analysis of ASTRO’s 2020 Gateway EP for Billboard, Moon Bin expressed excitement at the possibility of playing the band’s brand-new songs live for fans once the epidemic has passed. When the pair visited Manila for their Diffusion tour earlier this month, Moon Bin and his bandmate San-ha hinted at upcoming solo projects from each of them in an interview with ABS-CBN News in the Philippines.
Fans should be anticipating future plans in which we could potentially make our solo performing debuts, according to San-ha. “We are very grateful that we were able to reach a point where we have a world tour, and at the moment, we are focusing on the designated roles that we are doing right now,” Moon Bin told the source. And we are eager to see what the future holds.