JEON SOMI

Korean-Canadian singer JEON SOMI’s vivacious personality and widespread talents earned her a captive audience even before her solo debut with the bratty K-pop anthem “BIRTHDAY” in 2019. Born Ennik Somi Douma in 2001 in Ontario and raised in Seoul, she developed a natural aptitude for performing that brought her to idol training at just 13 years old, and her bubbly, youthful attitude took her far in the 2015 competition show SIXTEEN, which ultimately formed the girl group TWICE. But it was her first-place win on the first season of Produce 101 in 2016 that cemented her star status as a member of I.O.I, its wildly popular project group. After I.O.I ended, her solo material played with her own self-expression, unbeholden to audience votes or other outside pressure, as heard in the bouncy EDM banger “What You Waiting For.” Performing as JEON SOMI, she writes her own melodies and lyrics, accompanied by kitschy electro-pop (“DUMB DUMB”) and ’80s-inspired synths (“Fast Forward”), marking every step in her career journey with self-resplendent purpose.