Nayeon went from one of TWICE’s most outstanding members to the group’s first soloist.
In the lineup of TWICE, a top 3rd gen girl group, Nayeon is without doubt one of the most popular and attention-grabbing members. Her refreshing voice tone, aura, and charm are said to suit TWICE’s image the most. After 7 years of group activities, Nayeon has now become the first member of TWICE to make a long-awaited solo debut.
Nayeon officially debuted as a soloist with the first mini album “IM NAYEON”. The album title is a word play by combining both Nayeon’s full name in Korean, Im Nayeon and the English introduction, “I’m Nayeon”. Since it was announced, “IM NAYEON” has garnered 500,000 copies in pre-order sales, making Nayeon the third female K-pop soloist to record this number, following BLACKPINK’s Rosé and Lisa.
To achieve the success she has today, Nayeon has gone through a lot of difficulties and pressure along the way. Nayeon was born on September 22, 1995 in Seoul. Although she is known for her youthful and bubbly visuals, Nayeon is actually TWICE’s oldest member. Nayeon is not only pretty, but also extremely talented and charismatic. She takes on the lead vocal, lead dancer, face of the group, and center position.
In 2010, Nayeon passed JYP’s Saturday audition which is famous for being incredibly hard and competitive. After becoming a trainee, in 2013, she was selected to be a member of 6MIX – a planned JYP girl group that ended up not being launched.
Before joining JYP’s survival show “SIXTEEN” and debuting in TWICE, Nayeon appeared in some TV commercials and MVs of JYP seniors, including Jun K’s “No Love”, GOT7’s “Girls Girls Girls”, Miss A’s “Only You”. Nayeon also starred in episode 2 of KBS2’s famous drama “Dream High 2” in 2012.
With an outstanding appearance and a cute and sweet look like a white rabbit, she entered the top 6 most prominent female idols in the annual music poll conducted by Gallup Korea for 2 consecutive years (2017-2018). This is the highest position compared to the rest of the group members.
Nayeon is also often chosen by JYP as a member to open the stage. She also has the opportunity to participate in variety shows in Korea. However, because of her beauty, Nayeon once had a crisis when she was threatened by a fanboy. They said they would attack her if she went on a secret date. In April 2020, fans were extremely angry because most of TWICE’s members were stalked. Sasaeng fans often send warning messages and threaten the private lives of TWICE members, especially Nayeon.
Specifically, the female idol received a letter with the content that if she dated someone and “ignored” him, this person would kill her. Nayeon herself spoke up on a livestream about this issue. JYP then immediately applied for a restraining order and criminal prosecution against the stalker.
Waiting for 7 years to make a solo debut, many people think that this time is too late. However, for Nayeon herself, this is the right time for her to promote her personal career after a period of wholeheartedly focusing on activities with TWICE.
