Jay Park doesn’t remember much about his childhood in Washington.
As a member of one of the world’s biggest Korean pop groups, ENHYPEN, he’s had much more on his mind — international tours, a Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade performance, being a Prada global ambassador — than the nine years he spent growing up near Seattle.
Since debuting with ENHYPEN in 2020, the 22-year-old multihyphenate singer-rapper-musician-dancer has experienced a whirlwind of stardom, amassing fans across the globe. Despite the sold-out tours and chart-topping albums, Park has been holding onto one particular dream for years: to perform in his hometown. He is finally making that a reality, with ENHYPEN’s April 28 concert at the Tacoma Dome.
Known by fans simply as Jay, the mononymous musician spent the early years of his life in Federal Way, where his parents settled after they attended college in the Pacific Northwest. When Park was 9, his family relocated to Korea for his dad’s work at a travel agency. Despite this, the entertainer still has fond memories of the street he grew up on, the rainy weather and Seattle’s culinary specialties.
“I really love the food in Seattle,” Park said in an interview over Zoom in early April. “Clam chowder is still one of my favorite foods. I try to eat it all over the world.”
Park has only been back to Seattle once, just a few years after the move.
After adjusting to his new home in a new country, quickly learning Korean and attending school, Park developed a love for all things music, including playing guitar, singing and dancing, and gravitated toward a career in the ever-growing, multibillion-dollar K-pop music industry.
“Being a K-pop idol was the best solution to do all the things I wanted in music,” he said. “I wanted to be a multi-entertainer.”