Jeongyeon

Early life

Jeongyeon was born as Yoo Kyung-wan on 1 November 1996 in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.[1][2] She has two older sisters, one of whom is the actress Gong Seung-yeon.[1][3][4] Her father was a chef who worked for Kim Dae-jung, a past president of South Korea.[1][3] Jeongyeon took aerobics classes at a young age and soon developed an early interest in singing and dancing.[1]

Career

Pre-debut

Main article: Sixteen (TV series)

Jeongyeon failed an audition to join JYP Entertainment as a child, but eventually joined after passing an open audition in March 2010.[1][3] She trained for five years before her debut with Twice.[5] From 2013 to early 2015, it was expected that Jeongyeon would become a member of a new JYP girl group alongside current Twice members Nayeon, Sana, and Jihyo.[1][6] However, this project was cancelled and in the end they did not debut.[1][6][7][8] In 2015, Jeongyeon competed in the television program Sixteen, a reality television competition designed to select the founding members of Twice.[5][9] In the final episode, she was chosen as one of the nine winners who went on to form Twice.[5][10]

Twice

Main article: Twice

Jeongyeon in 2015 and 2016

In October 2015 Jeongyeon officially debuted as a member of Twice with their first extended play, The Story Begins.[11] The lead single "Like Ooh-Ahh" was the first K-pop debut song to reach 100 million views on YouTube.[12] Jeongyeon and her sister co-hosted the South Korean music program Inkigayo from July 2016 to January 2017,[4][13] for which they both won the Newcomer Award at the 2016 SBS Entertainment Awards.[1][14] Since Jeongyeon's debut, she has also served as the songwriter for some of Twice's tracks.[1] In Gallup Korea's annual music poll, Jeongyeon was voted among the top 20 most popular idols in South Korea for four consecutive years from 2016 to 2019, alongside her bandmate Nayeon.[15][16][17][18][19][20]

Health issues

On 17 October 2020, JYP Entertainment announced that Jeongyeon would be taking a break from all activities due to anxiety.[21] She resumed her activities from 31 January 2021 at 30th Seoul Music Awards.[22] On 18 August 2021, JYP Entertainment announced that Jeongyeon would be taking a second break from all activities due to panic and anxiety disorder.[23]

Discography

Main article: Twice discography

Soundtrack appearances

List of soundtrack appearances, showing year released,

selected chart positions, and name of the album

Title Year Peak chart

positions Album

KOR

Gaon

"Like a star (별처럼)"

(with Gong Seung-yeon) 2018 — My Dream Class OST

"—" denotes a recording that did not chart

Composition credits

All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database unless stated otherwise.[24]

List of songs, showing year released, artist name, and name of the album

Title Year Artist Album Notes

"Love Line" 2017 Twice Twicetagram As lyricist

"Sweet Talker" 2018 What Is Love?

"LaLaLa" Yes or Yes

"21:29" 2019 Feel Special

"Sweet Summer Day" 2020 More & More

Filmography

Television shows

Year Title Network Role Notes Ref.

2015 Sixteen Mnet Contestant [9]

2016 Muscle Queen Project KBS2 [25]

Law of the Jungle in New Caledonia SBS Herself [26]

2016–2017 Inkigayo Co-host With Gong Seung-yeon [27]

Awards and nominations

Name of the award ceremony, year presented, category, nominee of the award, and the result of the nomination

Award ceremony Year Category Nominee / Work Result Ref.

SBS Entertainment Awards 2016 Newcomer Award (Female) Jeongyeon (with Gong Seung-yeon)

Inkigayo Won [1][14]