Chungha: singer, dancer and choreographer!
K-Pop Blog > Artists > Chungha
Chungha is a solo artist who has been showing what she is made of with every new album for 5 years now! Chungha first enchanted her fans in 2016 as part of the project group I.O.I. In 2017 she debuted solo and has been proving ever since that she was born for the stage!
Kim Chungha was born in Korea in 1996 and moved to Texas at the age of seven. She returned to Korea when she was 14. As a result, she is fluent in English.
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 in the survival show Produce 101.
Produce 101
In the survival show, which aired from January to April 2016, 101 female trainees competed for a spot in the eleven-member girl group that would debut afterwards. In the first round, the trainees were introduced based on their agency. MNH Entertainment sent Chungha as well as her agency colleague Oh Seojung into the race. So the two appeared together in the first round.
When the MNH trainees were introduced, the rivalry between Seojung and another contestant named Ahn Yeseul came into focus first. The two had previously competed against each other on the casting show Super Star K 4 in 2012. However, Chungha finally got some well-deserved attention during the first performance.
After the performance, the jury asked her to dance once alone. Chungha was visibly nervous at first when she was asked to dance spontaneously to a random song, but as soon as the music started playing, she was completely in her element! Her freestyle was remembered by many for a long time.
She got an "A" for the performance, the best score you could get in the first round. She also placed 37th in the first audience vote, leaving more than half of the other contestants behind. In the course of the show, she rose almost continuously until she jumped from 13th to 5th place shortly before the finale and thus landed in the Top 12 for the first time. In the final itself, she even reached 4th 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 finals of Produce 101, I.O.I released a music video for Crush, a song that the members sang in the finals of the show. The official debut followed in May with the album "Chrysalis" and the title track "Dream Girls."
Since I.O.I was "only" a project group, the members were allowed to participate in other activities on the side. Therefore, in August, a seven-member Unit was formed 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!
"Hand in Hand," a remake of the title song from the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics, was released on August 14. 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 disbanded shortly after.
The success of Produce 101 and I.O.I was already followed in 2017 by a second season in which a boy group was formed. Meanwhile, there are 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 with Chungha because back in December 2016, MNH had confirmed that she would debut solo in 2017.
On May 4, 2021, fans of I.O.I had a reason to rejoice! Nine members of the girl group, including Chungha, hosted 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," which marked 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 mainly as a dancer, so some were probably surprised to see her debut solo. However, she cleared all doubts with her very first album. She showed that she not only has cool moves to offer, but also a beautiful voice that can carry entire songs on its own.
Chungha made her first comeback on January 17, 2018 with "Offset" and the title song "Rollercoaster." Because none of the choreography offered to her for Rollercoaster touched her, she took matters into her own hands. She and two colleagues stayed up all night developing their own choreography!
Offset stayed on the Gaon Album Charts for a full six weeks, reaching third place. In addition, it 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 track "Love U".
By then, she already had a large fan base and guaranteed no small amount 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 #6 on the World Digital Song Sales chart, #2 on the Gaon Digital chart, 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 not re-released after its release. There are only 10,000 copies in total and those who own one can call a true rarity their own!
Her next album "Flourishing" was not quite as successful as "Gotta Go", but placed within the Top 10 on both the Gaon Album Charts and the Billboard US World Album Charts, with the title track "Snapping" reaching #2 on the Gaon Charts and #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. In addition, "Gotta Go" was included by Billboard in the list of the 25 Best K-Pop Songs of 2019 (#3) and in the 100 Best K-Pop Songs of the 2010s (#100)!
In February 2020, Chungha's new single "Everybody Has" was released. This was originally recorded for a project album by MNH Entertainment. In addition to "Everybody Has," the project album New.wav. also includes another song called "Cool" by the girl group BVNDIT.
As part of the New.wav. 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 waiting in the wings many months before 2021. Already in April 2020, an official pre-release single called "Stay Tonight" was released. In May, Chungha still presented the independent single "My Friend" (feat ph-1), before a second pre-release single titled "Play" was released in July.
Then on July 6, Chungha first 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. However, as you know, it took over half a year until then. Before that, another single called "Dream of You" was released in November which can also be found in the tracklist of Querencia.
On January 4, 2021 it should have finally been so far. However, the release of the album had to be postponed because Chungha tested positive for Covid-19 in early December. She interrupted her activities and spent the next few weeks in self-isolation. Fortunately, everything turned out well. Then, on February 15, Chungha finally returned with her long-awaited album Querencia !
The joy of the fans was understandably great! On the first day, almost 9,000 copies of Querencia were sold. This almost doubled the record Chungha had previously set with her maxi-single Play! Querencia entered the Gaon Retail Album Charts at #1 and was named one of the best K-pop albums of 2021 to date by several international magazines such as "Billboard," "NME," and "South China Morning Post.
The title track "Bicycle" reached #2 on the streaming services "Bugs" and "Genie", #4 on the Gaon Download Charts and #11 on the Billboard World Digital Songs Charts!
So the new year has also started very successfully for Chungha and her fans!
Just recently, on November 29, 2021, she released her new single album "Killing Me".
Chungha Discography
| Album | Title track | 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 |
Killing Me (Single Album)
Since 2016, Chungha has also recorded a number of soundtracks for Korean dramas.
Among them are "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 any luck, you'll be able to listen to Chungha's beautiful voice in the next K-drama you watch!
Collaborations
Of course, Chungha has not only released her own music throughout 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 I.O.I, Chungha released a digital single called "Flower, Wind and You".
Huihyeon, like Chungha, Yoojoung and Somi, was featured in Produce 101 in early 2016.
Later, Chungha recorded "With You" with Samuel Kim for his debut album "Sixteen," among others. The two even performed the song together in 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 participated in singles such as "Live" by Ravi (VIXX), "Loveship" by Paul Kim, and "Lie" by Max Changmin (TVXQ).
In late 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 also performed the song together in music shows!
Other activities
Chungha has been active not only as a singer and dancer, but also as a host and entertainer since her debut.
For example, in 2017, she hosted the fitness program "Ah! Sunday - A Running Miracle", the beauty program "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 a mention, we don't know what is. XD
Of course, the "Chungha" brand didn't let the opportunity slip away and named Chungha as the brand's new advertising face in 2018!
This might also interest you
5% DISCOUNT ON NEWSLETTER REGISTRATION
The latest products, promotions and news. Straight to your inbox.