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Ahn Minhui is the Featured Idol of August 2022
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Ahn Minhui (안민희) is a South Korean singer-songwriter under SUN Entertainment. She debuted on July 18th, 2019, with the mini-album Can You Hear Me Now?.
Early Life[]
Ahn Minhui was born on July 18th, 2019. Her family consists of her father, the CEO of a company, her mother, an artist.
Throughout her childhood, her parents put an effort into teaching her the importance of volunteering. Every weekend, they would volunteer somehwere.
At the age of 8, Minhui was already a songwriter. Her knowledge of guitar from her father teaching her how to play combined with her natural lyrical talent helped her to write her first song. It was titled "Sunny Day" and was about a nice sunny day. She would walk around the house performing it. Her parents helped her enter a song contest for kids, and her song placed third.
By the age of 14, Minhui had already written three albums worth of songs. She decided to start performing on street corners. Bin Junseok, a newly employed staff at SUN Entertainment, noticed Minhui as he was walking home from work. He immediately gave her his card, noticing her pure talent. Minhui called the company right away, and joined the next week.
Predebut[]
Minhui didn't want to be a k-pop idol. She didn't know why she agreed to such. She had never learned how to dance in her life. Minhui thought she was going to become the next big songwriter for the company, not its first artist. The company's words were very convincing though. The promises of musical freedom in exchange for becoming a k-pop idol were too good to not accept.
Minhui had a rough start to her training. She was the company's only trainee for a while. Her dancing was very unstable and she had a lot of trouble with it. At the same time, her voice was going through a rough patch and she couldn't practice singing without hurting it. She almost gave up. She stopped coming to practices after her third month. The company tried to reach out to her for a month and she didn't respond. Bin Junseok was the one who convinced her to keep trying. He messaged her through her mother, and kept sending her encouraging words. His wife also helped, as she is a professional dancer, and told Minhui stories about how she failed when she started. Minhui eventually got her motivation back, and began training again the next month.
After that, Minhui never gave up on training again. Something inside her changed. She wanted to become a k-pop idol. She needed to become a k-pop idol. Her dancing slowly started to improve. Her voice came back. The company began added more trainees, and Minhui felt a sense of friendship with them.
In 2018, Minhui lost her voice again. She had been training normally for the past three years with barely any issues. One day, her voice just disappeared. She could barely hold a note. Her tone was off. Minhui broke down in the middle of practice. She didn't know why her voice was acting like this. She had taken care of it so well.
Minhui acted like she didn't know what was causing the problem, but deep inside, she knew exactly why.
SUN Entertainment had announced that they would be debuting a soloist in 2019. Minhui knew it would be her. She had heard people talking about it. She became a bit stressed a first. Debuting is a pretty big deal. For Minhui, it became a very big deal. The stress began to eat at her, as no announced on who the soloist would actually be had been made yet. It got to the point where she just couldn't bring herself to sing. Her stress had eaten her voice.
Minhui was broken. She knew they wouldn't debut her if she couldn't sing. She didn't stop coming to pratice, but she stopped hanging out with the other trainees. She would focus on dancing and songwriting, but avoid the vocals practice room. Bin Junseok noticed this immediately and told the other staff. The vocal trainers decided to put on a presentation to the trainees about how your voice can be affected not just physicaly but psychologically. Minhui attended the presenation, as Bin Junseok told her it would be good for her. She wasn't cured right away after seeing the presentation, but it made her reflect on how she was feeling. She began to tell Bin Junseok about why she thought she was having voice problems. She slowly started to improve the more she reflected.
At the beginning of 2019, SUN Entertainment announced that Minhui would be their first soloist. Minhui, who was still recovering from her voice problems, cried in the practice room as soon as this was announced. It was a combination of happy tears and frustrated tears. She was happy that she was going to be debuting. She was frustrated that her voice was still having problems.
Throughout early 2019, Minhui got special treatment in her practices. She began choosing her songs for her debut mini-album. Her debut was set for July, so she put in as much effort as she could into practicing. She hated the way the recorded songs sounded not matter how much work was put into the instrumentals. Her voice was still strained. At this point, her dancing had surpassed the other trainees due to practice, and she put a lot of effort into the choreography. AT the start of June, Minhui cried again. It was only happy tears this time. During vocal practice, her voice came back. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best her voice had sounded since she lost it. She rerecorded all of the songs on the album. She also added a new song, which she had wrote as soon as she had gained her voice back. It was called Can You Hear Me Now?, and detailed her experience with losing her voice. It also became the title of the album.
