Kim Gukhwan was born with cataract, so he was grown with a blurred eye. Even though he had no special musical talent like handling instruments well or having perfect pitch, he especially enjoyed and loved listening to and singing songs.
After winning a prize together with a junior student in the intramural song festival, his passion for music got bigger. Gukhwan’s musical life fully began when winning the gold prize together with his junior student in KBS Song Festival for the Disabled when he was the third grader of high school. 
The stage performance increased as he joined CCM team called ‘Good Neighbor’ in 2003. He grabbed attention from the media when making it to the finals of M-net audition program in 2009. Releasing a single album in the same year, he made his official debut in a program called ‘M Super Concert’. After that, he expanded the range of his activities in a team called ‘The Blind(Kim Gukhwan, Lee Hyeonhak, Jeong Myeongsoo, Kim Jiho)’. Currently, he continues his activities as a singer by exchanging with juniors with visual impairment through performance for improving the perception of the disabled. 

Growth through music 

As much as he wants to sing beautiful songs, he also wants to create beautiful songs. The first album ‘I can’t see’ is special to Gukhwan because it realized his dream of appearing on the broadcasting stage with his own song. There were some people who guessed from the song title that this song must be containing his personal experience, but actually, this song has more comprehensive message about love. 
After that, he created many songs. As he started singing a song under the theme of suicide preventive campaign, he got an extraordinary sense of duty as the activity of ‘The Blind’ could work as a tool for accelerating social changes. This song also contains a message of finding hopes even in the darkness based on the actual experience of a member of ‘The Blind’. To deliver the message in which there is a hope even in the darkness, all the members put their best effort into the lyrics of this song. 

Daily happiness 

It is not easy to support living as a performer of popular music, which has been fully experienced by himself. When initially taking the first step into the field of music, many people perceived visual impairment as handicap. However, he thinks that he was able to continue art activities because he was a visually-impaired person. What he wants is not an entertainer’s life in the spotlight, but a singing life itself. 
The massage technique learnt from school for the blind provides him with income. If he is not greedy, he can make a living. He worked as a health keeper in a company for a while. 
While working as a health keeper, he met with many great people including people felt sorry for getting massage, people who gave too much snack to him, people with children who gave baby products as present to him, and people who recognized his look on TV. 

He keeps singing.

Kim Gukhwan who was born in Singil-dong, Seoul of 1984, was visually impaired because of cataract obtained with his birth. When his father was a child, he fell down and injured his leg, which was left as a disability. His mother also has low vision while his five-year-older brother also has visual impairment. Even though the whole family has the issue of disabilities, everyone is living a stable life as a result of putting their best effort into every moment. 

Kim Gukhwan’s nine-year-old & seven-year-old daughters are his treasures. As his family life is stable, he can perform more sincere activities in the future. Moreover, recently, it is the perfect timing to perform activities as the perception of disabled artists has been improved. Kim Gukhwan is diligently getting ready to sing for the day of standing on the stage again.     

Kim Gukhwan
Gold Prize in KBS Song Festival for the Disabled  
Third place in Golden Concert of Japan 
Third place in the 3rd Kim Hyeonsik Song Festival 
Torch relay in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics & many celebratory performances