Birth name: 김현아Also known as: HyunA, HyunAh
Born: June 6, 1992 (age 20), Seoul, South Korea
Origin: South Korea
Genres: Pop, dance, hip hop, R&B, K-pop
Occupations: Singer, dancer, rapper, model, songwriter
Instruments: Vocals, rapping and songwriting
Years active: 2007–present
Labels: JYP Entertainment (2007), Cube Entertainment (2008–present)
Associated acts: Wonder Girls (2007), 4Minute (2009–present), Trouble Maker (2011)
Website: 4min.co.kr, http://twitter.com/4M_hyunah
Kim Hyun-a (born June 6, 1992) is a South Korean idol, singer, songwriter, dancer, rapper, designer, model, and a member of the Korean girl group 4Minute, and duo Trouble Maker under Cube Entertainment. She describes her own solo career as "performance-oriented music".
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".
Biography
Hyun-a 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. She has a tattoo on her left shoulder that says, "My mother is the heart that keeps me alive."
Career
2007–2008: Debut, The Wonder Begins, and The Wonder Years
Hyun-a (the second from left) performing "Irony" with Wonder Girls at Hanyang University in March 2007
In 2007, Hyun-a made her debut with the Wonder Girls, a girl group managed by JYP Entertainment, with the single "Irony" as the group's main rapper. She left the group in July,[2] when she was removed by her parents due to their concern over her health—in particular, chronic gastroenteritis and fainting spells.
While with the Wonder Girls she was a part of the group's television shows MTV Wonder Girls (season 1) & MTV Wonder Girls (season 2). From May 12, 2007 she was a co-host together with Wonder Girls' Sohee & Brian Joo at Show! Music Core until June 30, 2007 when she left the group.
In 2008 she transferred over to Cube Entertainment. After joining Cube Entertainment, Hyun-a joined girl group 4Minute. Announced in May 2009, the group debuted with their single, "Hot Issue" on 15 June.
2009: Collaborations
Hyun-a 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. Hyun-a also appeared in Mighty Mouth's music video for "Love Class" with Uee from After School.
On August 18, 2009 Hyun-a 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. Hyun-a's version was released on October 27, 2009. The Dream Team was composed of Hyun-a (4Minute), Seung Yeon (Kara), Uee (After School) & Gain (Brown Eyed Girls).
Hyun-a 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, Hyun-a released the single "Change" which debuted high on various online charts while also becoming a top search term. Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a'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, Hyun-a released a digital single, "Love Parade", featuring T-MAX's member Park Yun Hwa.
On April 16, Hyun-a released another digital single, "Outlaw in the Wild (Korean: 황야의 무법자)", featuring Nassun, and produced by E-Tribe.
On October 14, 2010 Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a would make a comeback with her first mini-album in May, 2011. He stated that, "Hyun-a 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."
Hyun-a 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.
Hyun-a appeared in the Korean version of Dancing with the Stars. The show started broadcasting on June 10.
After several teasers, Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a, 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.
Hyun-a’s “Bubble Pop” was #9 and #3 on USA's Spin magazine’s “Best 20 Songs of 2011″ and "SPIN's Favorite Pop Tracks of 2011".
2012: Ice Cream
Hyun-a at a K-pop concert in Vietnam, November 2012
On February 12, 2012 it was revealed that "The Birth of a Family" Season 2 will follow up with Hyun-a 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. Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a 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. Hyun-a intends to be highly involved, starting from the concept development, design, as well as directing the photo shoots. Hyun-a 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."
Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a.
Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a's contributions as a lyricist and composer for "Very Hot" and "To My Boyfriend".
In October, reports suggested that "Very Hot" from Hyun-a's second EP Melting was banned by television networks KBS and MBC. The networks objected to the use of the brand KakaoTalk.
On November 14 was revealed that Hyun-a with Hara & Hyorin 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. Hyun-a 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 Hyun-a 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.
Discography
EPs
Bubble Pop! (2011)
Trouble Maker (2011)
Melting (2012)
Singles
Change (2010)
My Color (2013)
