There is a song that has been jumping up so many positions in music charts lately.
It’s ‘Event Horizon’ by Younha.
This year is Younha’s 16th year as a singer and her 19th year if you start counting from her debut in Japan.
Related Posts:
From the story of how she joined a label in Korea but debuted in Japan to the sad story of how she couldn’t get paid for about 7 or 8 years to her special relationship with number 2, let’s dive into it all!
Oricon’s comet
Younha started playing the piano at age 4, growing interest in music, and she started dreaming of becoming at a young age.
When she was 12, she lied to her parents about going to a study hall and went to many auditions but failed them all.
But she didn’t give up, and after trying again and again, she was accepted to STAM Entertainment, which later became Lion Media.
So Younha started her life as a trainee.
At first, she took dance lessons to become an idol almost, but a demo tape of her playing the piano singing ‘I Wish’ was noticed by a Japanese entertainment label, so in 2004, Younha had a chance to debut in Japan.
Younha then dropped out of her high school and headed over to Japan to work.
She started working in Japan doing Piano Rock, which can be a little unfamiliar genre to people.
With the support of a pretty big label in Japan called Epic Records Japan, Younha got to do a lot of activities, and the biggest one was the song ‘Houki Boshi’ which was an ending of Japanese anime ‘Bleach’.
In Japan, anime songs often get a lot of love from the general public.
With ‘Houki Boshi’, Younha charted in Japan’s Oricon Chart at #15 and was nicknamed “Oricon’s comet”.
She worked for about 2 years in Japan, consistently gaining popularity, but she didn’t exactly blow up, so she wasn’t really known in Korea.
But then, through a Korean tv program, she got a chance to debut in Korea.
It was ‘Screening Humanity’!
Through ‘Screening Humanity’, which was aired in 2006, Younha grew popular in Korea, and with her first single album [Audition] in Dec 2006, she debuted in Korea.
This was when she released the song ‘Waiting’, which has been covered by IU, Taeyeon, and many other singers.
Heir of the Kong
Right from her debut, Younha presented many amazing songs, including ‘Waiting’ in her debut album.
She later sung many other great songs, including ‘Password 486’, ‘Broke Up today, ‘The Street’, and ‘Umbrella’.
But as a joke, she is known as an heir of the Kong.
Since ‘Password 486’, which is her biggest song, she has taken 2nd place on a music show many times, but never won 1st place.
She sang the Korean version of ‘Houki Boshi’ which was big in Japan, but it was beat by Wonder Girls’ ‘Tell Me’, and the sad ballad song ‘Broke Up Today’ was beat by T-ara’s ‘Bo Beep Bo Beep’, and ‘Please take care of my boyfriend’ was beat by IU’s ‘Good Day’ with the famous 3 high notes.
So Younha’s fans associated Younha with many other things related to number 2.
Younha’s height is 157.8cm, which is 2.2cm shorter than 160cm, and she was the 22nd host of ‘Starry Night’.
In the album she released at the age of 22, the title track ‘Broke Up Today’ is the 2nd track, and the last song of this album is ’22nd Street’ and song ends with the lyric saying “22nd street”!
Both ‘Iron Man 2’ and iPad 2 were released on Younha’s birthday in Korea, and not only was she on ‘I Am A Singer 2’ as the 2nd person to perform for the September Singer Battle, which was the 22nd episode, the song ‘Western Sky’, which she sang that day, was ranked #2 in a music chart.
At the 2013 Korean Music Awards, Younha was voted #2 female singer by netizens!
And on the next day after the release of ‘Winter Flower’, featuring BTS’ RM, the song was ranked #1 on America’s iTunes chart for 22 hours.
Also, ‘Event Horizon’, which is doing really well, was ranked #2 on Melon’s real-time chart, as of Nov 2.
And there are many other facts about her that are associated with number 2.
It’s mostly a joke, but if you consider the fact that so many of her songs took 2nd place in competition against real mega hits even though she didn’t get big support from her small agency.
The problematic agency
What makes Younha great is that even when her agency was in such a bad place, her songs were hugely popular and her albums did well consistently.
In 2011, she had a hard time due to a lawsuit regarding the termination of her exclusive contract with Lion Media, her first agency.
