K-pop star Joshua rose to fame in Seoul but forever reps L.A.: ‘It’s where my roots are’
Joshua didn’t expect an “L.A. accent” pop quiz when he signed on to Zoom for an interview from Seoul. It was a holiday in South Korea, but Joshua Hong, who goes by his first name, took his one day off to chat about his group’s upcoming world tour. The impromptu test came as a surprise.
“OK,” Joshua calmly says as he preps to pronounce the oncoming words flashed before him.
It’s been over 11 years since the 28-year-old performer moved from Los Angeles to Seoul to begin his K-pop journey as one of 13 members of the global superstar group Seventeen. Dominating the charts and awards circuit in Korea, the group has skyrocketed to international success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 Chart last year, with multiple albums peaking in the Top 10 of Billboard’s 200. This weekend they return to Los Angeles for two sold-out shows at BMO Stadium for their fourth world tour, dubbed Seventeen Right Here.
Joshua feared his knowledge of L.A. would be limited, or he’d forgotten L.A. mannerisms and landmarks.
“Everything was way bigger than I remembered,” Joshua recalls all the locations he used to frequent in L.A.. “Now, it’s a lot smaller. I couldn’t experience [grown-up] changes in L.A..”
According to the latest TikTok trend, Californians are known to drop the “t” sound in words in a process called “flapping.” He anxiously begins to answer the pronunciation of California landmarks — “Monterey Park,” “Santa Ana,” “Sacramento” and more. His eyes widen as he recognizes the smaller cities of Southern California. While the accent test is debatable, most non-English speakers tend to pronounce words phonetically, including Wilshire Boulevard, which many outside of L.A. pronounce as “Will-shai-ur” rather than “Wil-shur.”
“Wilshire Boulevard in K-town!” Joshua proudly states correctly.
Born and raised in L.A., Joshua is no stranger to Koreatown and the downtown area. Before becoming a global K-pop star, Joshua was a downtown Magnets High School student, attended church in K-town and was active in his church’s praise team, which started his love for music. He often visited Disneyland, Six Flags and the beaches with friends.
“I have a lot of good memories,” he recalls. “I just hung out with my [friends] at and outside church.”
His daily weekday routine consisted of going to school usually followed by a trip to grab boba at Quickly’s in Chinatown or a random spot in Koreatown. Some nights, he’d go to practice with his praise team; other nights, he’d go to the many Mexican food places offered in downtown L.A. with friends.
“I love Mexican food,” Joshua exclaims. “It’s still a really big thing for me. When I lived in L.A., I ate Mexican food almost every day.”
He began listing all the different types of Mexican foods, pausing to clarify if I knew what a torta was since it wasn’t common in Korea. After realizing he was speaking to an L.A. native, he reminisced about all the local food places he would frequent, including Phillippe The Original’s French dip sandwiches (“I always forget to get that when I’m back in L.A.”), King Taco and Wasabi Japanese Noodle House.
“I used to go to King Taco all the time,” he says. During a previous interview, he expressed his love for the chain that went viral, prompting the business to respond with an offer to visit anytime for his favorite carne asada and lengua tacos (“with hot sauce”).
Joshua was shocked to learn that King Taco had made a video for him.
“Are you serious!?” he says. “I’m going to check that out when I go to L.A. I like King Taco.”
He joked about a possible future collaboration between the two. “That would be cool [to collaborate]. They could get my favorite meal and call it, ‘The Joshua Meal Set’!”
However, not everything has remained the same for the former L.A. resident. He lived in downtown, near what he remembers as Staples Center, now known as Crypto.com Arena. He admits he’s still getting used to the name change.
“That’s weird,” he says skeptically. “Crypto dot com Arena? Staples Center is so stapled to my brain that I can’t call it anything else.”
Though it’s been a long time since they’ve played at Crypto.com Arena (then Staples), Joshua and his fellow members — S.Coups, Jeonghan, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The 8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino — have been busy preparing for the tour, which kicked off last month in Seoul and is now on its North American leg.
“It’s been a while since we went on a world tour,” Joshua exclaims. “I’m excited to see all the new fans we can meet. They’ve been waiting for us for such a long time. I can’t wait to show them what we have prepared for the tour. I’m excited about that.”
It has been nearly two years since Seventeen performed in Los Angeles during their Be the Sun tour and at the LA3C Music & Food Festival. Joshua expressed joy in returning to his hometown during his farewell speech at the Kia Forum, giving shoutouts to a few of his high school friends — something that has become a tradition from the last two world tours.
“[I miss] my friends,” he explains. “There’s this term in Korea called ‘gohyang chingu,’ meaning your hometown friends. My members sometimes meet up with their former school friends. I don’t have that with me in Korea. So, that’s what I miss the most — my friends.”
Although his schedule is pretty packed on the tour, he plans to try to see his friends. Being in L.A. reminds Joshua of his youth and a time when things were simpler.
