Big Bang T.O.P says name was originally supposed to be Mark

Big Bang member T.O.P. on SBS' variety show "Night After Night" [SBS]

Korean boy band Big Bang member T.O.P has said that his stage name was originally supposed to be Mark.

The singer, whose real name is Choi Seung-hyun, spoke about the origin of his name when the emcees of SBS' variety program "Night After Night" mischievously asked him if he was trying to act cool at the beginning of his singing career by having himself named as T.O.P.

"Yang Hyun-suk, the CEO and founder of YG Entertainment, came up to me and said 'Your name is now Mark' and when I asked him why, he replied saying that it was the name of his favorite guitarist," T.O.P explained.

He laughed adding, "I felt that the name wasn't right and a few days later Se7en asked what I thought about the name T.O.P and that was my name from then on."

Making his debut in 2006 as a member of boy band Big Bang, T.O.P has been promoting his duo unit album "GD&T.O.P" with groupmate G-Dragon. They have been taken over various online and offline music charts with their title tracks "HIGH HIGH," "OH YEAH" and "KNOCK OUT."

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Reporter : Lucia Hong luciahong@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@