Nowadays, every idol’s first contract is 7 years long. But Younha was stuck with a long contract that lasted for 11 years from 2003 to 2014.
Plus, the contract stated that, only if her album sold 100,000 copies, she could receive 50 to 100 won for every additional copy of the album, and for her songs released online, she could get only 10% of the net gain, which was an unfair profit distribution.
So Younha apparently didn’t get any of the profits from her albums from 2004 to 2011.
Also, even when she couldn’t sing because she was suffering from an illness such as shingles or laryngitis, her forced her to work and made her lip-sync on stage.
Fortunately, the court was in favor of Younha and ordered Lion Media to give 100 million won to Younha. With that, her exclusive contract was terminated.
Younha later founded a one-person entertainment label called Wealive and was able to resume her activities.
What’s funny is that Wealive, which started out as Younha’s one-person company, later merged with a hiphop label called Alive, and turned into C9 Entertainment.
One of the signed artists at the time was Olltii, who would later get huge in the hiphop scene, and there were also amazing producers like GroovyRoom.
That’s how Younha and GroovyRoom got to collaborate for Younha’s 5th full-length album [RescuE].
Back then, this album was ranked #8 among the best Kpop albums selected by Billboard.
The successful fan
With the recent success of ‘Event Horizon’, Younha appeared on ‘K-909’,
and she actually appeared with all of BoA’s albums and proved that she is a longtime fan of BoA.
10 years ago, in 2012, when BoA was promoting ‘Only One’, Younha played ‘Only One’ all the time as the host of ‘Starry Night’ and asked BoA to come on the show.
Finally, BoA did come on the show and made Younha’s dream come true. Before that, Younha was a fan of H.O.T with the nickname “칠현마누라” (Chil-hyun’s wife), and when H.O.T’s Kangta later became the host of ‘Starry Night’, Younha got to talk with him on the phone.
Younha is also a Coldplay fan, and when Coldplay held a concert in Korea in 2017, Younha attended the concert and she had a chat with Coldplay’s vocalist Chris Martin about music and even took a photo together too.
Not only that, Younha got to appear as a guest and sing with Ben Folds, the Godfather of Piano Rock!
Belt dead
Younha once had a legendary incident. It was on Dec 5, 2013.
She was singing the pre-released song ‘It’s Okay’ for the first time on ‘M COUNTDOWN’.
She was singing high notes in a pretty outfit, but due to her incredible abdominal breathing, her belt came off.
This incident was spread through countless articles and made many people laugh while it embarrassed Younha.
She later said on a show that before she stepped on the stage, her manager had told her that if she tightened her belt more by one more hole, her waist would look thinner, so she did it and got on stage, which led to the incident.
And recently, she had another incident with her outfit, which created a buzz.
On Instagram, Younha revealed that this time, her pants were ripped.
She said her jeans, which she had worn for 3 years, have now disappeared onto the event horizon.
Suzy and IU
‘Event Horizon’, which is making a big comeback in popularity, started to gain popularity as Younha began to sing it at many university festivals after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
Being a singer in her 19th year, she has so many good songs besides ‘Event Horizon’, so she has many experiences of making a comeback in popularity
thanks to younger singers. Most notably, Suzy and IU.
Suzy is famous for having been cast after a mini audition in front of a person from JYP at the preliminary round of ‘Super Star K’.
At the time, Suzy sang Younha’s ‘Love’, which shows that Suzy has been a Younha fan since prior to her debut.
Also, on ‘Healing Camp’, Suzy sang Younha’s ‘The Street’, which was a song that could’ve been forgotten, but it made a comeback in popularity.
Meanwhile, on the drama ‘Producer’, IU sang the song ‘Waiting’ which is from Younha’s debut album.
It was so good that ‘Waiting’ charted back in music charts.
‘Waiting’ has been sung so many times on ‘Kpop Star’ and ‘Super Star K’, and in 2017, it was sung twice on ‘King of masked singer’.
It’s incredible that a song from a debut album released in 2006 has been loved by many fans and singers for such a long time.
Younha has been a singer for years and has been receiving love from her fans for so many good songs and albums.
Her 6th full-length repackage album, which contains ‘Event Horizon’, has been sold out and is apparently being traded for a high price.
