Huang Zitao
| Huang Zitao | |
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Huang Zitao at the Ports 1961 Opening Ceremony in Shanghai in 2015
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| Background information | |
| Chinese name | 黄子韬 |
| Pinyin | Huáng Zǐtāo (Mandarin) |
| Born |
May 2, 1993 Qingdao, Shandong, China |
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| Years active | 2012–present |
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| Alma mater | Qingdao Foreign Service Vocational School |
Huang Zitao (Chinese: 黄子韬; pinyin: Huáng Zǐtāo; Korean: 타오, 황 지타오; Japanese: タオ, 黄子韜; born May 2, 1993), better known as Tao, is a Chinese rapper, singer-songwriter, actor, and martial artist. He is a former member of the South Korean-Chinese boy group EXO and its sub-group EXO-M, having filed a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment and left the group in 2015. That year, he made his solo debut with the three-track, digitally released mini-album T.A.O, under the new stage name Z.Tao. This debut album proceeded to break digital sales records by selling a total of 670,000 copies within its first week of release.
Huang Zitao was born in Qingdao, Shandong, China. As a child, he undertook Wushu training, and became a student athlete. In late 2010, he reluctantly accompanied a friend to an MBC Star Audition which was hosting a global talent search and was immediately scouted by a representative from S.M. Entertainment.
According to a music teacher in Shandong Qingdao No.47 Middle School—the school Zitao attended—he was a really shy student who began opening up and becoming popular with his schoolmates after partaking in the school's mini music concert every semester. That same teacher encouraged him to go down the musical path. Headmaster Wei Tie Ying also made a comment on Zitao, saying that he would come to him to state his own thoughts and opinions when being encountered by a problem in school. Zitao's hobbies varied in: singing, dancing, basketball, photography, wushu, etc. Ye Zi, once a dance instructor of his, mentioned, "But actually what he loves doing the most would be Wushu and playing the guitar." He stated, "He was always quiet during break time, he doesn’t really talk much, and always plays his guitar by the window alone."
On December 27, 2011, Zitao was formally introduced as the third member of Exo, with the stage name Tao, through a teaser posted on S.M. Entertainment's official YouTube channel. He made his first appearance at the SBS Gayo Daejeon event on December 29. In the following years, EXO was met with global success as a group.
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