Hyuna

Kim Hyun-ah (born June 6, 1992), better known by the mononym Hyuna, stylized as HyunA, is a South Korean singer, dancer, songwriter and model. She was previously a member of the Korean girl group 4Minute, and was one of the first five original members of Wonder Girls. She is one-half of the musical duo Trouble Maker, and has also led a successful solo career.
Hyuna first rose to fame in the Korean Wonder Girls, before she left in 2007 for health reasons. In 2008, she signed with Cube Entertainment and subsequently debuted with 4Minute a year later. Their debut single, "Hot Issue", was immediately successful as it grabbed attention from the public even before their debut stage. She has a notable solo career, having several hit songs such as "Bubble Pop" and "Red". She is also well known for her appearance in Psy's worldwide hit "Gangnam Style", which also led to a successful duet rendition of the song. She describes her solo career as "performance-oriented music".

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.

Hyuna's Hanja name is "泫我". However, her Chinese teacher told her that it sounded bizarre in Mandarin (pinyin: Xuàn Wǒ, it could be translated as "I weep") and recommended she adopt the characters "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.

2006–08: Wonder Girls

Wonder Girls performing "Irony" at Hanyang University on May 9, 2007. Left to right: Sohee, Hyuna, Yeeun, Sunye and Sunmi.

In 2006, Hyuna made her debut with the Wonder Girls at age 14, a girl group managed by JYP Entertainment, as the group's main rapper. She participated in the group's debut mini 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 Show! Music Core with Wonder Girls' Sohee and Fly to the Sky singer Brian Joo from May 12 to June 30. Hyuna left Wonder Girls in July, 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. Hyuna then debuted as part of the girl group 4Minute. Announced in May 2009, the group debuted with the single, "Hot Issue" on June 15.

2009–10: 4Minute and solo career beginnings

4Minute performing at Dongguk University in 2009. From left to right: Gayoon, Ji-yoon, Hyun-a, So-hyun, Ji-hyun.

Hyuna collaborated with Lee Gi-kwang on the song "2009" from his debut album First Episode: A New Hero, and also appeared in the music video of his single "Dancing Shoes," which was released on March 30, 2009. On August 13 she rapped for Navi's song "Wasteful Tears" and she also appeared in its music video. Hyuna also appeared in Mighty Mouth's music video for "Love Class" with Uee from After School. Hyuna also featured in Brave Brothers' song "Bittersweet," released August 18. She became part of the "Dream Team Girl Group," a promotional group for Samsung's Anycall phone with Seung Yeon (Kara), Uee (After School) & Gain (Brown Eyed Girls). 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. Hyuna's individual version of the music video was released on October 27. 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 June 11, 2010.

4Minute performing at the 2010 Asia Song Festival on October 23, 2010.

On January 4, 2010, Hyuna released the single "Change" which debuted high on various online charts and promoted it on music shows. The song reached No. 14 on the Gaon 2010 digital yearly charts with 2,469,354 copies sold. Ten days later, on January 14, the "Change" music video was flagged with a 19+ rating by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family for being inappropriate for 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. Hyuna's "Change" promotions ended in March 2010. On February 10, Hyuna released a digital single, "Love Parade", featuring T-max's member Park Yun-hwa. Two months later, on April 16, Hyuna released another digital single, "Outlaw in the Wild (Korean: 황야의 무법자)", featuring Nassun, and produced by E-Tribe. She went on to play a cameo role in the thriller movie Midnight FM with 4Minute member Jihyun on October 14, 2010. She also rapped a duet with G.NA called "Say You Love Me", in which she wrote and composed the rap lyrics of the song. The duet was released on November 10, 2010.

2011–12: Bubble Pop, Melting and Trouble Maker

HyunA at the GEEKSHOP opening party on November 8, 2012.

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". Its music video was released on July 5. The music video guest 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′, a staff-compiled list of notable young acts. The list included other young stars such as Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus. On November 24, 2011, Cube revealed that she would be in a co-ed 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. Their EP was released on December 1. Hyuna's "Bubble Pop" was ninth place on Spin magazine's "Best 20 Songs of 2011."

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. The first episode was broadcast March 3. On March 14, Hyuna announced the launch of her brand Hyuna x SPICYCOLOR. Hyuna also appeared in Psy's viral 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 Brave Brothers and was 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" and "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" was banned by television networks KBS and MBC. The networks objected to the use of the brand KakaoTalk. In the same month, on an episode of Inkigayo, the live music show revealed a teaser video hinting that twenty K-pop stars would transform into four new project groups for the 2012 SBS Gayo Daejeon. Hyuna was part of the super idol group "Dazzling Red" with Sistar's Hyolin, Secret's Hyoseong, After School's Nana and Kara's Nicole. Brave Brothers produced the group's title song, the profits of which were donated to people in need. On November 14, it was revealed that Hyuna, Hara, and Hyolyn had been chosen to be soju models for Lotte Liquor. The song "This Person" was released on December 27, 2012. The following month, on December 28, Hyuna was featured in Eru digital single "Don't Hurt".

