SHINee pays tribute to late member Jonghyun on his birth anniversary with unreleased pics

SHINee members paid their tributes to late member Kim Jong-hyun, popularly known as Jonghyun on April 8 on his birth anniversary, expressing how much they missed him on this day. 

Taking to Instagram, SHINee's rapper Choi Minho shared a BTS image from one of their performances and wrote - 'Happy birthday to my j’, adding- 'I always miss you' in Korean.

Key, on the other hand, shared a picture of Jonghyun that he had personally clicked saying '‘I said I’d take a picture of your outfit, was it that exhausting', pointing to the singer's poker face in the image.

The K-pop band's official page managed by SM Entertainment also shared a photo of the late singer from one of his performances on his birth anniversary which drew thousands of fans to wish the late musician.

How did Jonghyun die?

Back in 2017, Jonghyun's death had sent shockwaves across the K-pop industry and had brought to light what netizens began calling the 'dark side' of Kpop riddled with insurmountable pressures of being an 'idol'. The 27-year-old singer was reportedly found unconscious at a private hotel in Seoul on December 18, 2017, and is said to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning through slow-burning coal briquettes. His last rites had gathered unprecedented national and international media coverage with many celebrities such as the BTS and fellow members of SM Entertainment EXO, Girl's Generation, Super Junior, BoA, and other fans attending the three-day public funeral. 

His farewell note was made public the following day which revealed the crushing burden the Korean pop star felt from being an idol. He wrote, “I am broken from inside. The depression that had been slowly eating me up finally devoured me and I couldn’t defeat it”. 

For the unversed, K-pop band SHINee also recently made their comeback after two years by releasing their album titled Don’t Call Me on February 22. The band which consists of Taemin, Onew, Key and Minho is now gearing up for the release of their upcoming repackaged album titled Atlantis.