Lo and behold &mdash; witness the magic of Jackson Wang.

It&rsquo;s nearly impossible to go a day without hearing Jackson Wang&rsquo;s name or seeing his face. The star, who&rsquo;s had a whirlwind year &mdash; from collaborations with content creators across Asia to the launch of his latest album &mdash; is back to work in full swing after taking time off to prioritise his health. At the time of writing, Jackson Wang&rsquo;s MAGICMAN 2 has achieved great success, making a historic debut at #13 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart. This sets the highest debut record for any Chinese recording artist and surpasses his own 2022 record with MAGICMAN at #15.
With pre-released singles like High Alone and GBAD already earning impressive success, the album continues to build on the themes of solitude and self-doubt introduced in his 2022 Magic Man release, while venturing into deeper explorations of identity and self-acceptance.
&nbsp;During our shoot in Seoul &mdash; fresh from Paris Fashion Week, where he attended the Louis Vuitton Men&rsquo;s Fall/Winter 2025 show as a brand ambassador &mdash; Jackson remained laser focused throughout the ten-hour day. From creative direction to styling, the star was hands-on with every detail, shaping the vision as much as embodying it. At the end of the shoot, we sat down with the artist to reflect on his beginnings, unpack the stories behind each track on the new album and explore what lies ahead for this man in motion.

Let&rsquo;s take it back to the beginning &mdash; you began your career in a group, and now, you&rsquo;re focusing on your solo work. How is the transition like for you?
I debuted when I was 19, and obviously, I came from a system where I was told what I do. A lot of stuff was planned and strategically arranged to the point where I just needed to show up every single day, do my job and then leave. That became a cycle, but eventually, when I started my solo career, I was just exploring &mdash; it felt like the second time being a trainee, trying to figure out: What is my sound? What is my colour? What am I?
It was the last few years, right before I turned 30, that I started to think about what everything means. What does being an artist mean to me? What do I want to talk about? So I took a year off and started reflecting. Obviously, for over 10 years, I&rsquo;d been non-stop in a loop. I missed out on a lot in my 20s.
Through that one year, I got closer to myself. I started writing diaries, and there were a lot of questions I asked myself. For example, &ldquo;Am I the Jackson Wang that people know, or am I the one I think I am?&rdquo; It got to a point where I was like, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even know who I am anymore.&rdquo; So yeah, it was a good moment to take a break from everything. I started writing about what I wanted to say to my audience and how I feel about society, the industry, humanity and reality. And there you go &mdash; it&rsquo;s MAGICMAN 2.

You&rsquo;ve lived in various cities, and that has undeniably shaped you as a person. Is there a particular place or experience that had a profound impact on you?
I&rsquo;ve travelled so much ever since I was an athlete, and it got to a point where now, I don&rsquo;t feel like there&rsquo;s much difference. When people ask me where my home is, I say, &ldquo;Wherever my parents are.&rdquo; Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou are some of the places I would say impacted me as a person. Budapest and Sicily, too, where I lived for a couple of years when I was a fencer back then.

Let&rsquo;s talk about &ldquo;MAGICMAN 2&rdquo;. What does this project represent for you? How does it connect to &ldquo;Magic Man&rdquo;, and what sets it apart?
I think the entire Magic Man IP represents my internal ego, my internal emotions. It&rsquo;s like, for example, when I meet someone today, I&rsquo;m only meeting the surface &mdash; the skin of that person. I don&rsquo;t know who they are inside. And whoever is here, for me, that&rsquo;s where the keyword &ldquo;Magic Man&rdquo; comes in. It represents how I feel &mdash; everything I&rsquo;ve experienced over the past five or six years. I never took a break from that loop so taking that one year off was a good opportunity for reflection, to get closer to myself and to express how I truly feel about everything.
&nbsp;
I went through a lot of highs and lows in my 20s &mdash; a lot of dynamic ups and downs, obstacles in life. The objective of this album is to express, first, how I feel about everything. And second, how I recovered from it. In the end, it&rsquo;s just life &mdash; everyone is going through something. I&rsquo;m just sharing my personal experience, what happened to me and how I made it through.
&nbsp;
After turning 30, I&rsquo;ve become more neutral. I&rsquo;ve learnt that sometimes, good isn&rsquo;t always good, and bad isn&rsquo;t always bad. What&rsquo;s good without the bad? What&rsquo;s bad without the good? After maturing through all of that, I&rsquo;ve learnt to accept it and move on.

In the first &ldquo;Magic Man&rdquo;, there was a strong connection to the theme of inner journey and self-discovery. In this second chapter, have you explored a different theme compared to the first album?
In the first one, there was something I wasn&rsquo;t too happy with. I understand that as an album, Magic Man had a very clear narrative: find your magic, find your happiness, your standard of happiness. But a lot of the songs weren&rsquo;t built according to the narrative. Polo
&nbsp;
At that time, I was still exploring my sound. I was receiving songs, doing this and that&hellip; While everything was a package &mdash; the live shows, performances, narrative, visuals &mdash; it&rsquo;s there. But sonically, it wasn&rsquo;t. I feel like I had to go through that to land on MAGICMAN 2. In MAGICMAN 2, it might not be ear-candy songs, but it is real to me. It&rsquo;s 100% exactly what happened to me.

