Hyuna ( 현아 )
This is a Korean name; the family name is
Kim.
Kim Hyuna (born June 6, 1992), known as
Hyuna or
HyunA, is a South Korean idol, singer, songwriter, dancer,
rapper, designer, model, and a member of the Korean
girl group 4Minute,
Trouble Maker under
Cube Entertainment. She describes her own solo career as "performance-oriented music".
and duo
She is also a former member of the
girl group Wonder Girls, having left them in 2007 She is notable for her solo career outside of her girl group and her cameo appearance in
Psy's "
Gangnam Style", later on featuring in the women's perspective follow-up, "
Oppa Is Just My Style".
Hyuna was born on June 6, 1992 in
Seoul,
South Korea. She attended Choongam Middle School and Korea High School of Music and Arts and currently attends
Konkuk University, majoring in art culture, receiving special admission to the school.
Originally, Hyuna's Hanja name was supposed to be "泫我". (simplified
Chinese: 泫我; traditional Chinese: 泫我; pinyin: Xuàn Wǒ). However, her
Chinese teacher told her that it sounded weird in
Mandarin
and recommended her to adopt "泫雅" (simplified Chinese: 泫雅; traditional
Chinese: 泫雅; pinyin: Xuàn Yǎ) as her name for promotional activities in
Taiwan. Hyuna agreed to the change after commenting that "泫雅" sounded adorable.
2007: Wonder Girls
In 2007, Hyuna made her debut with the
Wonder Girls, a
girl group managed by
JYP Entertainment, as the group's main rapper. She participated in the songs of the group's debut album
The Wonder Begins, released in February 2007.
She was a part of the group's television shows
MTV Wonder Girls for two seasons, and co-hosted with Wonder Girls'
Sohee and
Fly to the Sky singer
Brian Joo at
Show! Music Core from from May 12 to June 30.
[citation needed]
In July, Hyuna left Wonder Girls,
when she was removed by her parents due to their concern over her health—in particular, chronic
gastroenteritis and fainting spells.
In 2008, she transferred to
Cube Entertainment.
Subsequently, Hyuna joined girl group
4Minute. Announced in May 2009, the group debuted with the single, "
Hot Issue" on 15 June.
2009: Collaborations
Hyuna collaborated with
Lee Gi-kwang for the song "2009" from his debut album
First Episode: A New Hero,
and she also appeared in his first single "Dancing Shoes"'s music video
which was released on March 30, 2009. On August 13, 2009 she rapped for
Navi's song "Wasteful Tears" and she also appeared in the MV for this
song. Hyuna also appeared in Mighty Mouth's music video for "Love Class"
with
Uee from
After School.
On August 18, 2009 Hyuna featured for
Brave Brothers together with Maboos, Red Roc, Basick & M for his song "Bittersweet".
She became part of the "Dream Team Girl Group" for Samsung's Anycall
called "4 Tomorrow". Their first digital single "Tomorrow" was released
on October 6, 2009, and the official music video was released on October
12, starring actor
Lee Dong Gun, who also starred in each member's individual drama version of the video.
Hyuna's version was released on October 27, 2009. The Dream Team was composed of Hyuna (4Minute),
Seung Yeon (
Kara),
Uee (
After School) &
Gain (
Brown Eyed Girls).
Hyuna was also part of
Invincible Youth,
a South Korean variety show. However, she left the show due to some
scheduling conflicts with her group's overseas promotions on 11 June
2010.
2010: Solo debut and controversy
On January 4, 2010, Hyuna released the single "
Change" which debuted high on various online charts while also becoming a top search term.
Hyuna commenced promotions for "Change".
The song reached #14 on the Gaon 2010 digital yearly charts with 2,469,354 copies sold.
On January 14, 2010, the "Change" music video was flagged with a 19+
rating due to Hyuna's provocative dancing, citing it to be inappropriate
to minors. Cube Entertainment stated that the music video would be
re-edited and submitted for approval. However, broadcast station
SBS, announced the music video would be restricted for a 15+ audience instead, and
MBC announced that it would still be viewable for all audiences.
Her "Change" promotions ended in March 2010.
On February 10, Hyuna released a digital single, "Love Parade", featuring
T-MAX's member Park Yun-hwa.
On April 16, Hyuna released another digital single, "Outlaw in the Wild
(Korean: 황야의 무법자)", featuring Nassun, and produced by
E-Tribe.
On October 14, 2010, Hyuna played a cameo role in the thriller movie
Midnight FM along with fellow band member
Jihyun.
She also rapped a duet with
G.NA
called "Say You Love Me", in which she wrote/composed the rap lyrics of
the song and became a hot topic on Korean portal sites. The duet was
released on November 10, 2010.
2011: Bubble Pop! and Trouble Maker
CEO Hong Seungsong of
Cube Entertainment
announced that Hyuna would make a comeback with her first mini-album in
May, 2011. He stated that, "Hyuna will have her second solo song which
is expected to be released in May. Though this time, fans should expect a
radical change in her concept."
Hyuna was featured in
SS501's
Heo Young-saeng's title track "Let It Go" from his first solo mini album,
Let It Go released on May 12, 2011.
Hyuna appeared in the Korean version of
Dancing with the Stars. The show started broadcasting on June 10.
After several teasers, Hyuna released her first mini album, titled
Bubble Pop!
featuring five new songs, with a title track titled "Bubble Pop!". The
MV teaser for "Bubble Pop!" was released on June 30, 2011 and the music
video was released on July 5. The MV also stars
MBLAQ's
Lee Joon.