2013–15: Chemistry, A Talk and A+

HyunA performing at the 2013 Korea Yakult Seven Pro Baseball Golden Globe Award on December 11, 2013

On February 18, 2013, Hyuna was chosen as the new model for casual fashion brand G by Guess. On May 24, Hyuna and makeup artist SON & PARK launched charitable activities "KISS OF HOPE". G by Guess launched "KISS OF HOPE" package whose profits were donated to the education of children in poor countries. In March, Hyuna became a spokesmodel for the 2013 Toyota Corolla. She released the short music video "Corolla x Hyuna: My Color", and the "CorollaxHyuna" mobile app which teaches her song and choreography. On March 11, Hyuna performed at the K-Pop Night Out at SXSW at Austin, Texas. She then went to Los Angeles to film a Funny or Die sketch with Rita Ora. The two stars' "Better Walk" video was released on "Funny or Die" on April 2, 2014. In the same month, Hyuna has been chosen as the new model for the Netmarble video game Mystic Fighter. She appeared on the April 27 episode of Saturday Night Live Korea.

In October, Hyuna and Hyunseung made a comeback as Trouble Maker. They released the single "Now" from their Chemistry EP. The song reached number one on ten of Korea's major music charts, and was deemed by Instiz.net as an All-Kill. Chemistry received positive reviews from music critics and fans alike with Adrienne Stanley of KpopStarz saying, "[Chemistry] is a very solid comeback release for Trouble Maker. HyunA and Hyunseung have proven that the audiences have a lot to look forward to and that the duo is more than just a gimmick devised by Cube Entertainment. By exceeding the expectations for their comeback, Trouble Maker has established there is more to the duo than meets the eye."

On June 26, 2014, Cube Entertainment announced that Hyuna would be releasing her third solo album. A reality documentary program called Hyuna's Free Month aired on SBS; it documents her preparation and promotional activities for the album release. On July 15, teaser photos were released for the album A Talk and that its lead single is "Red". The music video for Hyuna's single "Red" was released on July 28. In September, Hyuna become the new global model for cosmetic brand 'Tony Moly'. On December 29, Rolling Stone named "Red" number five on their list of the top ten music videos of 2014.

It was announced on June 5, 2015, that Hyuna would come back around August with a new album. On July 1, was revealed that Hyuna will be the new model for casual brand CLRIDEN. Hyuna released new teaser music video for her fourth mini-album A+ on August 9. On the August 12, Cube showed teaser pictures through their Twitter which showed that Hyuna's mini-album A+ would drop on August 21, and the trailer for the mini-album reached 2 million views and 33,000 likes in its first day of release. Cube announced that her new single was called "Because I'm the Best" and BTOB's Ilhoon was featured in the track. On August 20, CUBE released her music video of "Because I'm the Best" on Cube's official page on YouTube. She also made her comeback on M! Countdown and performed "Ice, Ice" featuring Hwasa of Mamamoo. HyunA's fourth mini-album A+ was officially released as well.

2016–present: 4Minute's disbandment, A'wesome

On June 13, 2016, it was announced that 4Minute have decided to disband. A Cube Entertainment representative stated, “As the contract end date approaches, the members have been in discussions for renewal, but while the agency tried to persuade them to continue the group, it ended up accepting the decision by the five members that they will not continue as a group. Due to the different opinion of the members, for all intents and purposes, the group will disband.” Hyuna is the only member of the group that renewed her contract with the agency.

Hyuna resumed her activities as a solo artist, with her fifth mini album A'wesome that was released on August 1, 2016. She will also star in her own reality show, "X19".

Hyuna has a tattoo on her left shoulder that says, "My mother is the heart that keeps me alive." She later revealed another tattoo, on her right inner arm reading "Tempus", which means 'time' in Latin.

Film

Television

List of songs written by Hyuna

Extended plays

• Bubble Pop! (2011)
• Melting (2012)
• A Talk (2014)
• A+ (2015)
• A'wesome (2016)

Headlining

• Hyun-A Asia Tour Fan Meeting - "The Queen's Back" (2016)

Festivals

• SXSW Music Festival in North America (2013)
• Viral Fest Asia 2016 (2016)

Show Champion

M! Countdown

Inkigayo