Who is Yeji (ITZY)?
Hwang Yeji was born in Seoul, South Korea on 26 May 2000 – her zodiac sign is Gemini and she holds South Korean nationality. She is a singer and a rapper, perhaps best known for being the lead singer of the girl band ITZY and signed with JYP Entertainment.
Early life and parents
Yeji spent only the first two years of her life in Seoul before her parents moved to Jeonju, South Korea, as it was a bit more peaceful place for Yeji and her older sister to grow up in. She has kept the details of her parents’ lives away from the media’s attention, although it’s known that her father is in the entertainment industry as well, and that her mother works at a local market.
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Yeji grew up being interested in dancing, and began taking lessons at the age of seven. It was when she enrolled at a high school that she became interested in singing, and so to one day become a famous musician. Upon matriculation in 2018, Yeji didn’t enroll at college but chose to focus on her career as a singer.
Career and the band ITZY
Yeji launched her career in 2015 when she attended an audition for a side role in the drama series “Twenty Again”, eventually only making a cameo appearance, and in the following year she joined the JYP Entertainment as their trainee.
She featured in several of their videos uploaded onto YouTube, and in the same year appeared in the “Survival Show” from which the members of the boy band Stray Kids were chosen. In 2018, Yeji was invited to compete in the reality singing show “The Fan”, and lost out in the fifth episode.
JYP Entertainment announced on 21 January that they would be creating a new girl band, the first since they launched Twice in 2015. It was revealed that the band would be made-up of five girls – Yeji, Lia, Yuna, Chaeryeong and Ryujin – and they debuted on 11 February with their album “It’z Different”, with “Dalla Dalla” the lead song.
What attracted the fans to the band was the attractive looks of the girls, as well as the meaningful lyrics of their songs – “Dalla Dalla” reached #2 on the World Digital Song Sales Chart, and became the best-selling K-pop song in America – it also broke the record by gathering 17.1 million views on YouTube in only 24 hours after it was uploaded. The song was eventually certified platinum, watched over 100 million times on Gaon Music Chart. Eight days after the girls debuted, they entered the competition “M Countdown”, winning it thus becoming the fastest girl group to win their first music show.
Their first extended play (EP) came out on 29 July 2019, entitled “It’z Icy” with its lead song “Icy”.
Later that year on 22 September, the girls announced their world tour called “Itzy? Itzy!”, which began on 2 November in Jakarta, Indonesia, and after two months in Asia, they continued their tour in the US. Their second extended play “It’z Me” came out on 9 March 2020 with the song “Wannabe” as its lead single, and it reached #1 on South Korea Gaon Album Chart and #5 on Billboard World Album Chart.
The girls have been nominated for many awards, winning their Asia Artist Award (AAA) for Rookie of the Year in 2019, while they were nominated for two other AAA awards – Popularity Award – Singer, and Star News Popularity Award – Female Group. ITZY was nominated for four Gaon Chart Music Awards in 2019, winning New Artist of the Year – Song, and it was also nominated for four Genie Music Awards, winning The Female New Artist.
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Out of the four Melon Music Awards they were nominated for in 2019, they won Best New Artist – Female, and they also a Mnet Asian Music Award for Best New Female Artist, while they were nominated for three others including the Artist of the Year Award. They took home The Rookie Award from Soribada Best K-Music, and some of the other awards they won in 2019 include the Brand of the Year for Female Rookie Idol of the Year, a Korea First Brand Award for New Female Artist and a V Live Award for Global Rookie Top 5.
In 2020, the girls won a Seoul Music Award for New Artist, two Golden Disc Awards for Digital Bonsang and Rookie of the Year, and The Fact Music Award for Next Leader.
Love life and boyfriend
Yeji is very careful about sharing details of her love life with the public, as JYP Entertainment doesn’t really allow its rookie singers to be in relationships, because it might have a negative effect on the band’s popularity, however, it is known that Yeji is very close to Lee Daehwi, a member of the South Korean boy band AB6IX. Koreaboo announced that both Yeji and Lee admitted that they are spending lots of time together, and that they are close friends, and then rumors began circulating the internet that the two might even be romantically linked, but neither of them confirmed this.
It appears as Yeji hasn’t been in a long-term relationship with a boy yet, she hasn’t married and doesn’t have children.
Hobbies, interests and health issues
Yeji is interested in learning new languages, and is fluent in Thai and also speaks English although not as well as Thai and Korean. She likes to taste various cuisines, and enjoys eating sweets the most with chocolate being her favorite. Yeji is a huge lover of animals, especially dogs, and she has two pet dogs – Hongsam and Insam – which are often featured in the pictures she uploads onto her Instagram account. She plays a variety of sports with her friends, including soccer and badminton.
Yeji is suffering from a condition called Atopy, which is a genetic tendency to have allergic diseases and disorders such as asthma or allergic rhinitis among others – when she was eight year old, Atopy led to her developing pneumonia, sepsis and osteomyelitis, all at the same time, and her life was in danger. She had to spend a year in hospital before she was completely cured.
Yeji’s age, height and net worth
Yeji’s age is 20. Her hair and eye color are brown, and her height is 5ft 7ins (1.7m). The band ITZY’s net worth is estimated at around $780,000 as of July 2020, making Yeji’s share around $156,000.
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