kai was the first exo's member to be formally presented to the public on december 23, 2011. along with luhan, chen and tao made their first television performance at the sbs gayo daejun event on december 29 of the same year. in april. it officially debuted with the extended play, "mama". still in april, along with baekhyun, chanyeol and sehun, appeared in the video of girls' generation-tts's debut song "twinkle". on october 16, it was announced that he would participate in the 6-member dance group younique unit, alongside eunhyuk, hyoyeon, taemin, henry lau and luhan performing the song "maxstep" for the album "pyl younique album", being an album collaboration between sm entertainment and hyundai. a video teaser of the song was shown on the "pyl younique show" the next day. in december 2012, along with lay, yunho, eunhyuk, donghae, minho and taemin, they formed the sm performance group the performance. the group's first appearance was at the sbs gayo daejun event on december 29, with the release of the single "spectrum" the next day.