Seulgi (singer)

Kang Seul-gi was born on February 10, 1994, in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Her family consists of her parents and an older brother. She studied in Ansan Byeolmang Middle School and attended School of Performing Arts Seoul. She can speak both Korean and Japanese.[2]

Kang began training in SM Entertainment in 2007. On December 2, 2013, she was one of the first three trainees introduced to the public through SM Entertainment's pre-debut project, SM Rookies, alongside now-NCT members Jeno and Taeyong.[3][4] Various pre-debut clips of Seulgi were released by SM, one of which was a dance performance with Irene covering ‘Be Natural’, a song that was sung originally by S.E.S.[5]

In July 2014, she was featured in Henry Lau's song "Butterfly" from his second EP Fantastic. She also appeared in the music video of the single "Fantastic".[6]

On August 1, 2014, Kang made her official debut as a member of Red Velvet.[7]

On October 31, 2014, a remake MV of the song "In Summer" by Deux, sang by Seulgi and Koeun of SM Rookies, was released by EXO Kai for MNET program EXO 90:2014.[8]

In January 2015, she starred in an SM Entertainment musical School Oz, playing the lead role of Dorothy.[9] From April to May, she was part of the JTBC variety show Off to School.[10]

In July 2016, she released the song "Don't Push Me" with Wendy as part of the soundtrack of the KBS2 drama, Uncontrollably Fond.[11] In October 2016, Seulgi appeared on King of Mask Singer as a contestant under the alias Cinema Heaven.[12] On November 18, Seulgi sang "“그대는 그렇게/ You, Just Like That”, composed by Yoon Sang, as the theme song of NCSoft's MMORPG Blade & Soul. The song was later officially released as digital single in 2017. On December 30, Kang and bandmate Wendy and other SM artists released a digital single titled "Sound of Your Heart" for SM Station.[13]

In January 2017, she released the song "You're the Only One I See" with Wendy as part of the soundtrack of the KBS2 drama, Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth.[14] She released a duet titled "Darling U" with Super Junior's Yesung on January 22, as part of SM Station.[15] In February 2017, Seulgi and Hwang Chi-yeul collaborated for the song "Our Story", which serves as the final single track for Hwang's girl group duet project ‘Fall, in girl’.[16] In March 2017, Seulgi featured in NCT Mark's "Drop", an original song performed on High School Rapper, a survival hip hop reality TV show.[17] Seulgi, alongside six other female idols, was cast in Idol Drama Operation Team that was aired on May 29, 2017, wherein they created their own drama series, 'Let's Only Walk the Flower Road', by becoming accredited scriptwriters as well as acting in the series as fictional versions of themselves in a girl group.[18] Their group, called ‘Girls Next Door’, also released the song "Deep Blue Eyes" and held their debut stage on July 14, 2017 at Music Bank.[18] On October 27, she, along with Kangta and Wendy, released a remake of the 2001 song "인형 (Doll)" by Shinhwa's Shin Hye-sung and Lee Ji-hoon as part of the second season of the SM Station project. Its music video used footage from their live performance of the song at the SMTOWN LIVE TOUR V in JAPAN and was released on the same day.[19] In the same month, she featured in a duet "Heart Stop" with Taemin of Shinee released on his second full Korean album, Move.[20]

In February 2018, Seulgi was confirmed as part of the cast for Law of the Jungle in Mexico.[21] In April, Seulgi was also confirmed as part of the cast of JTBC new variety show Secret Unnie together with Sunmi.[22] Seulgi was also featured on Moonbyul's solo debut single "Selfish", which was released on May 23, 2018.[23] In June 2018, Seulgi and Wendy was announced filming in Austria for Battle Trip’s special 100th episode themed ‘The Country I Want to Live in’, which first episode aired on July 21, 2018.[24][25] In September 2018, she released a single "Wow Thing" as part of a mini group, Station Young, with (G)I-DLE's Soyeon, GFriend's SinB, and solo artist Chungha.[26] In October 2018, Seulgi was announced as cast of JTBC's new show Cool Kids, along with Yoo Jae-suk, Kim Shin-young, and other celebrity representatives.[27] Each cast member was introduced with an aspect that is widely acknowledged about them, Seulgi was the one on the “trend”.[27] On October 15, Seulgi was featured on South Korean hip-hop and R&B artist Zion.T's single "Hello Tutorial", which peaked at number 2 on the Gaon Digital Chart.

