Hong Jin-young - South Korean Singer, Family and Childhood

Hong Jin-young was born on 9th August 1985 in Gwangju, South Korea and had several hobbies ever since she was a toddler. Music was her passion back in the days and apart from being good in studies, she found herself sitting in front of the TV for countless hours getting mesmerized by the musicals and concerts and she knew in those days itself where her life was headed. When she grew up, music didn’t leave her and she said in interviews that listening to music kept her focused and that was one of the reasons for her to excel in the studies.

Her parents looked at her skills, but never quite paid attention to her musical ambitions and compelled her to study harder to have a career in science, but Hong had some other plans for herself, but somehow she did all what she was told to do by the parents.

She got enrolled into the Dongil High School of Future Science at the Chosun University and later aimed for a Doctoral course in Business Administration & Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Trade program at the same university but the mundane life seemed boring to her and she came to Seoul to live her dreams of becoming a musician.

By 2006, she had already made her debut in acting with a small time film and a few TV shows.

Her musical aspirations were far greater than her acting dreams and she became a part of many different girl groups as a trainee in order to hone her skills for a future in music. She slowly became very good at singing and when she made her musical debut, she became an instant star after she joined the musical girl group SWAN, kicking off her musical career.

Before music, Hong Jin-young had already made her debut in acting with the 2006 film ‘Who Slept with her?’ The film remained obscure and more people got to know about her later in the same year with her TV series role ‘Yeon Gaesomun’. Although she just had a cameo, the series was a very big deal and the period drama was massively loved by the South Koreans and by the audiences in the neighbouring countries as well.

The popular all girl music group SWAN had her onboard in 2007 and she did shows around the country with the group. She was becoming popular with each one of their gig, but in 2009 came a temporary halt when she started having her issues with the group. Her agent advised her to go solo as it would turn out to be a better option and would result in more fame for the young singer. But Hong didn’t want that. She never thought of herself as a good singer until then, and thought that being in a group was safer, but eventually she took the leap and after two years with SWAN, she parted ways in 2009.

In the same year, she came ahead with her first non-album solo single titled ‘Love Battery’ and in August 2010, she released another digital single ‘My Love’. Her music, although criticized, catered to a certain section of the listeners but it never quite got her the fame and name that she expected. She although kept doing music but also maintained a regular appearance on the television.

Hong concentrated on the trot genre of music, which was the specialty of her girl group. For her song ‘Love Battery’, she won the Mnet Asian Music Award’s Best Trot Song honour and this particular award got her into the eyes of TV producers and she got showered with offers for many fiction and variety shows.

Some of her early TV stints were her appearance as a guest star in variety shows such as ‘Happy Together’, ‘Hello Counsellor’ and ‘Radio Star’. She found more solace in doing variety shows than fiction and kept her musical passions alive through releasing back to back singles, and slowly, she gained a fan following among the Korean youth. Her TV appearances also helped greatly in that manner.

In June 2011, Hong, along with many established and struggling South Korean musicians came together on the same stage for a concert called ‘Changwon’s First Anniversary Hope Concert, We Are’ which took place at the Changwon sports complex. This also proved to be a massive step ahead for Hong she got to get in touch with several other struggling performers and, for the first time, she felt a surge of confidence regarding her musical talents.

Her song downloading data kept reaching new heights and she kept producing singles in the trot genre and came ahead with a mini album titled ‘Life Note’. The album wasn’t as successful as she expected it to be but it didn’t stop her from winning quite a few awards for her musical skills.

She shone at the 2014 Seoul Music awards, 2015’s Golden Disk Awards and Melon Music Awards and went home with awards for songs ‘Love Wifi’ and ‘Thumbs Up’.

During all this time, she has never stopped appearing on TV and eventually became one of the most well known TV faces in South Korea. Since 2014, she has been a part of the show ‘We Got Married’, which required her to be in a virtual marriage with the co-actor Namkoong Min. Apart from that, she has also been a part of the most successful South Korean variety show of all times, ‘Running Man’ and many others.

Her brief appearances on the fiction TV includes her role in the series ‘Lights and Shadows’ in 2011 and a cameo in ‘Secret Hotel’ in 2014.

In 2017, she was cast as a member of the reality show ‘Sister’s Slam Dunk’ for the second season.

Hong Jin-young has said that she is not quite sure of commitment anymore as she has been in 4 serious relationships and never once did she experience commitment from her partners. She said that she had been cheated on by someone she truly loved and she wouldn’t want to go through the same experience ever again. Other than her being in a virtual marriage with her ‘husband’ Namkoong Min, she maintains that she is single.