Jun Hyo-seong


Jun Hyo-seong, often simply known as Hyoseong or Hyosung, is a South Korean singer and actress.
In 2005, she was a finalist in Mnet's Battle Shinhwa which led to her signing a recording contract with Good Entertainment. In 2007, she was going to debut in the group Five Girls, with G.NA, Wonder Girls' Yubin, After School's Uee and former T-ara member and former Spica member Yang Jiwon; however, the group disbanded before they were able to debut due to the company's financial problems. Hyoseong was later discovered by TS Entertainment through a show aired on SBS MTV called Diary of Five Girls and spent two years with the company as a trainee. In 2009, she debuted with Song Jieun, Han Sunhwa and Jung Hana as the four-member girl group Secret. Hyoseong debuted as a solo artist in 2014.

Life and career

1989–2004: Early life and childhood

Jun Hyoseong was born in Cheongju, South Korea on October 13, 1989. Hyoseong's name is derived from the word '유성' which is Korean for 'meteor'. She was named this way as her father and maternal grandmother saw a shooting star across the sky on the day of her birth. Hyoseong's family struggled financially and she and her family earned extra money by delivering newspapers every morning since she was in 3rd grade. Ever since she was young, she was known amongst her friends for her singing and dancing skills. However, she never had thoughts of actually becoming a singer until she was in 6th grade. She admitted:
In middle school, she was the leader of her school's dance club and worked part-time jobs to earn the money to travel to Seoul for auditions. Her parents were against her choice at first but later supported her decision when they saw how dedicated she was towards her goal.

2005–2008: Career beginnings, planned debut with Five Girls and personal struggles

In 2005, Hyoseong failed her audition for talent shows hosted in Cheongju and Seoul. She later won an audition held earlier by the same management company in Cheongju in May 2005.
She was then advised by an agent at Good Entertainment to audition for Mnet's Battle Shinhwa and was picked as one of the final twelve participants and among them, three were females.
She was picked as the final 6 and later went on to sign a recording contract with Good Entertainment. She signed officially in 2006 and started to live in the dorms with Yoobin and Uee as a trainee and started going to school in Seoul. Good Entertainment had initially intended for Hyoseong to debut in a three-member group along with Yoobin and Uee, but ended up adding G.NA and Jiwon. They were set to debut as a five-member group called Five Girls. In 2007, before their official debut, the group starred in a reality show on MTV called Diary of Five Girls, but were never able to debut due to their company's financial issues.
In 2008, after Five Girls disbandment, she started working at a part-time job and managed to earn enough money to attend Inha University; however, her college life was short-lived: as only Uee and her were left in the company, Hyoseong thought she had to work hard and focus on lessons, so she dropped out of school.
During her 11th grade, her father was diagnosed with lung cancer, though he initially recovered after treatment. Her father was still weak when he decided to go back to work to support his family and the cancer recurred, this time being much more aggressive. The doctors told Hyoseong's family to "be ready". Her father died of lung cancer in 2008. At this point, Hyoseong was no longer a trainee with Good Entertainment and had decided to start attending college again. However, her plans changed when a TS Entertainment agent contacted her.

