Jungkook, the golden-voiced singer who charmed the world with BTS, has never been a slouch when it comes to giving things his all. In documentaries focused on the boyband over the years, you’ll frequently find shots of their youngest member beating himself up for what he perceives to be mistakes and lacking moments, barely detectable to those in his audience. It’s no surprise, then, that early in I Am Still, his first solo docufilm, we find him fretting about whether he’ll be able to complete his planned schedule and live up to the expectations surrounding him.
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“I was worried sick,” he explains about the recording session for ‘Seven’ with producer Andrew Watt. “And to be honest, I wasn’t confident either. As the vocalist of BTS, I was worried that the producer would be disappointed after my recording. I guess I wanted to prove myself.” It’s classic Jungkook – always wanting to be and do his best and pressuring himself to make that a reality – and a glimpse into his journey in creating his debut solo album ‘Golden’.
I Am Still completes that path for viewers, taking us from those early recording sessions right up until just before the star enlisted for his mandatory military service at the end of 2023. Here are five things we learned along the way.
For Jungkook, pride is an external force
It’s not unusual for artists to insist that the music they make is for themselves and if anyone else likes it, it’s a bonus – so much so, that hackneyed line has become something of a cliché in the music world. Thankfully, Jungkook’s feelings are quite the opposite. “I should not only like the job or the work that I do,” he says in the dark of a nocturnal car journey at the start of work on ‘Golden’. “It shouldn’t end there.” For the singer, his internal approval and satisfaction only get him part of the way to feeling content with what he’s made – that can only be completed with other people. “Others should approve of it, too. That’s how it should be. That way, I’d feel proud.”
He finds some of that pride via monitoring social media
I Am Still captures not just the making of ‘Golden’ but the major performances around the singles and record, from Good Morning America in Central Park and The One Show to Jungkook’s surprise appearance in New York’s Times Square and his ‘Golden’ showcase in Seoul. After many, we see the singer wrapping things up by scrolling through social media, reading fan comments and watching clips of his performances.
“I’ll see if I did well through the reactions,” he says as he’s walking off stage from Global Citizen Festival, the camera cutting to him in the back of a car on his phone, exclaiming with a big grin on his face: “What a relief!” Later, after Times Square, he sprawls across a hotel bed, carefully studying his screen, his name written in Hangul visible in the search bar. “I wish I could do another performance like today’s,” he smiles as he puts the phone down and closes his eyes.
Working on ‘Golden’ showed him his love of being part of a team
Jungkook may have already long been a superstar by the time ‘Golden’ was released in 2023 but, as his first solo album, it also brought him new experiences – including promoting on his own. That time tackling things on his own gave him some revelations, as he shares on his way to film the ‘Standing Next To You’ video in Budapest. “I realised a lot of things when I was promoting solo,” he explains. “‘I was doing this role in the team’ or ‘I guess I miss being in a team a lot’, ‘Being part of a team was super fun’. I learned a lot of things by being by myself.” Even when his bandmates aren’t by his side, BTS is never far from his mind and he likened his time making the album to a period in the group’s history just before their popularity went stratospheric: ‘The Most Beautiful Moment In Life’.
He accepts failure as a necessary part of growth
Failure doesn’t feel like something that Jungkook has had much experience with in his career – at least not on a grand scale. As a member of BTS, he’s sold out stadiums around the world, broken swathes of records and touched the hearts of millions. As a soloist, he’s continued that work with ‘Golden’, too. Were the record to have “failed” – or if Jungkook were to experience failure in the future – it feels like he would take it in his stride and use it to learn from. “If I keep on growing, growing and improving, and experience failure now and then, then I’ll be stronger and more solid,” he reasons as he reflects on his year of working on his debut solo record.
Producer Pdogg thinks Jungkook is a genius – but he’s not so sure
“Basically, I personally think he’s just a genius, a natural,” Pdogg, BTS’ longtime producer, says in a talking head segment. His compliments to Jungkook continue, highlighting the power in his voice, his “natural talent” and his ability to pick “up on a song’s moods” faster than anyone else. “He’s really good at making the songs his own,” the producer continues. “As I see it, Jungkook is, simply put, the epitome of pop.”
As humble as ever, the singer disagrees. “I don’t think I’m a genius. I’ve never thought of myself as a genius,” he counters with a laugh immediately after. Where Pdogg – and others – might think incredibly highly of Jungkook, the star himself reasons he’s just “hiding what I’m lacking as much as I can”. Clearly, it’s an approach that’s working well.
Jungkook: I Am Still is out now in cinemas