Are there any specific tracks on the album that hold a special meaning for you? And why?
Every single song is super meaningful to me. For this album, I created 40 to 50-plus songs, and I selected the essence and the highlights of that entire year &mdash; the songs that best represent what I want to say and how I feel. So every song has a message, and the album has been released.

&ldquo;High Alone&rdquo; opens with a powerful line: &ldquo;People only judge you for your past, but no one knows what&rsquo;s in your mind, until you do it.&rdquo; What do the lyrics represent in your journey?
Innovation is only innovation... until it succeeds. When it fails, it just becomes another case study on stability that nobody cares about. So like I said in the beginning of the song: &ldquo;People only judge you for your past, but no one knows what&rsquo;s in your mind &mdash; but you do. So do it&rdquo;

&ldquo;Not For Me&rdquo; delves deep into themes of rejection and self-worth. How did you channel your own experiences into this song?
I wrote that song from one of the diary entries I wrote. I thought I was living the life I wanted, with the people around me, the life I had always dreamed of. But in my gut, I felt super lonely, even with so many people around me every day. In that year of getting closer to myself, I kept digging deep into why. It&rsquo;s for a lot of reasons: not knowing enough about myself; losing that centre of myself; losing my standard; not giving enough room to myself; not loving myself enough.

&nbsp;&ldquo;Access&rdquo; revolves around control and boundaries. What does this song say about your relationship with fame and privacy?
Actually, I don&rsquo;t know. I think that&rsquo;s very subjective. I try to be as authentic and honest as possible with my community. Because you can&rsquo;t hide. The more you hide, the more people will eventually realise you&rsquo;re not who you say you are. So I might as well tell everyone how I really am. And I&rsquo;m becoming a better version of myself every single day. I feel like that&rsquo;s enough. That&rsquo;s my standard, and that&rsquo;s how I live.

Collaborating with Diljit Dosanjh on &ldquo;Buck&rdquo; is an interesting and unexpected crossover. How did this collaboration come about?
Three years ago, I performed at Coachella&rsquo;s Sahara Tent. He was the one who closed the night after my performance. I was watching his performance, and I thought, &ldquo;It&rsquo;d be amazing if one day I get to collab with this amazing artist.&rdquo; Two or three years later, while writing Buck, I thought, &ldquo;Hey, Diljit would sound fire on this track.&rdquo; I just DM&rsquo;d him. Luckily, he replied. He showed a lot of love and support. And that&rsquo;s how everything happened.

The teaser visual for &ldquo;GBAD&rdquo; &mdash; picturing you in the middle of a hollow body &mdash; is very memorable. What does this imagery symbolise in the context of the song?
Life is great. But a lot of times, we have no choice but to become the bad guy to protect our own will. And it&rsquo;s not wrong to do that, because people, in general, will take advantage of a lot of things.

How does &ldquo;Hate To Love&rdquo; reflect the push and pull between love and conflict from your point of view?
It&rsquo;s just another feeling I have toward humanity. Like I said, people don&rsquo;t love to hate, they just hate to love. Because it&rsquo;s easier to hate something than it is to love something. Loving takes more effort and time.

&ldquo;One Time&rdquo; seems to point towards a really specific moment or feeling. What was going through your mind when you created this track?
One Time is like a skit, an interlude. It highlights what daily life felt like for me back then. It was more like recalling those moments. Even the sound you hear on the track &mdash; it was real. It felt exactly like that. I even made it in a hotel room &mdash; because I&rsquo;m always travelling. I think it was at the end of Magic Man or the year after&hellip; that was my lowest point in life, up until now. So I recreated what those days felt like.

What does &ldquo;Everything&rdquo; mean to you?
Everything just felt like a song to myself &mdash; the first time I was talking. The first time me talking to my inner self Jackson Wang talking to Magic Man. Asking: Why did I give everything for this? Why do I still feel so miserable? Who&rsquo;s there to catch me when I&rsquo;m falling? It&rsquo;s like an internal conversation I had with myself.
I&rsquo;ve recovered and I&rsquo;m happy right now. That&rsquo;s what the album is trying to say &mdash; all these different chapters, emotional dynamics, everything. I&rsquo;m just sharing with my community: Hey, this is how I dealt with it, and I recovered. The entire message of the album is: live the magic, accept it and move on.

Who or what is &ldquo;Dear:&rdquo; addressed to, and what message does it convey?
It&rsquo;s another skit, another interlude. It&rsquo;s actually the intro to Sophie Ricky, a song I wrote for my parents. It&rsquo;s me writing a letter to them in my personal diary. All the audio you hear &mdash; they&rsquo;re voice memos from conversations that meant the most to me over the last six or seven years.
I went through everything and picked the moments &mdash; moments before I went on stage, moments when something bad happened, or when I was super happy. Whenever anything dynamic happened in my life, they were the first people I thought of. Those were all moments that changed me. So I went through the voice memos and selected the ones that meant the most. Yeah. That&rsquo;s how it relates to Sophie.