On February 12, 2019, Seulgi released “Always”, a ballad song about eternal love for the tvN drama The Crowned Clown.[28] For the year 2019, Seulgi was ranked as the fourth most popular female K-pop idol in a survey of soldiers doing mandatory military service in South Korea.[29]

On April 20, 2020, SM confirmed that Seulgi, alongside member Irene, would form Red Velvet's first sub-unit.[30] Red Velvet - Irene & Seulgi debuted on July 6 with the extended play Monster. This EP contained Seulgi's solo song, titled "Uncover." On October 31, 2020, Seulgi was one of the guests of Yoon Do-hyun of YB Band for his virtual Acoustic Forest tour. On November 23, 2020, Seulgi was confirmed to debut as an art essay translator for the book series “Art Gallery By My Side: Love, Happiness, Sleep”.[31]

Seulgi was featured in the music video of TVXQ Yunho's "Eeny Meeny" which was released on January 25, 2021.[32]

In addition to being an incredibly skilled dancer and powerful vocalist, Seulgi is also recognized for her amazing art skills and impressive photography skills.[33][34][35] Proving her expertise in many areas of arts, photos of her artworks have been circulating on various online communities and many have been blown away by her talent.[36][37][38] She gained the nickname “Kang Painter” and “Seul-Painter” for her sensuous and distinctive painting skills.[39] In 2016, Seulgi was chosen as the honorary ambassador for the 18th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival to further help spread the festival's mission, which was to improve public awareness on animated films so students and lesser known artists in the field would gain more opportunities.[40] In 2019, Seulgi lent her voice to serve as an audio guide during M. Chat exhibit of world class graffiti artists at Seoul Arts Center.[41]

Due to her love for arts, the Art Museum By My Side (2020) series project by Maronie Books was offered to her to translate.[39][31] The book series is a collection of 35 artworks for each theme: Love, Happiness, Sleep.[31] Seulgi's translation of the book, originally in English by Shana Gozansky, presents both the original text and Seulgi's own feelings and interpretations.[31] She also personally picked her favorite artworks and wrote her own thoughts and feelings. The series could serve as guide to those people who usually find it difficult to enjoy art due to lack of professional knowledge.[42]

On March 21, 2018, Seulgi was picked to model Nike's collection for South Korea national football team - The Red Devils 2018 Collection.[43] Since August 2018, Seulgi has been the face of Converse Korea, becoming their first female brand ambassador.[44] Starting with the ‘One Star Campaign’ under the slogan ‘no one can evaluate me’, Seulgi and Converse have campaigned for support on one's own values and standards.[44]

On December 23, 2019, she was announced, alongside with Park Bo-gum, as the face for Coca-Cola's 2020 campaign 'Little Big Moments’.[45] She was chosen due to her positive energy that perfectly matched with the campaign.[45] On December 26, L’Occitane posted their new campaign that featured Seulgi, and two other artists, art director Cha In Cheol and illustrator Kim Se Dong.[46] Seulgi is an ambassador for L'Occitane x OMY's "City Palette" campaign for their shea butter hand cream.[46]

In January 2021, Seulgi became the new ambassador of Volkswagen. She is the face of a new campaign for their new T-Roc model, and promotes it with an original jingle and music video for their slogan ‘Born Confident’.[47] Volkswagen chose her as ambassador for her unique sensibility, ability to present unique performances with her own color, and being a cultural icon supported by millennials.[48]