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David Choi (born March 22, 1986) is a Korean-American singer, songwriter, producer, music composer, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and a member of parody K-pop group BgA based in Los Angeles. He has worked with companies such as Kellogg's, Starburst, the American Cancer Society, General Electric, Samsung, and J. C. Penney.
David is also the founder and CEO of CHOIS MUSIC, INC, CHOIS MUSIC, INC an independent music label, publisher, rights management service provider, that helps to manage and administer music catalogs on behalf of their clients.
Choi released his debut album, Only You, in October 2008. His second album, By My Side, was released on May 19, 2010, and his third album, Forever and Ever was released on October 25, 2011. On February 15, 2015, he released his fourth album Stories of You's and Me.
As of September 14, 2021, Choi's YouTube Channel has 949,000 subscribers, 111 million total video views, and more than 13 million channel views. As of November 2011, he was YouTube's 15th-most-subscribed musician and 62nd-most-subscribed user overall.
Choi previously worked as a songwriter and producer at Warner/Chappell Music, which signed him on after his participation in an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) workshop called the Lester Sill Workshop.
His humorous "YouTube, A Love Song", which helped launch his singing career, was featured on the homepage of YouTube in 2006, and has received over 2.8 million views. The music videos for his singles "Won't Even Start" and "That Girl", which are posted on both his and directors' Wong Fu Productions' YouTube channels, have received a total of over 13 million views. He also posts non-music on his second channel. Choi often appears in online videos with fellow YouTube personalities, like Ryan Higa and Wong Fu Productions, who often use Choi's music in their videos.
Choi co-founded a tech company called Takko in 2020, a platform for asynchronous video chatting, which had the backing of notable investors like NEA, Dreamer's VC, Mucker Capital, and Canaan. His startup was acquired in 2023.
At a young age, Choi was required to play the piano and violin, an experience that he did not enjoy. In fact, Choi would get in trouble with his parents for not practicing. He does not remember much about practicing his violin; however, he does recall wanting to smash it several times. The Internet star says that his hate for practicing made him hate everything about the violin and piano to the point where he even began to hate music itself. Even though it was not his favorite thing to do, Choi does admit that it was nice when he got to leave class twice a week to attend his orchestra class. Choi says that class was easier for him than it was for some of the other kids because he had already covered some of the material through his private lessons. The unlikely musician thus became the concertmaster of his school orchestra. He would play classical and jazz music, and never being exposed a pop song until sixth grade, when he heard Smash Mouth's "All Star". Soon after, he discovered "All the Small Things" by blink-182 and attempted to play the song on guitar. Choi began to listen to more and more pop songs and fell in love with the Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, and Japanese pop. In junior high Choi would stay up late listening to the radio, recording the songs and began to make his own mix tapes. Choi then began to write his own songs and his first instrumental piece was a song titled "Lost Memory", written on the piano. Even after discovering pop music Choi stayed in the school orchestra. Pressured by his parents, Choi was forced to audition for the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) orchestra. Choi rehearsed with this orchestra every Tuesday.
Choi eventually stopped taking violin lessons in high school, and started jazz piano lessons in ninth grade. He began composing music, and won his first accolade after submitting an instrumental pop song entitled "I'm Really Happy When" for a contest.
In 2005, Choi won the grand prize in David Bowie's Mashup contest, where Bowie chose the grand prize winner. He appeared in USA Weekend alongside Usher, after he received the grand prize for the magazine's John Lennon Songwriting Contest for teens. These achievements marked the start of Choi's musical career: He was signed to Warner Chappell Music, where he was initially placed as a staff songwriter and producer.
David's humorous "YouTube (A Love Song)", was uploaded on December 30, 2006, and brought him "overnight" fame. Choi followed the success of "YouTube (A Love Song)" with other humorous and heartfelt songs, such as "By My Side" and "I Think I Like You": "My Company" is considered a "half-humorous, half-love" song. Unbeknownst to him, his YouTube love song was posted on the homepage of YouTube. He found out when a friend told him. He soon received requests for new songs, a live performance, and an album. He wanted to release his songs in an album, but as he was already technically a signed songwriter/producer at that time: He had to go through legal procedures and accept a variety of contractual conditions. Thus, he left Warner and stayed unsigned to carry on with his own album release.
On January 14, 2014, he released the Indonesian-English version of By My Side with Indonesian singer Maudy Ayunda. The lyrics were translated with the help of book writer-musician, Dewi Lestari.
In August 2010, Choi went to Singapore for vacation and to tour. He was there for eleven days, and on his vacation day, he went to Sentosa and Night Safari. David Choi in Singapore « David Choi | Official Site | Shows | Pictures | Videos . Davidchoimusic.com. Retrieved on 2012-02-21. In 2011, he went on a short tour around North America again: "Spring Tour" included Houston, Chicago, and Hawaii. He also frequented Korea.
In summer 2011, Choi announced another tour – his first continental Asia-Pacific tour (with a focus on Southeast Asia). He went to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. In Australia, Choi was supported by Australian acts Amelia Jae and Jayesslee. In Singapore, he had Inch Chua do introductory songs and sing his and Kina Grannis' "My Time With You". Again on this tour, Choi went to small venues, like the 245-capacity Esplanade Recital Studio.
On his tours, Choi has meet-and-greet sessions with his fans.Melissa Tan David Choi, offline . channelnewsasia.com. June 24, 2011
In January 2012, Choi announced his Forever and Ever USA/Canada tour. He went to 20 cities across the US and Canada, starting in Phoenix on February 2 and ending in Chicago on April 2. In May, Choi started on his third tour to the Asia-Pacific: Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo. In September 2012, he and Clara Chung embarked on their Fall Tour presented by YesStyle, visiting 19 cities all over the US and Canada, starting in Los Angeles and ending in Orange County.
He often uses happy melodies, for example in "Something to Believe" and "My Time with You".
| "My Time With You"(with Kina Grannis) |
| "Something To Believe Up In Da Club – Part 4 – Wong Fu Productions – YouTube . Youtube.com (February 20, 2009). Retrieved on 2012-02-21. |
| "Something To Believe" |
| "Something To Believe" |
| "Won't Even Start" "Happiness is Always Near" Episode 9 – Playful Kiss – in English subtitles – Watch Korean TV – ViKi . Viikii.net (June 7, 2011). Retrieved on 2012-02-21. |
| "Something To Believe" |
| "Love"Episode 4 |
| "My Time With You"(with Kina Grannis) |
| "Something To Believe" |
| "Happiness Is Always Near" |
| "Enjoy The View" |
| "So Weightless" Strangers, again – YouTube . Youtube.com (April 20, 2011). Retrieved on 2012-02-21. |
| "By My Side" "Won't Even Start" "Thief in the Night" "Heaven's Ease" |
| "Happily Ever After" "해피 몽땅" "My Time With You" |
| "By My Side" [CF] Samsung Zipel Grandstyle 840-Zipel_30s – YouTube. Youtube.com. Retrieved on 2012-02-21. |
| "Only You" |
| "I Choose Happiness" |
| "Something to Believe" |
| "Enjoy The View" |
| "Something To Believe" |
| "By My Side" |
| "By My Side" |
| "Always Hurt" |
| "By My Side" |
| "Enjoy the View" |
| 2004 | David Bowie | "Big Shakin' Car" (Mashup of "Shake it" and "She'll Drive a Big Car") | N/A | |
| John Lennon Songwriting Contest | Himself | Teens | ||
| Songwriter Universe Song of the Month | "Anything You Want" | February |
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