Younha’s Profile
- Real Name: Go Youn-ha
- Native Name: 고윤하
- Nicknames: Younnie, God Younha, Eardrum Girlfriend
- Birthday: Apr 29, 1988 (37 years old)
- Blood type: O
- Height/Weight: 158 cm (5’2”) / N/A
- Gender: Female
- Zodiac Sign: Taurus
- Fandom: Younhazi
- Birthplace: Cheongju, South Korea
-
Nationality:
South Korean
- Profession: Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer
- Language Skills: Korean, Japanese, English
- Current Agency: C9 Entertainment
- Debut: October 20, 2004
- Years Active: 2004–present (21 years)
- MBTI: INTJ
Younha, born Go Youn-ha, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and music producer. She was born on April 29, 1988, in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. Younha first launched her career in Japan in 2004, earning the nickname “Oricon Comet” after achieving remarkable success on the Japanese music charts. In 2006, she officially debuted in Korea and has since been recognized as one of the country’s most accomplished singer-songwriters.
Early Life
Younha began learning piano at the age of four, quickly displaying an exceptional talent for music. By elementary school, she was already singing regularly and consistently ranked among the top students in her class.
Gifted with an IQ of 158, she was able to absorb new knowledge with ease. She developed a fascination with Japanese television dramas, especially Gokusen, which inspired her to teach herself Japanese until she became fluent.
Despite her abilities, her path in music was far from smooth. During her middle and high school years, Younha auditioned for nearly 20 South Korean entertainment companies. Each time, she was turned down with the same response: she wasn’t “pretty enough to be a star.”
Frustrated with the lack of opportunities in her home country, Younha made a bold decision at 16—she left high school and moved to Japan to pursue her dream of becoming a singer. That turning point transformed her from a rejected teenager in Korea into the “Oricon Comet” in Japan’s music scene.
Career
Younha began her music career in 2004 after signing with Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. In October of that year, she released her debut single “Yubikiri”, which quickly earned her the nickname “Oricon Comet” for her success on the Japanese music charts.
Her first studio album, Go! Younha (2005), peaked at No. 13 on the Oricon Chart. That same year, she released singles including “Houki Boshi”—featured as the ending theme of the anime Bleach—and “Touch/Yume no Tsuzuki”. These hits established Younha as the first South Korean artist to achieve mainstream success in the Japanese pop market.
In 2006, Younha returned to South Korea and made her domestic debut with the single “Password 486”. The track earned her the Best New Artist awards at both the Golden Disc Awards and the Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2007. Later that year, she released her first Korean full-length album, The Perfect Day to Say I Love You.
From 2007 to 2009, she actively promoted in both Japan and Korea, releasing albums such as Comet (2007), Someday (2008), and Peace, Love & Ice Cream (2009). In 2008, her collaboration with Epik High on the track “Umbrella” became one of the defining hits of her career.
Between 2009 and 2012, Younha faced legal disputes with her management company, leading to a temporary hiatus. She resumed her career in 2012 under Wealive Entertainment (later rebranded as C9 Entertainment). Her comeback album, Supersonic (July 2012), featured collaborations with Jay Park, Tiger JK, and John Park, marking a powerful return.
In 2013, she released the EP Just Listen, which produced the hit single “Unacceptable”—her first top-five entry in four years. Later that year, her follow-up EP Subsonic brought further success with “It’s Okay” and “Not There”, giving her three top-10 singles in a single year for the first time in her career.
A milestone came in 2014 when the remake of “Umbrella” reached No. 1 on the Gaon Chart, her first chart-topper since debuting a decade earlier. That same year, her duet “Just the Way You Are” with Jung Joon-young peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard K-pop Hot 100.
Her fifth album, RescuE (2017), was praised internationally and ranked No. 8 on Billboard’s list of the 25 Best K-pop Albums of the 2010s, described as “a profoundly moving listening experience reflecting hardship while hinting at hope.”
In 2020, her collaboration “Winter Flower” with RM of BTS, from the EP Unstable Mindset, made her the first South Korean female soloist to top the US iTunes Chart. Billboard called it “a soaring and consoling power ballad.”
Her sixth album, End Theory (2021), and its repackage End Theory: Final Edition (2022) reinvigorated her career. Notably, the single “Event Horizon” went viral six months after release, fueled by her performances at university festivals. The track climbed to No. 1 on the Circle Digital Chart and earned Younha her first-ever music show win, 15 years into her career.
In September 2024, Younha released her seventh studio album, Growth Theory, with the title track “Sunfish” to commemorate her 20th anniversary in music. A repackage, Growth Theory: Final Edition, followed in November of the same year.
In 2025, she launched a 20-concert solo tour celebrating her two-decade career. That March, Younha married Lee Hyo-jong, the creator behind the YouTube science channel Science Cookie.
Fun Facts
- Younha once jokingly called herself the “lettuce princess” after fans teased her for wearing an outfit that looked like vegetables.
- She once posted a photo comparing the End Theory album cover to a bowl of pho as a form of self-parody.
- Fans call her the “Legend of No. 2” because many of her hit songs peaked at the second spot on the charts.
- During a live performance, her pronunciation once made fans mishear a lyric as the word coffee.
- She has performed using sign language to include hearing-impaired fans in her shows.
- Fans say that her intense gaze on stage makes them feel like she’s staring directly at them.
- On IU’s Palette, she and IU once swapped songs and covered each other’s tracks.
- Fans describe her music as a “black hole” — once you fall into it, there’s no way out.
- The rap part in Stay during Winter Flower performances led fans to close their eyes to fully absorb the emotion.
- When Winter Flower topped the U.S. iTunes chart, fans joked that it was an unexpected miracle.
- She always cracks jokes during fan sign events, making fans burst into laughter.
- International fans nicknamed her “Miss Google Translate” because she often mixes multiple languages.
- During a concert, when her microphone stopped working, she teased that it was “tired from being overworked.”
- Fans made memes calling her the “mini piano boss” because of her image sitting next to a small keyboard.
- One time she posted a food photo with the caption “Delicious,” which fans quickly turned into a meme.
