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Choi Jaewon (최재원) is a South Korean singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He is best known as a member of Anomii, formed through the reality competition program Into The Spotlight. He is a former member of project rock band No Manners.
Early life[]
Choi Jaewon was born in Daejeon City, South Korea on November 10, 2006. He is the middle child of three sons in his family.
When Jaewon was in fifth grade, he joined an all-boy project vocal group named The Ideal Boy that consisted of a few other boys in his neighborhood, mainly members of the choir from the local church. They appeared on a noontime variety show once, impressing the audiences with a cover of Conway Twitty's 1975 single "Don't Cry, Joni". Unfortunately, Jaewon experienced subtle bullying from his groupmates, and when he caught them insulting him on group chats and spreading rumors to other kids, things almost got physical. The Ideal Boy was immediately disbanded by the involved adults the moment the incident reached them.
In a now-deleted Instagram post from late 2020, Jaewon said, "I can forgive, but I won't forget. Of course, there's always room to mature and be successful enough to reach their goals like anyone else, but the sick part would be when they become part of the entertainment industry and their fans worship them like they were angelic dolls incapable of doing anything wrong."
Career[]
2024[]
In mid-2024, Jaewon competed in MBS reality talent search program The Artist's Arena, as the drummer of project band No Manners, which he formed with several colleagues at his performing arts school. Unfortunately, No Matters became one of the two acts to be eliminated in the fifth episode, finishing at 6th place. No Manners shortly disbanded after, as they all decided to head in their own individual paths. In September, Jaewon applied for over 20 entertainment companies, and was admitted into 484 Company.
2025[]
In 2025, Jaewon competed in the survival audition program Into The Spotlight, representing 484 Company alongside trainees Bang Daesung and Kim Hyunbok. In the Individual Evaluation round, they covered TXT's "Deja Vu", with Jaewon receiving perfect three stars. Unfortunately, he was demoted to the 1-Star Class after struggling with his dance skills. In the Girl Group Song Battle, he performed aespa's "Armageddon", ranking 1st place. In the Position Battle, he was part of the team that covered Woodz's "Drowning". His team won in the Vocal Category, with Jaewon receiving widespread praise for his high note and ranking first individually. This led him to receive a 50,000 vote boost that propelled him to 1st place in the second elimination round. In the Concept Evaluation, he performed "I.A.L.Y (I'll Always Love You)", with his team ranking 2nd place. In the finale, he ranked 4th place with 830,471 votes, making him a member of the seven-member debut group Anomii.
Personal life[]
Choi has been an open practitioner of vegetarianism, having been largely abstinent from consuming meat products after watching an uncensored investigative documentary about the conditions slaughterhouses in developing countries. Prior to his debut, he was also active in several environmentalist campaigns as a student.
Personality[]
Jaewon serves twink realness in 2025.
In an industry that is often used as a stepping stone for more respected careers such as acting or business, Jaewon is a musician that any of his peers would describe as genuinely passionate about his craft. During the second elimination round where he ranked 2nd place, Jaewon said: "I badly want to debut. Music is not only my passion, but also what runs through my veins and what is practically my purpose in life. To the Spotlighters, I will do what it takes to prove that I deserve your vote, so please keep on looking out for me."
Having grown up with music by his side since he was a kid, Jaewon is a hardworking performer who would do anything to receive more opportunities to showcase his talent to the world, which makes him a contestant who is naturally competitive and constantly striving to get the best results. However, Jaewon's prominent weakness that tends to drag him down is his overall struggles with his confidence. Despite always mustering enough courage to take the risk of doing the most vocally demanding parts in performances, he can easily start doubting his own abilities if he makes mistakes he deem significant. There are times where he almost gave up his main vocalist position during performances in Into The Spotlight, but his peers assured him that they believed in his talents.
Controversies[]
Alleged death threat[]
Right before the finale of Into The Spotlight, an anonymous netizen dug up an old post of Jaewon allegedly sending a death threat to a classmate on a social media platform making a joke about him, saying in English, "I wouldn't hesitate to smile while you suffocate and die". This was immediately fact-checked by Jaewon's international fans, who figured out that he was simply just referencing a lyric from "Choke", a 2017 song by the American indie pop band I Don't Know How But They Found Me, and accused his detractors of simply trying to sabotage his increasing one-pick vote power.
Discography[]
See also: Anomii/Discography
Writing and composition credits[]
| Title | Year | Artist | Album | Credits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyrics | Music | Arr. | ||||
| "Horn On My Head (어느 날 머리에서 뿔이 자랐다)" | 2025 | Anomii | Do You Even Know What True Love Is? | ✔ | ||
| "Just Let Go" | Bitter Daydreamers OST | ✔ | ||||
| "Fall of a Fine Voice (고운 목소리의 몰락)" | Ongi (온기) | ✔ | ||||
| "What I Could Have Had" | 2026 | The Big Small Things In Life | ✔ | |||
| "Eclipse of the Mind" | ✔ | |||||
Filmography[]
See also: Anomii/Filmography
Trivia[]
- Representative flower: Rose
- Likes: Karaoke, synth-pop, vintage items
- Dislikes: Polar bears, office jobs
- Hobbies: Music, writing poetry
- Favorite films: Bohemian Rhapsody, Scream, Godzilla
- Favorite color: Brown
- Favorite artists: Jannabi, Park Minjun, Chun Jihye, The Last Children of Presagia
- Jaewon's favorite album of all time is Retrogression by Park Danho.
- Jaewon can play multiple instruments, especially the drums and acoustic guitars.
- Jaewon has a caring personality wherein he puts others before himself in many decision-making moments (according to the members)
- Jaewon likes to experiment with music production softwares and wants to self-produce an entire album one day.
- Jaewon's long term dream is to win at the Hangang Artistry Awards, either as a solo artist or as a member of Anomii.
- Jaewon reached second level in judo and used to want to become a martial artist.
- Jaewon self-admittedly has a poor spice tolerance.
- Jaewon is a big fan of the post-apocalyptic show The Walking Dead.