Winner of “K-Pop Star” Katie Kim will debut under YG’s ex-creative director SINXITY
Katie Kim is a Korean-American singer who won the reality television series K-Pop Star 4 in 2015.
Katie was born in South Korea and immigrated to New Jersey when she was 10 years old. She was attending Berklee College of Music when she auditioned for K-Pop Star 4.
She received particular attention for nailing her own interpretation of g.o.d’s “Place Where You Need To Be” during the audition program.
Her performance was praised by Judge Park Jin Young, who wrote the song, and received a standing ovation from the audience while the video gained 4,000,000 views on Naver Cast within the shortest period of time in K-Pop Star history.
Since winning first place on the survival program, she had decided to sign a contract with YG Entertainment. At the time, Yang Hyun Suk had announced that they would do their best to train Katie to become more healthy and to make her debut as soon as possible.
Approximately 3 years have passed and Yang Hyun Suk recently revealed how the talented singer was doing. He first explained that the music Katie wanted to pursue was closer to Western music, rather than K-Pop, due to her background.
“After a series of discussions with Kate after she joined our company, we found out that the music Katie wanted to pursue was closely related to her hometown. Kate, who was born in 1993, immigrated to New Jersey with her family when she was 10 and spent her adolescence in American until she was 21. As a result, she was more familiar with American culture and music over Korean culture.” ㅡ Yang Hyun Suk
Katie had apparently been pursuing the music she wanted to do, going back and forth from Korea to the US with foreign music producers, and has created many songs as well as music videos as a result.
“YG decided to create the optimal music production environment for Katie. She went back and forth from Korea to the US for the past couple of years working with foreign music producers and holding song camps to complete numerous songs. The production of various music videos including ones filmed in the US have been completed for her successful debut.” ㅡ Yang Hyun Suk
Katie left YG Entertainment, however, on May 24, 2018. Yang Hyun Suk clarified that although YG Entertainment has prepared her debut album, she will be debuting with another entertainment agency, the reason being that the YG creative director, who was in charge of Katie Kim, had decided earlier this year to leave the company.
“We met with Katie and the former YG director to formally discuss the best plan for Katie and let Katie make the final decision for herself.” ㅡ Yang Hyun Suk
As a result, Katie will be debuting with the new agency that has been established by the former YG director, and YG Entertainment will be responsible for the distribution of her music.
“Katie ultimately decided to move to the agency newly established by the director and YG will continue to maintain a relationship with her by taking responsibility for the distribution of her music and supporting her successful debut.” ㅡ Yang Hyun Suk
The former YG creative director, who goes by the name SINXITY, was also in charge of WINNER and ONE since their debut and had participated in iKON’s latest 2 comebacks as well as Bobby’s solo album, BLACKPINK’s latest comeback and Taeyang’s latest comeback.
The new company he created is called AXIS, which is a creative collective platform as defined on its official homepage.
Katie Kim, who will debut as Katie, has confirmed her debut, releasing a debut single on June 6, a second single on August 8, and her first album on October 10.
She has also released multiple teasers for her upcoming debut.
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