Sungha Jung
editSungha Jung (born September 1996, South Korea) is a rising guitar finger-stylist. Presently 12 years old, Sungha Jung is noted by many in the music world as being a guitar prodigy. While he does tour internationally with guitarists such as Ulli Boegershausen, Thomas Leeb and Trace Bundy among others, and has also made appearance on several TV shows in South Korea, his main venue has been YouTube, where he is rapidly approaching internet celebrity status with over 100,000 subscribers to his channel and over 64,000,000 combined views of his 198 video performances. Sungha Jung now has a YouTube viewership exceeding the YouTube channels views of such well known artists as Celine Dion; Carrie Underwood; and the YouTube channel views of music companies such as UniversalMusicJapan and Epitaph Records. Sungha has garnered recognition from YouTube for being #28 of the All-Time Fifty Most Subscribed Musicians on YouTube, exceeding groups and musicians such as Michael Jackson; My Chemical Romance; Alicia Keyes; Kelly Clarkson; Metallica; Offspring; Justin Timberlake; Shakira; Usher; Radiohead and Coldplay. In Sungha's native country, he has become YouTube's #1 Most Subscribed (All Time)- South Korea; #1 Most Subscribed (All Time) - Musicians - South Korea.
A driving force of his internet popularity is his demonstratable, professional-level skill in the complex technique of fingerstyle guitar at such an early age. Sungha started playing guitar at the age of nine after receiving a guitar as a gift. He quickly became enamored of the the instrument, and began to show an innate talent for guitar playing early on. At the urging of friends and relatives, he began posting his videos on YouTube simply as a means to get critiqued by other guitarists. His videos were soon noticed by an ever growing number of people and he now has a large, growing and loyal world-wide fan base, due largely to his YouTube popularity.
As of January, 2009, Sungha has accepted limited sponsorship from Lakewood Guitars GmbH & Co. of Giessen, Germany. Sungha practices his finger-style technique about two hours per day, and more during school vacations. In July 2009, the website, www.sunghajung.com was launched...where in the near future, CD's of his original music may become available.