These K-Pop Idols Are Actually Not Koreans
These non-Korean K-Pop idols hail from countries like Japan, China, Thailand, and even the US
To become a K-Pop idol, what you need is an ironclad will to succeed, a whole lot of hardiness, and physical and psychological stamina. When it comes to the place of birth or nationality, it is, in fact, not a must to be Korean! The opportunity to become a K-Pop idol isn't limited to those who were born and raised in South Korea.
These K-Idols have all made names for themselves in the ultra-competitive world of K-Pop despite being from the US, New Zealand, Japan, China, and beyond; despite coming from different places, what they each had in common was a desire to make it. In this industry, what matters is where you want to go, and not where you're from.
A Filipino-American singer who was born in Manila and lived in Cebu, Philippines even made it as a K-Pop artist! Kriesha Chu was a finalist in reality TV competition show K-Pop Star 6: The Last Chance and debuted as a member of girl group KWINs.
Check out the gallery below to know more about these non-Korean K-Pop idols:
Non-Korean K-Pop Idols
Non-Korean K-Pop Idols
BLACKPINK's Lisa
Let's start with arguably the most famous non-Korean K-Pop singer there is now: Lisa! The BLACKPINK member with a massive global presence is actually from Thailand and was born to Thai parents. As a teenager, she constantly listened to K-pop, practicing dance moves, rap bars, and changing her style as often as her K-idols would. Becoming a K-Pop star was always a dream of hers, and now, here she is.
Photo Credit: @lalalalisa_m
BLACKPINK's Rosé
Surprise! BLACKPINK is more international than you might have thought. Another one of the girl group's members, Rosé, has a multi-cultural background. Korean in terms of her cultural heritage, she was born and raised in New Zealand and Australia and only moved to South Korea at the age of 15 when she decided she wanted to pursue dreams of K-Pop stardom.
Photo Credit: @roses_are_rosie
TWICE's Tzuyu
The K-Pop girl group Twice has definitely embraced the beauty of putting together a group of different nationalities! Twice has nine members, four of whom hail from outside Korea, and the youngest of whom is Tzuyu. She's Taiwanese and was scouted at a workshop when she was just 13. She relocated from Taiwan to South Korea less than a year after to start K-Pop boot camp!
Photo Credit: @queentzuyu
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TWICE's Momo
The 24-year-old is one of the three Japanese members of Twice. Originally from Kyoto, she impressed scouts from talent agency JYP Entertainment, the same agency that manages Twice, when she was just 16 and has been under the same label ever since.
Photo Credit: @twicetagram
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TWICE's Sana
Growing up in Osaka, Sana always wanted to be a singer but she never thought her claim to fame would come outside Korea! Like Momo, she was scouted by JYP Entertainment, too, and it would take three years of grueling training in South Korea before she would debut as a new K-Pop idol in 2015.
Photo Credit: @twicetagram
TWICE's Mina
Mina's childhood couldn't have been any more different from where she is now. She was born in Texas and spent her early years there until she moved to Hyogo, Japan as a toddler and spent most of her adolescence there. She'd always been interested in the performing arts, and she originally thought she was going to explore a much more classical art form: ballet! She was 17 when she finally made the switch to training as a K-Pop star and has never looked back since.
Photo Credit: Estee Lauder
GoT7's BamBam
Here's an interesting tidbit about BamBam (who, yes, was inspired to adopt The Flinstones character's name): it was his mom who got him into K-Pop! She was a huge Rain fan and often took BamBam to concerts with her, and for this star originally from Thailand, he eventually made it his life goal to become a K-Pop star himself. He and BLACKPINK's Lisa are buddies, too!
Photo Credit: @got7.with.igot7
GoT7's Jackson Wang
Reality TV star, host, singer, rapper, dancer, model, former youth Olympic athlete - is there anything that Jackson Wang can't do? The GoT7 member from China was on his way to a more traditional route via an Ivy League scholarship; he was headed to Stanford for college until a talent scout spotted him and invited him to audition for a boy band being formed. Two years after he was discovered, he officially debuted as a GoT7 member in 2014.
Photo Credit: @jacksonwang852g7
GoT7's Mark
Mark Tuan is Taiwanese, but that hardly accounts for how much international exposure he's gotten over the years. Mark was born in LA, lived in Paraguay and Brazil for some time, moved back to California, then made the permanent move to South Korea to begin his new life as a K-Pop star all before he turned 18. Mark's fans have his friends to thank for encouraging him to pursue a career in music as he never imagined himself as someone who would ever be in the limelight when he was growing up.
Photo Credit: @marktuan
EXO's Lay Zhang
Does Lay Zhang need to be introduced to his Filipino fans? He's a member of EXO, after all, one of the Korean boy bands who are big in Manila! If you're only learning about this K-Pop star now, know that he's actually from China and is a pretty big celeb there, too. His name is synonymous with performing, directing, producing, and songwriting, and just this year, he was ranked 5th by Forbes Magazine's China Celebrity 100. (Fun fact for "Meteor Garden" fans: his professional name Lay was inspired by Hua Ze Lei!).
Photo Credit: @layzhang
Krystal Jung
Krystal Jung isn't a K-Pop star in the strictest sense because music isn't all she does. She's also a K-Drama actress, and she has a career in the US, too, all thanks to the fact that she grew up as an American, too! She's actually the daughter of Korean immigrants who initially didn't approve of this path for their daughter but eventually changed their minds and allowed her to move to Korea to start training when she turned 12. Previously a member of the girl group f(x), we've yet to see Krystal make her comeback as a singer.
Photo Credit: @vousmevoyez
Jessica Jung
That's right, Krystal's older sister, Jessica, is a K-Pop star, too! She was a member of Girls Generation, and while she and Krystal were both actively performing, they often appeared side by side in many performances. Training for seven years before debuting as a K-Pop star when she was 18, the US-born K-Idol would eventually branch out to acting and has just released a novel.
Photo Credit: @jessica.syj
Lead photos from @lalalalisa_m @roses_are_rosie @jessica.syj @jacksonwang852g7
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