Chungha is a solo artist who has been showing what she's made of with every new album for 5 years! Chungha first enchanted her fans in 2016 as part of the project group I.O.I. She made her solo debut in 2017 and has continued to prove since then that she was born for the stage!
Kim Chungha was born in Korea in 1996 and moved to Texas when she was seven. At 14 she returned to Korea. That's why she speaks English fluently.
In 2012, Chungha trained under JYP Entertainment, but left the agency after a year and later joined MNH Entertainment, a label that was only founded in late 2014. In 2016, Chungha presented herself to the public for the first time on the survival show Produce 101.
Produce 101
In the survival show, which aired from January to April 2016, 101 female trainees competed for a place in the eleven-member girl group that would then debut. In the first round, the trainees were introduced to their agency. In addition to Chungha, MNH Entertainment also sent her agency colleague Oh Seojung into the race. The two appeared together in the first round.
When the MNH trainees were introduced, the first thing that came into focus was the rivalry between Seojung and another contestant named Ahn Yeseul. The two had already competed against each other in the casting show Super Star K 4 in 2012. Chungha finally got the well-deserved attention during the first performance.
After the performance, the jury asked her to dance alone. Chungha was visibly nervous at first when she was asked to spontaneously dance to a random song, but as soon as the music started playing, she was completely in her element! Her freestyle remained in the memory of many for a long time.
She received an “A” for the performance, the best rating she could get in the first round. She also took 37th place in the first audience vote, leaving well over half of the other participants behind. Over the course of the show, she rose almost continuously until, shortly before the finale, she jumped from 13th to 5th place, ending up in the top 12 for the first time. In the final itself she even reached fourth place and thus won a place in the project girl group “I.O.I”.
I.O.I
On April 11, 2016, just 10 days after the Produce 101 finale, I.O.I released a music video for Crush, a song the members sang in the show's finale. The official debut followed in May with the album “Chrysalis” and the title song “Dream Girls”.
Since I.O.I was “only” a project group, members were allowed to take part in other activities on the side. That's why a seven-member unit was formed in August and released the single album “Whatta Man”. Chungha was part of the unit and even developed the choreography for the single of the same name!
On August 14, “Hand in Hand,” a remake of the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics theme song, was released. The song was sung by all eleven members. This was followed in October by a new album from the whole group: “Miss Me?” with the title song “Very Very Very”. Finally, I.O.I released the digital single “Downpour” on January 17, 2017. This served as a farewell song because, as planned from the beginning, the girl group broke up shortly afterwards.
The success of Produce 101 and I.O.I was followed by a second season in 2017 in which a boy band was formed. There are now four seasons from which other very popular project groups such as Wanna One and IZ*ONE have emerged.
Fans didn't have to wonder what would happen next for Chungha, as MNH had already confirmed in December 2016 that she would be making her solo debut in 2017.
On May 4, 2021, fans of I.O.I had a reason to be happy! Nine members of the girl group, including Chungha, held a reunion stream called “Yes, I Love it” to celebrate the group's fifth anniversary!
Chungha conquers the stage single-handedly! - Discography
Chungha released the pre-debut single “Week” in April, which is also included on her first album “Hands On Me”, with which she made her solo debut on June 7, 2017. The title track “ Why Don't You Know ” is a tropical house song about unrequited love.
Fans of Produce 101 and I.O.I. knew Chungha primarily as a dancer, which is probably why some were surprised that she debuted solo. However, she dispelled all doubts with her first album. She showed that she not only has cool moves, but also a beautiful voice that can carry entire songs on her own.
Chungha made her first comeback on January 17, 2018 with “ Offset ” and the title song “Rollercoaster”. Because none of the choreographies offered to her for Rollercoaster appealed to her, she took matters into her own hands. She and two colleagues stayed up all night and developed their own choreography!
Offset stayed in the Gaon Album Charts for a full six weeks, reaching third place. It also placed in the top 15 of the US World Album Charts!
Five months after Offset, Chungha released her third album “Blooming Blue” with the title song “ Love U ”.
At that point, she already had a large fan base and guaranteed a lot of success. Nevertheless, there were still some milestones missing in her career. She reached some of them in January 2019 with the single album “XII” and especially the title song “ Gotta Go ”! With “Gotta Go”, Chungha won a music show for the first time and far surpassed her previous highest chart positions! She reached number 6 on the World Digital Song Sales Charts, number 2 on the Gaon Digital Charts and the top of the Billboard K-Pop Hot 100. Ultimately, she even won six more music shows with Gotta Go.
XII was only available in limited quantities and was no longer produced after its release. There are only 10,000 copies in total and anyone who owns one can call a real rarity their own!
Their next album, “Flourishing,” was not quite as successful as “Gotta Go,” but it did reach the top 10 on both the Gaon Album Charts and the Billboard US World Album Charts. The title song, “ Snapping ,” reached number 2 on the Gaon Charts and number 3 on the K-Pop Hot 100, among others.
