Yoo Jeong-yeon (; born 1 November 1996), known mononymously as Jeongyeon (), is a South Korean singer. She is a member of

Twice Twice (; Japanese: トゥワイス, Hepburn: ''To~uwaisu''; commonly stylized as TWICE) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, ...

, a South Korean girl group formed by

JYP Entertainment JYP Entertainment Corporation () is a South Korean multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate founded in 1997 by J. Y. Park. It is one of the largest entertainment companies in South Korea, and operates as a record label, tale ...

Early life

Jeongyeon was born as Yoo Kyung-wan on 1 November 1996 in Suwon,

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

, South Korea. She has two older sisters, one of whom is the actress

Gong Seung-yeon Gong Seung-yeon (, born Yoo Seung-yeon on February 27, 1993), is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her roles in the film '' Aloners'' (2021) and television series such as ''Six Flying Dragons'' (2015–2016), ''The Master of Revenge ...

. Her father was a chef who worked for

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democracy and human ...

, a former president of South Korea. Jeongyeon took aerobics classes at a young age and developed an interest in singing and dancing soon afterward.

Career

Pre-debut

Jeongyeon failed an audition to join

as a child but eventually joined the agency after passing an open audition in March 2010. She trained for five years before debuting with

. Between 2013 and early 2015, Jeongyeon was expected to become a member of a new JYP girl group alongside fellow trainees (now Twice bandmates)

Nayeon Im Na-yeon (; born September 22, 1995), known mononymously as Nayeon, is a South Korean singer. She became a member of the South Korean girl group Twice, under JYP Entertainment, in 2015 as a winning contestant of the reality survival televis ...

Sana Sana may refer to: Places * Sanaa, the capital of Yemen * Sana (river), a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Sana, Bhutan, a town in Bhutan * Sana, Haute-Garonne, a commune in France * Sana, Iran, a village in Iran * Sana, Mali, a commune in M ...

, and

Jihyo Park Ji-hyo (; born Park Ji-soo on February 1, 1997), known mononymously as Jihyo, is a South Korean singer. She is the leader and vocalist of the South Korean girl group Twice, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. Life and career Early life ...

; however, the project was cancelled. Later in 2015, Jeongyeon participated in the television program '' Sixteen'', a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

competition to determine the members of Twice. In the final episode, she was chosen as one of the nine members of the group.

Debut with Twice and health issues

In October 2015 Jeongyeon officially debuted as a member of Twice with the release of their first extended play (EP), ''

The Story Begins ''The Story Begins'' is the debut extended play by South Korean girl group Twice. It was released by JYP Entertainment on October 20, 2015, through KT Music. It features six tracks, including the lead single, " Like Ooh-Ahh", which was composed ...

''. The lead single "

Like Ooh-Ahh "Like Ooh-Ahh" (stylized as "Like OOH-AHH"; ) is the debut single recorded by South Korean girl group Twice. It was released by JYP Entertainment on October 20, 2015, as the lead single from their debut extended play '' The Story Begins''. It was ...

" was the first K-pop debut song to reach 100 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Jeongyeon and her sister co-hosted the South Korean music program '' Inkigayo'' from July 2016 to January 2017, for which they both won the Newcomer Award at the

2016 SBS Entertainment Awards The ''2016 SBS Entertainment Awards'' () presented by Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), took place on December 25, 2016 at SBS Prism Tower in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. It was hosted by Lee Kyung-kyu, Kang Ho-dong and Lee Si-young Lee Si-yo ...

. Since Jeongyeon's debut, she has also been credited as songwriter on some of Twice's tracks. In

Gallup Korea Gallup Korea () or Gallup Korea Research Institute () is a South Korean research company. Founded by Park Moo-ik in 1974, the company became a member of Gallup International Association in 1997. It is best known for conducting public surveys o ...

's annual music poll, Jeongyeon was voted among the top 20 most popular idols in South Korea for four consecutive years from 2016 to 2019 alongside her bandmate Nayeon. On 17 October 2020, JYP Entertainment announced that Jeongyeon would be taking a hiatus due to

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

. She resumed activities on 31 January 2021 at 30th Seoul Music Awards. On 18 August 2021, JYP Entertainment announced that Jeongyeon would be taking a second hiatus due to

panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

and anxiety disorder. As of 2022, she already resumed all of her activities as a member of the group. On the same year, Jeongyeon and the rest of the members have renewed their contract.

Discography

Soundtrack appearances

Composition credits

All song credits are adapted from the

Korea Music Copyright Association The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) is a South Korean non-profit copyright collective for musical works, administering public performance and broadcasting rights, and mechanical recording and reproduction rights. Founded in 1964, it i ...

's database unless stated otherwise.

Filmography

Television shows

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1996 births Living people People from Suwon JYP Entertainment artists South Korean women pop singers South Korean female idols Twice (group) members 21st-century South Korean women singers South Korean mezzo-sopranos Mezzo-sopranos Japanese-language singers of South Korea K-pop singers English-language singers from South Korea