“I tend to forget a lot of things about my roots because I’m so focused on what I’m doing now,” he says. “But when I go back to L.A. and spend time with my friends, it reminds me of all the good times I had in school and all the good times I had in L.A.”
In 2012, when he was 16, Joshua was approached by a K-pop scout at the Los Angeles Korean Festival, an annual festival celebrating Korean culture and food. He recalls feeling suspicious of the recruiter, who wanted him to film an audition tape to send to Pledis Entertainment, Seventeen’s label.
“It was shady at first because she gave me an address to a hotel,” he laughs. “I went to the hotel, and we filmed the video and sent it to the company. They told me we’ll give you a call back if they want you to come [to Korea].”
Though Joshua initially had reservations about moving to Korea, he figured he’d try it for a month. He did feel homesick many times during his training period. Initially thinking he would debut as an acoustic singer, he suddenly found himself in dance training for several hours daily (“I didn’t know I was going to dance at all because, at the time, the only music I sang or practiced was acoustic”). Though Joshua was not a trained dancer, he quickly caught on with the choreography. He still struggled with his fluency in Korean and with fitting into the culture. When he first met his fellow performers, he reached out to shake their hands while they traditionally bowed to greet each other. He once got in trouble for bowing to a company executive with his hand in his pocket, a major no-no in Korean culture.
“I came [to Korea] alone without anyone,” says Joshua. “My family were in L.A., so I felt very lonely. I felt like this would be tough. Everything’s a competition, so I don’t have anyone on my side. That’s how I felt.”
He credits his fellow Seventeen members and staff for helping him adjust to his new life in Seoul. “They were nice and helped me through the struggle. This helped me build my confidence and get rid of the loneliness and homesickness I had when I first came to Korea. It helped me.”
It’s why Joshua feels the group’s 12th mini-album, “Spill the Feels,” released Oct. 14, best reflects his journey from California to Seoul.
In K-pop, a mini-album typically contains four to seven songs. Similar to an EP, the mini-album allows for more songs to be released within a shorter period.
The album’s title is an anagram of “I Felt Helpless,” reflecting a transformative journey through their album concepts: feel blue, symbolizing the sense of helplessness and loneliness; feel new, symbolizing renewed emotions of positivity and liberation; and feel you, reflecting the solidarity and togetherness of the 13 members.
“I found my dreams in Korea,” Joshua agrees. “I would not have been able to do it alone because my members and I worked together towards one goal. We achieved this with the help of Carats [the group’s official fandom name]. [Even though] the struggles, everything has become so positive through us unifying together.”
Joshua’s return to L.A. excited to show his members around the city he grew up in. Los Angeles has been chosen to host Seventeen’s In The City official pop-up events.
Between Nov. 7 through Nov. 11, , Carats can visit a pop-up shop with exclusive Seventeen merchandise themed to the city, pre-party to K-pop and EDM music at Club Academy L.A., a rooftop party just for Carats, check out collaborated shops and restaurants, and see special digital billboards all over L.A. Other attractions includes the Santa Monica Pier’s Ferris wheel, which will be lit up in Seventeen’s official colors — rose, quartz and serenity.
“I used to go to these places when I was younger, so seeing it lit up in our colors is cool,” he says. “I’m definitely taking pictures and telling all my friends about it.”
Celebrating Seventeen’s arrival to Los Angeles, the L.A. City Council on Friday will honor the group with a certificate of appreciation for their contribution to music and youth empowerment. Joshua will be in attendance to pick up the award on behalf of the group.
Though the singer has no plans to move back to Los Angeles anytime soon, he’d like to try acting in Hollywood.
With films like “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Joshua is excited to see more Asian Americans cast as leads in movies and television, something he didn’t see growing up.
“I’ve been watching Netflix and all these programs, and we see more Asian Americans in this industry than when I was younger,” Joshua says. “It was cool for me to see that. It’s cool to see all the Asian American actors and actresses in Hollywood. I don’t know what my other dreams are in the future, but maybe I will go back to the U.S. and try auditioning or learn acting.”
He hasn’t thought about when he would pursue this, as the world tour continues through 2025.
However, it could be sooner rather than later, as several members plan for their mandatory South Korean military service, temporarily shifting the group’s dynamics. Fellow Seventeen member Jeonghan was the first to begin his military service in September.
Joshua and the other members are still able to perform as units or take leave to pursue solo activities. Chinese member Jun is currently on leave from the tour to pursue acting and other opportunities in his home country, but he will participate in group schedules when time permits.
Joshua remains tight-lipped about his future plans. Instead, he is focused on the world tour and seeing as many Carats as possible, especially in L.A.
“It’s my hometown,” he says. “It’s where my roots are. I’m proud to be from L.A. and part of Seventeen.”
For the most part, Joshua has retained his L.A. accent, smiling widely as he’s told he passed the pop quiz. He responds in the most L.A. way: nodding with a smile as he softly replies under his breath, “Cool.”
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