2009–2014: Debut with Secret and rising popularity

In 2008, a TS Entertainment agent had seen Hyoseong in "Diary of Five Girls" and contacted her to audition for their company. Hyoseong passed the audition and began living as a TS Entertainment trainee. TS Entertainment announced that they would debut a four-member girl group in October 2009. Hyoseong, along with Han Sunhwa, Song Jieun and Jung Hana, debuted as the group, Secret. Prior to their debut, the group appeared in a documentary called "Secret Story" which chronicled their debut process. They released their debut single "I Want You Back" in October 2009.
In April 2010, Secret released their first mini album entitled Secret Time which spawned the hit single "Magic" and served as their breakthrough song in South Korea. In August 2010, they released their second mini album entitled "Madonna" and the title track continued their success as it topped the Gaon Single Charts.
In January 2011, the group deviated from their "sexy" and "sassy" image and released "Shy Boy", a "cutesy" and retro inspired song. Although they were worried with the 180 degrees transformation, the single exceeded their expectations as the song was a huge success. Shy Boy charted strongly in digital charts and Secret won their first trophy on music shows with the song. They won a total of 5 trophies in various music shows with Shy Boy. In March 2011, Hyoseong was chosen as a regular cast on KBS's Oh! My School. Secret continued their success with the release of their second CD single entitled "Starlight Moonlight". The title track became another hit for Secret as the song reached number one on the Gaon Monthly Singles Charts and won them another trophy in SBS's Inkigayo.
The same year, Secret began a foray of Japanese activities with the Japanese release of Madonna and Shy Boy. The Japanese remake of "Madonna" debuted at number nine in the Oricon singles charts. Secret was the third of three Korean girl groups to debut on the Oricon chart in the top 10, the others being Kara and Girls Generation. In October 2011, they released their first studio album entitled Moving in Secret and spawned them another hit with the lead single "Love is Move. Secret released their first mini album in Japan entitled Shy Boy. The mini album also debuted at number nine on the Oricon album charts.
On November 23, 2011, Hyoseong was injured after falling down a flight of stairs while leaving the dorm. The accident, which ruptured the cartilage in her left knee and fractured the top of her right foot, halted her promotional activities with Secret.
In February 2012, she played Soo Yeon in the sitcom Salamander Guru and The Shadows that aired on SBS.
On the October 21, 2012 episode of Inkigayo, the live music show revealed a teaser video hinting that twenty of the most-wanted K-pop stars would transform into four new project groups in the yearly event. Hyoseong will be part of the girl group Dazzling Red with Sistar's Hyolyn, 4minute's Hyuna, After School's Nana and KARA's Nicole. Brave Brothers was set to produce the group's new title song. Slated to air on December 29, the group will perform the tunes only one time on stage and the profits from online streaming and downloading of the songs would be donated to people in need. The song "This Person" was released on December 27, 2012.

2014–2017: Solo debut and acting career

At the beginning of 2014, Hyoseong acted as Han Na-young in her first drama, The Ghost-Seeing Detective Cheo Yong, alongside Oh Ji-ho and Oh Ji-eun, receiving praises for her performance.
On May 12, 2014, she released her solo debut album Top Secret, holding a showcase at the Ramada Hotel Club Vanguard on the same day. A month later, she was cast in KBS1 daily drama My Dear Cat.
Hyoseong released her first extended play titled Fantasia on May 7, 2015. She took part in writing lyrics for the album on two songs. In the same year, Hyoseong reprised her role as Han Na-young in the second season of The Ghost-Seeing Detective Cheo Yong.
On March 28, 2016, Hyoseong released her second extended play titled Colored. Find Me was promoted as the lead single and featured TS Entertainment labelmate D.Action from the hip-hop duo Untouchable. Hyoseong co-wrote the lead single while also writing lyrics for other songs on the album such as Dear Moon.
In May 2016, she was cast as Park Bo-yeon in the thriller drama, Wanted. Hyoseong's work on the drama earned her the Special Acting Award – Actress in a Genre Drama at the 2016 SBS Drama Awards.
In October 2016, it was announced that Hyoseong would be replacing Cao Lu as one of the hosts on the talk show Video Star. She was chosen for her "great passion and perseverance for work," and for "her realness and honesty."
In 2017, Hyoseong was cast as Kim Gyori on the tvN drama Introvert Boss. Hyoseong expressed her difficulty with this role in an interview with BNT International stating, "It was frustrating. I'm not the type to keep things to myself, but Gyori was the opposite. I think a lot and can be shy, but I am extroverted to the extent that I express what I want to say. The director allowed us to ad-lib some parts, and it was hard at times to keep my real outgoing personality from coming out."

2018–present: Legal disputes with TS Entertainment and change of entertainment label

On February 28, 2018, it was reported that Hyoseong was in legal disputes with her agency TS Entertainment due to issues with not receiving payments. On March 5, Hyoseong's lawyer revealed that she had filed a civil lawsuit in September 2017 to confirm that her contract with the agency was no longer valid. Aside for the unreceived payments, her lawyer cited a transfer of the management rights conferred by her exclusive contract to another party without her consent. Her lawyer also stated that it would be unlikely of Hyoseong to remain a member of Secret while under TS Entertainment due to the lack of trust and communication between the agency and the singer.
On October 29, it was announced that she would return to the entertainment industry after signing with Tommy & Partners Entertainment. On November 14, the Seoul Western District Court ruled in Hyoseong's favor, confirming the invalidity of her contract with TS Entertainment and condemning the agency to pay her approximately 130 million won in remaining down payments and unpaid wages.
In April 2021, Jun signed a contract with the IOK Company.
On September 6, 2022, it was announced that Hyoseong would be releasing "Come to the Story of the Sea" as the travel theme song for the "2022 Welcome to Lively Incheon project."