Yixing Zhang

Biography

Zhang Yixing (simplified Chinese: 张艺兴; traditional Chinese: 張藝興, pinyin: Zhāng Yìxīng), better known as Lay, is a Chinese singer-songwriter, record producer, author, dancer, and actor. He is a member and one of the main dancers of the South Korean-Chinese boy group EXO and its sub-unit EXO-M. He first became known after participating in the Chinese TV talent show Star Academy in 2005. In January 2015, Lay was ranked 5th on Baidu's "2014 Top 10 Most Popular Celebrities" list. In September 2015, he released his autobiography titled Standing Firm at 24, which broke several online book records. In July 2016, Lay was appointed by the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) of Changsha as the publicity ambassador, the first celebrity to hold such a title. On October 28, 2016, Lay released his mini-album Lose Control in both South Korea and China. The EP was a commercial success peaking at number 1 on the Gaon Album Chart as well as number 4 on Billboard's US World Albums chart and made him the first Chinese artist to enter the iTunes Top 60.