Career[]
2019: Debut, First Comeback[]
On July 18th, Minhui debuted with Can You Hear Me Now?. It was received well by critics as being a solid debut. Due to Minhui being credited for writing in all of the songs, and being the only writer for Can You Hear Me Now?, she gained some reputation in the eyes of the critics. The title track, GIRL, was a simple, dance track. Fans preferred the b-sides, though the lyrics of GIRL were pretty well received. The deeply personal lyrics of Can You Hear Me Now? inspired the fans to create a campaign called I Can Hear You, where they send messages to Minhui. The promotions for GIRL gained no music show wins, but Minhui gained a lot of new fans.
In September, Minhui went on SGA's Pumpkin House. The producers of the show had seen her perform GIRL during her promotions and thought she deserved a chance on their show. Minhui's charming and kind personality caught the attention of viewers, and she gained a lot more fans from the general public.
In December, Minhui had her first comeback with LOST. The title track of the same name was a deep, EDM-based track. Critics did not like the EP as much as her debut, but liked the lyrics more. Fans loved LOST, and many did dance covers of it. Some fans pointed out that Minhui's voice had improved a lot from her debut. This was because Minhui had started doing vocal therapy, wanting her voice to return to how it was before she trained. Minhui was proud of her voice at this time.
2020: The Girl, Voice Complications, FOUND, First Concert[]
In March of 2020, Minhui released her second mini-album The Girl, with the title track TRAIN. The song was about Minhui time as a trainee. Critics applauded Minhui's strong lyrics, and the songs on the mini-album received high praise. One of Minhui's performances of TRAIN went viral for her visuals.
In June 2020, Minhui started losing her voice again. She stayed quiet about it, as she wasn't doing promotions. She took a rest from singing, but it didn't help her voice. Minhui went to a doctor, who told her she might be developing muscle tension dysphonia. Minhui had been straining her voice without knowing, and hadn't been doing vocal therapy. She decided to take a longer break from promoting to heal her voice.
In July 2020, fans were wondering why Minhui wasn't performing as often. She reassured them on SNS that she was fine, but still hid the fact that her voice was recovering from them. Her voice wasn't reacting to the vocal therapy the way she wanted it to. Some days it was fine, other days it was not.
In October 2020, Minhui released her second EP FOUND. The title track of the same name was deep and emotional. The other songs on the album were more rap based, which was different from what Minhui's songs were normally like. Critics pointed out that this shift in music direction was interesting and Minhui pulled it off well. Fans thought Minhui's voice sounded different. It had a slightly raspy quality to it, and was a bit deeper than normal. Minhui didn't do as many promotions for the EP, and when she did, her voice change was very obvious. Due to her voice not quite recovering when she returned to performing, it had changed. It wasn't gone anymore, and it didn't affect her overall singing ability, but it was different. Minhui hated how it sounded because it wasn't how it was before.
In November 2020, her voice recovered enough that she could fully sing again. Although it was recovered, it still sounded different. Minhui decided that she would have to work with how her voice was and accept it.
In December 2020, Minhui decided to hold an online concert. She practiced with new singing techniques that strained her voice less, and practiced hard. Her concert went well. Fans really noticed the difference in her voice when she performed older songs.
2021: FINDING ME, CLOVER, Tied[]
In May 2021, Minhui released a documentary titled FINDING ME. Throughout the earlier months of the year, Minhui has been on a break to make FINDING ME. The documentary was about her time as a trainee and her struggles with her voice. She used footage from trainee practice videos, videos she filmed herself while training, and rehearsal footage to talk about her struggles. She opned up about her muscle tension dysphonia to her fans for the first time. Her documentary was well received, and fans gave her tons of support.
In July 2021, Minhui released her third EP CLOVER, with the title track of the same name. The songs on the album were happier than her previous albums. Critics pointed out the shift back to vocal focused songs and how Minhui seemed to be finding her style. Her voice had improved a ton since December, and Minhui had fully accepted and trained her voice the way it was. Fans started to feel strange about Minhui still not having her first win.
In October 2021, Minhui released her fourth EP Tied. The title track Loop was soft and gentle, with sweet and cute lyrics. She promoted a lot for the EP, but still received no wins. Her fanbase had grew considerably, and her songs charted fairly well, but her physical sales couldn't beat out other groups.
2022: Going Viral, ARTIST[]
In April 2022, fans started a campaign called Minhui's First Win. Fans would post her songs everywhere they could, trying to gain more fans for Minhui. They would hold streaming parties for her songs. There was mnay dance cover contests, and fans held events where they could. One fansite posted a photo of Minhui walking to a schedule in a very fancy outfit, and it suddenly went viral. People who weren't her fans started calling her a fashion queen, and it became the viral photo everyone was talking about. Fans knew that the photo wouldn't hold up Minhui's popularity, so they used it to their advantage. They would fill forums with links to Minhui's songs and promote her.