In August, the Korea Communications Standards Commission partially
banned TV broadcasting of the video for allegedly racy content.
On September 28, 2011, Hyuna ranked 17th on
Billboard's ’21 Under 21′, showcasing the staff’s top picks for the world’s hottest underage stars.
On November 24, 2011, Cube revealed that she will be in a co-ed sub-unit called
Trouble Maker with
BEAST's
Hyunseung.
Trouble Maker's first mini album,
Trouble Maker,
consists of a dance track as well as an emotional ballad, a solo song
for Hyuna, and a solo song for Hyunseung. The unit started revealing
their teaser photos on November 25 through their official YouTube
channel "troublemakerofficial", and unleashed their album on December 1.
Hyuna’s “Bubble Pop” was No.9 and No.3 on USA's
Spin magazine’s “Best 20 Songs of 2011″ and "SPIN's Favorite Pop Tracks of 2011".
2012: Ice Cream
On February 12, 2012 it was revealed that "
The Birth of a Family" Season 2 will follow up with Hyuna and singer G.NA.
Birth of a Family
is an "animal communion variety" program where idols adopt stray pets
and take care of them for a certain period of time to raise awareness
for animal rights. Hyuna and
G.NA
will be taking care of a pet and raising it for a period of 2 months.
The first episode with the two singers will be broadcast on March 3.
On March 14, 2012 was revealed that Hyuna will be launching her own fashion brand called,
Hyuna x SPICYCOLOR.
Hyuna x SPICYCOLOR will be a "retro, chic, and sexy" concept, pulling
inspiration from the vintage looks of the 1950s and 1960s. Hyuna intends
to be highly involved, starting from the concept development, design,
as well as directing the photo shoots. Hyuna stated, "Although as an
artist I did show a lot of sexy concepts, for this brand which will be
launching at the end of March, I worked very hard to deliver styles that
are not only sexy, but also fashionable and stylish. For this spring,
if you own a single item mixed with lace, anyone can easily complete a
trendy look."
Hyuna also appeared as the central female dancer and love interest in the
Psy music video for "
Gangnam Style," having been selected personally by Psy during the initial production stage.
Psy released the female version of Gangnam Style, known as "
Oppa Is Just My Style" in August 2012, featuring additional vocals by Hyuna.
Hyuna released her second mini album titled
Melting
on October 21, 2012 with the title track "Ice Cream". The song was
produced by mega hitmaker Brave Brothers, being the first collaborative
effort between the producer and Hyuna as a solo artist.
The video for Ice Cream was released on October 22, 2012 and features a cameo by Psy.
Four days after release, the music video tied the record for the
K-pop music video to achieve ten million views on YouTube the fastest. The record is now held by both
Girls' Generation's "
The Boys"
in addition to "Ice Cream". This achievement is especially notable
because it even exceeds Psy's attachment rate for his viral hit,
"Gangnam Style", which took fifteen days to acquire the same number of
views.
Melting is also notable for Hyuna's contributions as a lyricist and composer for "Very Hot" and "To My Boyfriend".
In October, reports suggested that "Very Hot" from Hyuna's second EP
Melting was banned by television networks
KBS and
MBC. The networks objected to the use of the brand
KakaoTalk.
And she expressed her opinion on TV.
On November 14 was revealed that Hyuna with
Hara &
Hyolyn have been chosen to be soju models for Lotte Liquor.
On the October 21, 2012 episode of
Inkigayo, the live music show revealed a teaser video hinting that twenty of the most-wanted
K-pop stars would transform into four new project groups in the yearly event. Hyuna will be part of the
super idol group Dazzling Red with
Sistar's
Hyolin,
Secret's
Hyosung,
After School's
Nana and
Kara's
Nicole.
Brave Brothers is set to produce the group's new title song. Slated to
air on December 29, the group will perform the tunes only one time on
stage and the profits from online streaming and downloading of the songs
would be donated to people in need.
The song "This Person" was released on December 27, 2012.
On December 28, 2012 Hyuna was featured in
Eru digital single "Don't Hurt".
2013
On February 18, 2013 Hyuna has been chosen as the new model for casual fashion brand
G by Guess, with a concept of ‘Fun design with sexy style‘.
On March 7, 2013 Hyuna became a Spokesmodel For
Toyota Corolla. Hyuna released for Toyota a new song called "My Color". The Teaser for the Music Video was released on March 8, 2013.
The Full Music Video was released on March 12, 2013. She appeared in Korea SNL TV program on April 27.
On May 24, Hyuna as G by Guess's spokesperson and makeup artist SON
& PARK launched charitable activities "KISS OF HOPE". G by Guess
launched "KISS OF HOPE" package in which all the income will be donated
to the education of children in poor countries
On October 4, was revealed that Trouble Maker will make an comeback. A
representative said, "We have established their comeback as Trouble
Maker to be made on the October 24 episode of Mnet's 'M! Countdown'. As
it has been a while since they were active as a unit, the both of them
are fully engaged in practice and very nervous."
Personal life
Hyuna has a tattoo on her left shoulder that says, "My mother is the heart that keeps me alive."
She later revealed other tattoos, one on her right inner arm reading
"Tempus", which means ‘time’ in Latin, and another on her lower back
which reads "Fatum", meaning 'fate'.
