Jihyo is one of K-pop‘s biggest treasures! The leader of TWICE trained for 10 years at JYP Entertainment before making her debut with one of the most popular girl groups in the world, and she finally made her solo debut in 2023. Keep reading to learn more about Jihyo.
Who Is Jihyo?
Born on February 1, 1997, in Guri, South Korea, Jihyo is an Aquarius. When she was only eight years old, South Korean music label JYP Entertainment scouted Jihyo after she won second place in a singing contest called Junior Naver. She joined the company where the future K-pop star then trained for 10 years.
ICYMI, all K-pop stars have to go through a long period of training in order to debut, which usually involve monthly evaluations in dancing, singing, rapping and performing.
Fun fact: she was born with the name Park Jisoo, but she legally changed it to Jihyo before competing on the reality show Sixteen which would eventually form TWICE.
Jihyo made her long-awaited debut in August 2023 with mini album ZONE and lead single “Killin’ Me Good,” marking her as the second TWICE member to go solo, with member Nayeon releasing her song “POP!” in June 2022.
During an interview with Vulture following her solo debut, Jihyo explained that she’s always been ready to go solo since debuting with TWICE.
“I actually believe that when you debut as a singer, you should already be prepared to go solo. There wasn’t really a specific moment. It’s more like, I had to become a person who would always be ready. As a result, I see all my years of training before debuting with TWICE in 2015 to be a huge strength.”
Who Is TWICE?
The girl band consists of nine members: Jihyo, Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. TWICE was formed through a reality survival show called Sixteen, under JYP Entertainment. Following the tough competition, the group debuted on October 20, 2015, with lead single “Like OOH-AHH(OOH-AHH).”
With more than 4 billion streams on Spotify, TWICE is the highest-selling Korean girl group of the past decade and the first to sell out stadium venues in the United States. JYP founder J.Y. Park titled the band TWICE, as he has explained “they will be able to move people twice. Once through the ears and once through the eyes.”
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