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Grace Marie Park is a Korean-Canadian singer, rapper, and song writer under MUSIXY Records. She is a vocalist and main rapper in the girl group VIP, with which she made her debut in June 2020.
Early life[]
Grace was born in Portland, Oregon, to a Korean father, a dentist, and a French-Canadian mother, a music teacher. She has an identical twin sister named Claire. From her mother she learned her love for music and started taking piano lessons at age 5, playing the piano and singing in several local musical and theater productions as she grew up. Her younger brother Louis was born in 2006. She attended Chief Joseph Elementary School in Portland alongside her sister before moving to Maple Ridge, British Columbia in the Greater Vancouver Area at age 12 with her family in order to take care of her maternal grandmother. There she continued her education at Thomas Haney School and took singing lessons at Bergthorson Academy of Musical Arts until she was 15.
In late 2015, her maternal grandmother died, causing troubles within her family that eventually led to her parents getting a divorce. While her mother and younger brother stayed in Canada, Grace and her twin sister decided to move to South Korea with their father, where their paternal grandparents and aunt live. The twins finished their education at Westminster Canadian Academy in Gwacheon, before Grace eventually auditioned to be a trainee at MUSIXY Records in 2017.
Her twin sister is her best friend and alongside with her father they are her biggest fans and supporters. She also keeps in contact with her mother and younger brother, but their relationship is rocky.
Career[]
2017 - 2019: Trainee and COSMIC! Idol Search[]
Grace was officially confirmed as a trainee for MUSIXY Records in August 2017, shortly before her 17th birthday. There she formed a strong friendship with Chinese-Korean singer Qinny and also appeared in her music video for Be Right Back in December 2017.
Starting in 2018, she and Choi Harin started uploading covers of Western music on the MUSIXY YouTube channel, which started gaining traction in August of the same year when they covered Ariana Grande's God Is a Woman.
In March 2019, Grace competed in the survival show COSMIC! Idol Search alongside other MUSIXY trainees Go Jieun, Lee Hyeori, Kim Nara, Han Jimin, Lee Seonmi and Kim Joorin. She placed 16th overall, being eliminated in the third and second-to-last round. This places her as the second most successful MUSIXY trainee in the competition after Go Jieun, who placed 7th and debuted with the girl group Cosmic Code.
2020: Debut with VIP[]
MUSIXY Records announced their first girl group project VIP on November 19, 2019, placing their debut in Summer 2020. On April 16, 2020, they unveiled the girl groups line up, which included Grace, and the title of their debut single, Devil May Cry, which would be released on June 1.
After their debut was very well received, VIP released two more singles until their first mini album, D E V I L, was released on September 7.
2021 - present: IDOL SWITCH!!, comeback with NOSTALGIA, JaMiHo[]
In April 2021 it was announced that VIP would take part in the reality and music show IDOL SWITCH!!, a collaboration between MUSIXY Records and Nitonoyo Music. In the first episode of IDOL SWITCH!! it was revealed that Grace would be placed in the Japanese pop-idol group Girl Up!9 alongside groupmate and close friend Kim Hyeoseo. With the 1、2、SWITCH!! team Up!9, she produced and recorded a version of the song MIX☆SWITCH and their own original song Lucky.
Following the success of IDOL SWITCH!!, it was announced that VIP would release a new song called NOSTALGIA 2.0 on August 12. The accompanying mini album, NOSTALGIA was, after some delay, released on October 11.
Grace was also the face of the new JaMiHo jeans collection of fall 2021. She starred in several ads that were aired worldwide and was invited to the JaMiHo YouTube channel, where they filmed a small "What's in my Wardrobe" video which was released on October 18.
Personal life[]
Grace shares a bedroom with Hyeoseo in their group's dorm in Seoul, and has stated that she owns at least two cats, one of which is called Bambi and currently lives with her father.
In a Vlive Q&A she stated that, if she hadn't been accepted as a trainee, she would now probably be studying at Gachon University alongside her sister. When asked what she would be studying, she said she wasn't exactly sure, but she would have probably joined her sister in studying Media & Communication Design.
In September 2020, Grace openly came out as bisexual during a radio interview while doing promotions for VIP's first mini album, hinting at the fact that she has a secret girlfriend which many believe to be either bandmates Hyeoseo or J-Rin. She has neither confirmed nor denied these speculations as of October 2021.
Trivia[]
- Even though her mother is French-Canadian and her grandmother only spoke French, Grace can speak little more than basic French. She studied Spanish in Secondary School instead.
- Her favorite color is pastel green.