Kim Hyun-a

Kim Hyun-a (Korean: 김현아; born June 6, 1992), more commonly known as HyunA, is a South Korean idol, singer, and a member of the girl group 4Minute. She is also a former member of the popular girl group Wonder Girls.

Biography

HyunA was born on June 6, 1992 in Seoul, South Korea. She attended Choong Chun Middle School and Korea High School of Music and Arts and currently attends Konkuk University, majoring in art culture, receiving special admissions to the school.^[1] She has a tattoo on her left shoulder that says "My mother is the heart, that keeps me alive."^[2] Before HyunA debuted with 4Minute, she was a member of the Wonder Girls in 2007. She is the main rapper of the group and also a vocalist.

Career

2007–2008: Debut, The Wonder Begins, and The Wonder Years

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.^[3] She left the group in July,^[4] when she was removed by her parents due to their concern over her health—in particular, chronic gastroenteritis and fainting spells.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7][8]

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 Mabus, 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 will also star in each member's individual drama version of the video.^[9] 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.^[10] Hyun-a commenced promotions for "Change".^[10][11] 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. Broadcast stations SBS, however, announced the music video would be restricted for a 15+ audience instead, and MBC announced that it would still be viewable for all audiences.^[12] Her "Change" promotions ended in March 2010.

On February 10, 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 was produced by E-Tribe.^[13][14]

In the month of August the "Change" music video was made available to view on Virgin Media's music on demand service within the UK. Hyun-a is featured for FADDY ROBOT FOUNDATION together with Beast`s Jun Hyung, Outsider, Verbal Jint, Mighty Mouth’s Ssangchu, Vasco and Block B's Zico, any profit from this song will be helping the society. The Song was released on September 17, 2010.

On October 14, 2010 Hyun-a played a cameo role in thriller movie Late Night FM along with fellow band member Ji Hyun.^[15]

She sang a duet song with G.NA called "Say You Love Me", in which she wrote/composed the rap lyrics of the song and became a hot topic in Korean portal sites. The duet song was released on November 10, 2010

2011: Bubble Pop! and Trouble Maker

CEO Hong Seungsong of Cube Entertainment announced that Hyun-a will make a comeback with her 1st Mini-Album in May. 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 featured in Lim Jeong Hee's title track "Golden Lady" from her second EP, which was released on May 9, 2011. Hyun-a also featured in SS501's Heo Young Saeng's title track "Let It Go" from his first solo mini album, Let It Go released on 12 May 2011.^[16]

Hyun-a is confirmed to appear on Korean version of “Dancing With The Stars”. The show will start broadcasting on June 10.^[17]

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, 2011. The MV also stars MBLAQ's Lee Joon. In August, the Korea Communications Standards Commission partially banned TV broadcast the video for allegedly racy content.^[18]

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.^[19]

On November 24, 2011 Cube revealed that she will be in a co-ed subunit called Trouble Maker! with BEAST's Hyun Seung.

Their 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 25th through their teaser site, and unleashed their album on December 1st.^[20]

Hyun-a’s “Bubble Pop” is #9 on USA's SPIN Magazine’s “Best 20 Songs of 2011″. ^{[21] [22]}

Discography

EPs

Collaboration EPs

Singles

Featured songs

Music videos

Filmography

Movies

Television series

Music video appearances

Music Programs

M! Countdown

Awards

References

External links

• 4minute International Forum (English)
• hyunah on Twitter (Korean)