At the end of the year, Chungha was awarded the “Producer of the Year” and “Hot Performance Award of the Year” at the Gaon Chart Music Awards. Additionally, "Gotta Go" was included in Billboard's list of the 25 Best K-Pop Songs of 2019 (#3) and the 100 Best K-Pop Songs of the 2010s (#100)!
In February 2020, Chungha's new single “ Everybody Has ” was released. It was originally recorded for a project album by MNH Entertainment. In addition to “Everybody Has”, the project album New.wav. also contains another song called “Cool” by the girl group BVNDIT.
As part of the New.wav. As part of the project, Chungha also released a promotional single for Sprite titled “Be Yourself” in June 2020.
In February 2021, Everybody Has was also released on Chungha's fifth album “ Querencia ”.
Querencia was already in the starting blocks many months before 2021. An official pre-release single called “ Stay Tonight ” was released in April 2020. In May, Chungha presented the independent single “My Friend” (feat ph-1), before a second pre-release single entitled “ Play ” was released in July.
On July 6th, Chungha released a maxi-single called “Play” which included both pre-release singles. The maxi-single was sold as a physical album and added to the collection of countless fans who were no doubt eagerly awaiting the full album. As you know, it took more than half a year until then. Before that, another single called “ Dream of You ” was released in November and can also be found on the tracklist of Querencia.
On January 4, 2021, the time was finally supposed to have come. However, the album's release had to be postponed because Chungha tested positive for Covid-19 in early December. She paused her activities and spent the next few weeks in self-isolation. Fortunately, everything turned out well. On February 15, Chungha finally returned with her long-awaited album Querencia !
The fans were understandably very happy! Almost 9,000 copies of Querencia were sold on the first day. Chungha almost doubled the record she previously set with her maxi single Play! Querencia debuted at number 1 on the Gaon Retail Album Charts and was named one of the best K-pop albums of 2021 by several international magazines such as “Billboard”, “NME” and “South China Morning Post”.
The title song “ Bicycle ” reached number 2 on the streaming services “Bugs” and “Genie”, number 4 on the Gaon Download Charts and number 11 on the Billboard World Digital Songs Charts!
The new year has also started very successfully for Chungha and her fans!
Just recently, on November 29, 2021, the new single album “ Killing Me ” was released.
Chungha Discography
| Album | Title song | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Hands On Me | Why Don't You Know | 07.06.2017 |
| Offset | Rollercoaster | 17.01.2018 |
| Blooming Blue | Love U | 18.07.2018 |
| XII (Single Album) | Gotta Go | 02.01.2019 |
| Flourishing | Snapping | 25.06.2019 |
| Maxi Single (Single Album) | Play/ Stay Tonight | 06.07.2020 |
| Querenica | Bicycle | 15.02.2021 |
| Killing Me (Single Album) | Killing Me | 29.11.2021 |
K-Drama Soundtracks
Since 2016, Chungha has also recorded a number of soundtracks for Korean dramas.
Among others, “You’re In My Soul” (Record of Youth), “My Love” (Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim 2), “It’s You“ (Where Stars Land) or “At The End” (Hotel Del Luna).
So with a bit of luck, you'll be able to hear Chungha's beautiful voice in the next K-drama you watch!
Collaborations
Of course, Chungha has not only released her own music over the years, but has also collaborated with other artists. Below we summarize a few of the most interesting collaborations for you:
During her time in IOI, Chungha released a digital single called “ Flower, Wind and You ” together with Choi Yoojoung and Jeon Somi - also members of IOI - as well as Ki Huihyeon from the girl group DIA.
Huihyeon, like Chungha, Yoojoung and Somi, appeared in Produce 101 in early 2016.
Chungha later recorded “With You” with Samuel Kim for his debut album “Sixteen”. The two even performed the song together on music shows.
For the project album “SM Station X 0” she formed a temporary group with Seulgi (Red Velvet), Soyeon ((G)I-dle) and SinB (GFriend). The four released the single “Wow Thing” on September 28, 2018.
In addition, Chungha was involved in the singles “Live” by Ravi (VIXX), “Loveship” by Paul Kim and “Lie” by Max Changmin (TVXQ).
At the end of September 2020, she recorded an English single called “Bad Boy” with Danish singer Christopher.
Just this March, Chungha also collaborated with Rain on “Why Don't We,” the title track of his latest album “ Pieces by Rain .” The two even performed the song together on music shows!
Further activities
Since her debut, Chungha has not only been active as a singer and dancer, but also as a presenter and entertainer.
For example, in 2017 she hosted the fitness program “Ah! Sunday – A Running Miracle”, the beauty show “Please Take Care of My Vanity” and the radio show “Listen”.
In November of the same year, her first reality show “Chungha’s Free Month” also aired!
Bonus
Chungha’s nickname is “sool” (alcohol) because an alcohol brand in Korea is called “Chungha”. So if that's not worth mentioning, we don't know what is. XD
Of course, the “Chungha” brand didn’t miss the opportunity and appointed Chungha as the brand’s new advertising face in 2018!
