Tao
EXO member Tao celebrates his 22nd birthday on Saturday, 2 May.Facebook/Tao

Tao, one of the Chinese members of K-Pop boy band EXO, celebrates his 22nd birthday on Saturday, 2 May.

Born in 1993 at Qingdao, Shandong, the celeb began his journey through the world of music at a very young age and won recognition at Beijing's 3rd Annual Collage Street Jam, where he bagged the "Top Rap Award".

The "Call Me Baby" singer joined popular South Korean record label SM Entertainment as a trainee in 2010 and was introduced to the public on 27 December, 2011.

Although he is the main rapper of the South Korean-Chinese boy band, he was away from all the promotional activities of the group's second album "EXODUS" due to the injuries he sustained during the team's "EXO'luXion" concert in Seoul.

His absence triggered speculations that the celeb is planning to terminate his contract with the record label, since he was doing a number of Chinese projects, including "With You Down The Road", "Ding Ge Long Dong Qiang", and "He Yi Sheng Xiao Mo". Meanwhile, he is also said to be close to Chinese celebrity Huang Xiaoming.

Last month, there was a buzz that the boy band member would be joining Huayi Brothers, but it was denied by the company. "So it is possible for false news to sell like this. It seems like someone has an ulterior motive. We're just quietly filming movies here," SM Entertainment said.

In order to prove speculations of his exit from SM Entertainment wrong, Tao will reportedly make a public appearance in a Chinese show called "Baidu Tieba" on 2 May, which will be live streamed at 4:47pm Beijing time. He will also promote his upcoming movie "You Are My Sunshine" during the occasion and interact with his fans and answer their queries, according to Koreaboo.