Soyou

She was born Kang Ji-hyun on February 12, 1992, in Jeju Island, South Korea. There is not much information available on early life, family background and education of this popular singer excepting that she has an elder brother and a sister.

Before getting an opportunity to launch her musical career, Soyou, a licensed hairdresser, earned her living working in a hair salon.

Her early interest in music led her to become a trainee of the South Korean record label ‘Cube Entertainment’. Initially she was supposed to make her debut in music as a member of the South Korean girl group ‘4Minute’ formed by the label ‘Cube Entertainment’. However things did not materialise.

Soyou, who should have been in Sohyun's place originally in ‘4Minute’, said that finally she couldn’t be a part of the group as she was inexact in many ways.

She then went on to audition for ‘Starship Entertainment’ and sang a cover of the song ‘On The Road’, originally sang by Korean Pop singer Navi. She was selected as a member of the ‘Starship Entertainment’ formed South Korean girl group ‘Sistar’ that was created in 2010. The other members of the group included Hyolyn, Dasom and Bora.

Activities of ‘Sistar’ as a group started in early 2010 with its members featuring in magazine photo shoots and advertisements. Their official debut happened on June 3, of that year with the single ‘Push Push’. The group made their debut performance with the song on the next day on South Korean television music program ‘Music Bank’.

‘Push Push’ became part of the debut studio album of ‘Sistar’ titled ‘So Cool’ that was later released by ‘Starship Entertainment’ on August 9, 2011 and went on to become a commercial success. The title track of the album bearing same name ‘So Cool’ debuted atop the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100 singles chart and is counted among the group’s biggest hits.