In July 2022, Minhui released her first album ARTIST. The title track, MY EYES, was fierce and fun, with a catchy dance. The song charted well immediately from its release, and Minhui received her highest first day sales yet. Minhui received her first ever win on THE SHINING STAR, followed by wins on Music Rank and Smile Groove Music Show. Minhui also collaborated on a track from YUKI's album Like Dancing, on a track called FLOWING.
In September 2022, Minhui appeared as a guest judge on the show Star Maker X 101. Fans were a bit concerned about bias, as two of the remaining trainees were from SUN Entertainment, but backed off once Min Taylor was eliminated. Minhui stated after that she has no bias in situations like this, and that she evaluated all of the trainees equally.
Ahn Minhui and Her Voice[]
Image[]
Outside Image[]
Minhui is seen as the typical kind beauty stereotype of Korean soloists. She always has an aura of gentleness and kindness around her. Her professionalism and high intelligence also asserts this sort of kind princess vibe to her. Minhui loves doing volunteer work, often showing up to events unannounced and fans only hearing about it after. She has mentioned that she does this because she used to volunteer all the time as a child, so as an idol, she wants to continue doing that.
Minhui has also been considered a queen of fashion. Even her everyday outfits are seen as chic. She always follows the trends exactly and every item of clothing she wears seems to compliment her. Minhui cares about fashion, as she has mentioned, but she doesn’t mean to be a fashion icon. She just wears whatever looks cute.
Minhui is a scandal-free idol. Fans put her on a pedestal, as she has never betrayed their trust publicly. The general public adores her for this, but some have tried to ruin her name. Minhui, by some, is seen as the queen of secrets, as if she is hiding all of these scandals that need to come to light.
Minhui is constantly acknowledged for her journey with her voice. As she has written many songs about it, people are very aware of what she felt during her trainee days. She is seen as someone who is determined to make it big through pure effort because of this. People make her sadness about her voice a big part of her image, naming her “The Lost Voice” to be dramatic.
Inside Image (How She Feels About Her Image)[]
Minhui genuinely is kind person. She feels that people see her as someone who is only kind for the cameras, and it eats her up inside. Being a volunteer lets her truly be herself away from the cameras. As soon as she is in public view, she feels that her kindness needs to be forced. She feels like any sense of goodness in her could become corrupted by this. The princess vibe that everyone places on her also hurts her due to being called a princess usually meaning that you are arrogant or selfish.
Minhui is tired of the cameras, but they always find her. She has to wear a pretty outfit everyday she goes out besides volunteering because she knows. The cameras will take photos of her no matter what she wears. Her fashion expert image is only because she can’t afford to be seen in normal clothing. She knows the public will tear her apart. She knows how malicious internet comments can be. If she’s pretty, she can get through it.
Minhui has dated some people, but it’s never gotten to the public light. Besides that, she is scandal-free. She wouldn’t consider it a scandal, but she is bisexual. She knows that if she came out, the public would eat her up and her career could be gone. All of the people waiting for her to mess up would be victorious. She hides it in small comments and having her songs’ love interests remain gender neutral. She sees people like Geonu and feels a bit of pain. She sees him getting to be who he is and knowing that because he’s a man and so beloved, he’ll receive less backlash. She adores him, but she feels this pain no matter what. Minhui works hard because she wants to reach that level of popularity. Not because she wants the fame, but because she wants the freedom.
Minhui wants to share her journeys and feelings in her songs, but became more reluctant to after people started calling her “The Lost Voice”. She knows it is supposed to be dramatic and somehow inspiring, but she hates it. Her complicated feelings about her voice and how it has changed over the years is something deeply personal to her. She is determined to overcome those feelings, as she has always been a determined person.
Inspirations[]
Ahn Minhui looks up to these artists:
Minhui has been looking up to HARAM since HARAM debuted. She loves her music and her songwriting skills.
Minhui has been looking up to Geonu since 2019. She started listening to his music a lot more then due to her friends listening to him.
Minhui has been looking up to Katelyn since Sequoia's debut in 2017. She loves watching her perform and wants to be able to perform like her.
Minhui has been looking up to Rina since she was on the survival show that made her group. She rooted for Rina throughout the whole show.
Discography[]
2019[]
- Can You Hear Me Now? (Mini-Album)
- LOST (EP)
2020[]
- The Girl (Mini-Album)
- FOUND (EP)
2021[]
- CLOVER (EP)
- Tied (EP)
2022[]
- ARTIST (Album)
Filmography[]
2021[]
- FINDING ME (Documentary)