AOA’s Jimin, BTS’ Jimin, aespa’s Jimin (Karina): Ups And Downs And Controversies Of KPOP’s Jimins
These Jimins have been active in the music industry and faced many ups and downs.
▲ AOA’s Jimin (Shin Jimin)
Jimin debuted in the music industry as the leader of the group AOA in 2012. She became a trainee at FNC Entertainment in 2009, making her the longest trainee among the members. After its debut, the members of AOA worked as a band called AOA Black and a dance group called AOA White. However, as the band didn’t receive much attention, the group began to work as a dance group only.
Since then, AOA has been loved for their sexy images. After the release of “Confused,” it started to gain attention, and achieved four consecutive hits with “Short Skirt,” “Short Hair,” “Like A Cat,” and “Heart Attack.” After the group’s success, Jimin made her solo debut with the song “Call You Bae” in 2016, featuring EXO’s Xiumin.
Throughout her career, Jimin has faced many controversies. Before the promotion of “Good Luck,” Jimin and Seolhyun failed to recognize Korean’s historic hero Ahn Jung-geun in a quiz show and gave rather embarrassing answers, causing controversy over their lack of historical awareness. Although they continued their activities after apologizing, the group’s achievements were disappointing compared to their heyday’s.
AOA later seemed to be back on its feet with Mnet’s show “Comeback War: Queendom,” but Jimin suddenly became the center of controversy in 2022 when former member Kwon Min-ah revealed that she had been bullied by her. Eventually, Jimin decided to withdraw from the group and suspended her career for about two years. She returned to the music industry in 2022 and continued her music career by releasing her new song “Twinkle Little Star” in December last year.
▲ BTS’s Jimin (Park Jimin)
Jimin debuted as a member of BTS in 2013 and has been loved all over the world. After gaining recognition with the 2014 release of “Boy In Luv,” BTS began to receive attention from overseas in 2015. In 2017, the song “Spring Day” showed signs of making BTS a “world star” by ranking 15th on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, followed by “DNA.”
Since then, BTS has become the first Korean singer to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart several times with Korean songs. It has also collected trophies at Billboard Music Awards, American Music Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards.
Jimin has been the main dancer and lead vocalist of BTS. Last year, he released his solo album “FACE” and achieved positive results with his title track “Like Crazy.” He became the first Korean solo artist to set a milestone by ranking No. 1 on Billboard’s main song chart “Hot 100.”
However, in 2022, Jimin’ apartment was seized due to arrears in health insurance premiums. It was only after four foreclosure registrations were sent that the unpaid health insurance premiums were reimbursed. At the time, BTS’ agency explained that there were omissions in the process of delivering the mail to the apartment. Jimin later apologized for the controversy.
Currently, Jimin is fulfilling his duty as a national defense soldier. He joined the military with Jungkook on Dec. 12 last year, and all of his BTS members are spending their “military days.” Nevertheless, Jimin is showing his love for fans by actively communicating with them through Weverse and other channels.
▲ aespa’s Karina (Yoo Jimin)
Karina debuted as the leader of the girl group aespa back in 2020. aespa is the first girl group to debut under SM Entertainment in six years after Red Velvet, drawing attention even before its debut. Karina is said to have been offered a casting call by SM Entertainment through SNS due to her beautiful appearance.
After debuting with “Black Mamba,” aespa began to receive a lot of love relatively quickly with its megahit “Next Level.” In particular, Karina enjoyed great popularity as the center and a visual member of the group. She also joined the project unit God the Beat with senior singers from SM about a year after his debut.
Last month, she admitted to dating actor Lee Jae-wook, drawing keen attention from the public. They had developed into lovers only a month ago after meeting each other for the first time at a fashion show in Milan. However, their relationship was not supported by fans. Some pointed out that it had only been three years since aespa debuted and that Karina has been irresponsible as she is the leader. In the end, Karina surprised a lot of people by uploading a handwritten apology a week after the news of her dating rumor.
