Jang Keun-suk wins CMA’s Most Influential Korean Artists Award

Jang Keun-suk at the 15th China Music Award and Asian Influential Awards (CMA) on April 15, 2011 [Tree J. Company]

Singer and actor Jang Keun-suk was named the most influential Korean artist at a prestigious award ceremony in China last week, according to Tree J. Company on Monday.

A press release by Tree J. Company said today that Jang was presented the prize for Most Influential Korean Artist at the 15th China Music Award and Asian Influential Awards (CMA) that took place in Chengdu, China last Friday.

He was named the winner after collecting a total of 106,726 votes in a poll for the award, and after the ceremony was quoted as saying, "I’m so glad that I’ve won such a big award when I thought it was an honor enough to be invited to the ceremony."

The CMA, otherwise dubbed the Grammy awards of the East, is one of the most well recognized award ceremonies in China covered by scores of entertainment channels throughout the Asia region such as Channel V and Star TV and is watched by over 200 million viewers.

This year's event was attended by a number of high-profile Chinese celebrities not only from mainland China but also from Hong Kong and Taiwan including Jackie Chan, Wilbur Pan, Jiang Wen, Leehom Wang and Fahrenheit while Jang was the only foreign artist.

The following day, Jang moved to IFC mall at Shanghai to hold a press conference regarding an exclusive contract with HS Media.

Jang made his debut in entertainment at the early age of five as a catalog model. His TV debut came in 1997 with the cable channel HBS’ sitcom “Happiness For Sale” and has since appeared in numerous dramas including youth sitcom “Non Stop 4” (MBC, 2004), historical drama “Hwang Jinny” (KBS, 2006).

He rose to super stardom in Korea and throughout Asia after starring in the hit series "He's Beautiful" (SBS, 2009) where he played the eccentric lead singer of the idol group A.N.JELL where he proved himself capable of covering fields of both music and acting.

He is set to release his first single album in Japan on April 27 and is currently busy preparing for his upcoming Asia tour where he will visit several cities including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Shanghai.

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