EUGENE (ENTERTAINER)

'Kim Yoo-jin' (born March 3, 1981), professionally known in English as 'Eugene', is a South Korean singer and actress, known mostly for her musical career as part of the hit K-pop group S.E.S..

Contents

Early life

Career start

Solo career

Personal life

Discography

Albums

Singles

Filmography

References

External links

Early life

Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, but spent her childhood in Guam moving there after finishing elementary school. She returned to Korea with her parents and younger sister sometime in high school, and eventually graduated from Korea Kent Foreign School ^[1]. She is fluent in English, and her native Korean, ^[2] and is a Christian.^[3]

Career start

Main articles: S.E.S. (group)

By way of an audition tape, Eugene was able to be part of a music group for SM Entertainment in South Korea, even though she was still in Guam. Debuting in 1997, S.E.S. became one of the biggest Korean groups of all time, having the record for biggest selling album by a female group in Korea. While in S.E.S., Eugene became known for her beauty and was part of the reason why S.E.S. had many advertising contracts. In fact, for certain print campaigns (like for Korean cosmetics company Etude), Eugene had the leading role, being the focus of the advertisements. Though vocally weaker than Bada and Shoo, Eugene became the face of SES in advertising.

Solo career

After the split of S.E.S. in 2002, Kim has appeared in four Korean dramas: ''Loving You'', ''Save The Last Dance'', ''Wonderful Life'', and ''I Really, Really Like You''. She has also appeared in commercials and advertisements, most notably for Korean cosmetics company Cathy Cat. In addition, she has released two solo albums. ''My True Style'', her first album, has sold nearly 65,000 records and had one hit ballad, 'The Best'. Her second album ''810303'' sold a disappointing 19,000 copies. Although sales were low, Eugene still had a very successful single with 'Windy', mostly due to her new "sexy" image (compared to her previous girl next door image). This song was performed on all the music video programs in Korea for many months, in addition to her second single. Promotions were stopped near the end of the year. Eugene did some promotional work in the Philippines in mid-2006.
As of 2007, she is one of the co-hosts of KBS's ''Happy Together: Friends'', taking over from Lee Hyori. Also, she has become part of the musical version of the film ''Innocent Steps''^[4].
She also co-starred in her movie debut in "Unstoppable Marriage"(May 10, 2007 Korean) Starring Kim Soo-mi, Im Chae-mu, Yu Jin (Eugene Kim), Ha Seok-jin, Yun Da-hoon, An Young-hong. ^[5]

Personal life

Eugene's First Boyfriend when she was in Freshmen in Highschool,was back in guam,a guy name 'kim jin Seung" also became a korean singer "101" Rumours had spread that Kim has been dating Park Yong-ha, with whom she had acted in the KBS drama ''Loving You''. A witness claimed to saw Kim sitting on Park's lap snuggled tightly in his arms at the house party put up by Ryu Shi-won. However, both of them have flatly denied the liaison. There was a Rumour about Eugene being pregnant by Park yong ha.^[6]
Her co-star in ''Wonderful Life'', Lee Ji Hoon, played Min Do-hyun, the ex-boyfriend. They had a 5-year relationship (from 1997 to 2002).

Discography

Albums

★ ''My True Style...'' (released May 2003)

★ ''810303'' (released August 2004)

Singles

★ The Best

★ Cha Cha

★ Windy

★ Wuthering Heights

Filmography

★ 2002: ''Loving You''

★ 2004 SBS: ''Save the Last Dance for Me''

★ 2005 MBC: ''Wonderful Life''

★ 2006 MBC: ''I Really Really Like You''

★ 2007 ''Unstoppable Marriage''

References

1. EPG profile
2. Manilastandard
3. [1]; [2]
4. http://www.asianbite.com/default.asp?display=715
5. http://ilove-koreanmovie.blogspot.com/2007/06/korean-movie-2007-unstoppable-marriage.html
6. Park Yong Ha & Eugene?!; [3]

External links

★ Eugene's Full Profile and Photographs

★ Eugene Photo Collection/Gallery

★ Pfull Official Site

★ Eugene's cyworld