Taeyeon

Kim Tae-yeon (born March 9, 1989), more commonly known mononymously as Taeyeon, is a South Korean singer. She was a trainee at SM Entertainment's Starlight Academy during her middle school years before debuting as a member of the agency's girl group Girls' Generation in 2007. Since then, she has risen to prominence due to the group's success on the Asian music scene and further participated in the agency's projects Girls' Generation-TTS, SM the Ballad, and Girls' Generation-Oh!GG. Aside from group activities, she has also recorded songs for various television dramas and movies.

Taeyeon began a solo career in 2015 with her first extended play I. It peaked at number two on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and its title track sold over two million digital copies. She released her second extended play Why in 2016, which charted at number one and yielded two Gaon Digital Chart top-ten singles "Starlight" and "Why". Her debut studio album, My Voice (2017), and its two singles "Fine" and "Make Me Love You" achieved similar success.

As a solo artist, Taeyeon has received several awards, including five Golden Disc Awards, two Mnet Asian Music Awards, two Seoul Music Awards, two Seoul International Drama Awards, one Mnet 20's Choice Award, one Melon Music Award, one Cyworld Digital Music Award, and two Gaon Chart Music Awards.

Taeyeon was born on March 9, 1989, in Jeonju, South Korea. Her family consists of her parents, an older brother, and a younger sister. Having believed that she was "only talented" at singing, Taeyeon harbored the dream of becoming a singer at a young age. During her second year in middle school, Taeyeon accompanied her father to SM Academy (a former music institution and auxiliary affiliation of SM Entertainment), to pursue vocal lessons. Although at the time her father did not encourage Taeyeon to become an entertainer, he was persuaded by the school's president to give his daughter a chance after she recognized Taeyeon's "clean" voice. During the next year, Taeyeon accompanied her father from their hometown to Seoul on every Sunday to receive her vocal lessons from The One. She named BoA, Whitney Houston and Utada Hikaru as her pre-debut inspirations.

Taeyeon was trained by her former vocal instructor, known professionally as The One, for three years. In a 2011 interview, he described Taeyeon as a "smart" student, someone "unlike others who came to him with dreams of becoming a celebrity... [she] wanted to be a singer and reach the top with her own talents." In 2004, he "wanted to acknowledge Taeyeon's potential" by giving her the chance to be in his song "You Bring Me Joy". That same year, she won first place at the SM Youth Best Competition and signed a contract with SM Entertainment. The training process was so tough that it nearly made her quit at one point; she continued, however, and debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007. The group gained significant popularity after the release of their hit single "Gee" in 2009. Taeyeon graduated from Jeonju Art High School and was awarded the school's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.- Wikipedia