What would you like to say to your parents in &ldquo;Sophie Ricky&rdquo;?
I just feel like &mdash; especially coming from a traditional Chinese family &mdash; a lot of my friends, I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s this generation or my generation, or just the group of friends I was around&hellip; It seemed like it was pretty hard to tell your parents straight up that you love them. But for me, I say it every day. Life is short.
The song is also about how we&rsquo;re born into this world thinking our parents will take care of everything, but we never really think about it until a certain age. Do you think they were ready to be mum and dad when they had us? No. They had no idea. You think they never had dreams? You think they never went to parties or flirted with someone? Of course they did. They were just like us. And because we came into their lives, things changed. They made sacrifices.
As kids, we tend not to notice or even think about it until it&rsquo;s too late. So I always tell myself: I&rsquo;ll make sure I can tell my parents how much I love them, as much as possible. Physically, with gestures and through conversations.

What experiences or realisations does &ldquo;Made Me a Man&rdquo; encapsulate?
The reason I put it in the last spot is because everything that happened &mdash; Chapter one, two, three, four, whatever &mdash; the last part is that it all made me who I am today. A lot of things were meant to happen, and I&rsquo;m glad they did. I matured. I learned from my mistakes &mdash; from everything and everyone &mdash; and I accepted it. I moved on.
When I share this message and this album with everyone, I hope they find their own version of that. Everyone goes through the same thing differently, but the same. Everyone needs their own version of Magic Man to move on and get to know life.

You&rsquo;ve explored so many different avenues in your career &mdash; music, fashion, entrepreneurship. How do you manage to balance these passions, and is there anything you still feel you&rsquo;ve yet to accomplish?
I haven&rsquo;t thought about it. I was, I am, I will be &mdash; just doing whatever I feel like doing. Like I said, I want to do something different. What&rsquo;s been done has been done. To me, it&rsquo;s boring. Not saying I don&rsquo;t appreciate it &mdash; I do &mdash; but it&rsquo;s just not my personality. Like I said: innovation. That&rsquo;s the key term. That&rsquo;s my philosophy. And I&rsquo;m not there yet. Soon, soon.

Team Wang is a successful fashion brand. How do you merge your creative vision in fashion with your passion for music?
Art itself &mdash; whether it&rsquo;s music, fashion or whatever &mdash; is very subjective. That&rsquo;s the big umbrella where everything falls under. And I think art is, at least to me, about expressing. That&rsquo;s why anyone who falls under that art category is an artist. Everyone is so unique. It&rsquo;s about personality. It&rsquo;s about character. There&rsquo;s no right or wrong in art, if you think about it. It&rsquo;s just a matter of whether more people relate to it&hellip; or fewer people relate to it.

What are your dreams or goals for the next few years, both personally and professionally?
I want to be able to make a label, a company, an IP, or a platform &mdash; whatever you want to call it &mdash; and focus on experience. Focus on experience and innovation. I love to experience. Even just buying a T-shirt. Going for a walk in the park &mdash; everything. Life is about experience. So I hope in the near future to open up that IP. Yeah, that&rsquo;s my dream. And to do it ASAP, because someone important told me today: &ldquo;You will never be ready. So stop trying to be ready. You just gotta do the first step.&rdquo;

Finally, is there a message you want to share with your fans through &ldquo;MAGICMAN 2&rdquo;?
I&rsquo;ve never really written an album fully for myself before, and with MAGICMAN 2, this is how I truly feel inside, in every aspect. I want to share it with you. It&rsquo;s from my heart, and also for me, for myself. This is how I went through everything &mdash; the highs, the lows &mdash; and how I recovered. At the end of the day, it&rsquo;s just life. And it&rsquo;s about how we think. Whether we find our standard or not, it&rsquo;s okay to run into trouble, obstacles. Live the magic. Live the life based on your decisions. Yeah. Life is a box of good and bad. So find your version of that. Find your version of Magic, too.

Cover Credits:
Photography&nbsp;Rob Rusling Styling&nbsp;Takafumi Kawasaki Word Joan Kong Producers Dr. Calvin Choi and Jackson Wang Co-Producer Giampietro Baudo Production Team Aileen Soh, Joan Kong and Angel Fong Hair Lee Han Makeup Lee Ha Yeon Photography Assistants Choi Hong Seok, Koo Jae Ryeol, Lim Dong Jae, Yu Yeon Gyoung and Bae Kang Woo Styling Assistants Sofia Piras, Choi Jong Won and Lee Su Neon Tailors Shim Ji Yeon and Lee Chang Min Production Assistants Oh Seo Yul and Jang Eun Seo
&nbsp;

Cover Story: Jackson Wang can’t stop and won’t stop

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