Sooyoung

Introduction

Choi Sooyoung, known mononymously as Sooyoung, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, dancer, composer, and award-winning actress under Saram Entertainment. She is best known as one of the lead rappers and lead dancers of the girl group Girls’ Generation.

Sooyoung was initially scouted in fifth grade by an employee of SM Entertainment while shopping for clothes at a department storethrough and passed the SM Entertainment Open Audition in 2000. Although later, in December 2001, talent variety show, Asayan held the Japanese-Korean Ultra Idol Duo Audition, which was broadcast on TV Tokyo. Out of 8,698 Japanese and 7,194 Korean applicants, Marina Takahashi was chosen as the Japanese representative, while Choi Sooyoung was chosen as the Korean representative. She was the lead vocalist, main rapper, dancer, maknae and member of Japan’s short-lived South Korean-Japanese female singing idol duo route φ under R&C Japan Ltd., debuting on the 26th of April 2002 with their first single “Start”, which was used as the opening theme song to “Hamaraja.” On the 3rd of July, 2003, route φ ended activities as a group and disbanded.

After returning to South Korea and SM Entertainment in 2004, she began her life as a trainee again. Believing that she was too old to debut as an idol, she instead began preparing for acting and auditioning. From 2005 to 2006, she served as an MC on Mnet’s Hello Chat. Sooyoung eventually debuted as the lead dancer, lead rapper, sub-vocalist and member of Girls’ Generation on August 5, 2007 with the group’s first single “Into the New World”, which they rose to become one of the most successful girl groups in South Korea.

Sooyoung made her acting debut in November 2007 through the KBS2 sitcom “Unstoppable Marriage.”

She graduated from Jeongshin Girls’ High School in February 2009. Due to taking a year off to work in Japan, she graduated in the same year as Yoona, her bandmate who is a year younger than her. The following March, she enrolled in the Department of Theater and Film at Chung-Ang University. She took a year off to work both at home and abroad, and returned in 2013. She graduated on February 15, 2016.

In August 2011, she was involved in a traffic accident in which she fractured her sacrum, the center of her pelvis, and was hospitalized for about a week .

She made her songwriting debut with “Spring Day (How Great Is Your Love),” included in SNSD’s third album, “The Boys,” released on October 19, 2011.

In September 2014, Choi scored a lead role in MBC’s melodrama, My Spring Days. This was a breakthrough performance for Sooyoung as she won the “Best Actress in a Miniseries” award at the 2014 MBC Drama Awards and the “Excellence Award for Actress” at the 2015 Korea Drama Awards. She also won the Discovery of the Year Award at the 2019 JIMFF AWARDS .

On the 9th of October 2017, Sooyoung decided to not renew her contract and left SM Entertainment, although she remains a member of Girls’ Generation. On November 10, 2017, Echo Global Group announced that Sooyoung had signed on with the agency. She made her solo debut in December 20, 2018 with the digital single “Winter Breath”. On May 7, 2019, SARAM Entertainment announced that Sooyoung had signed on with the agency. She debuted in Japan with the single “Unstoppable” under Japan label Avex Trax, which was released on October 30, 2024.