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Jinny from Secret Number: nearly a Blackpink member, then found her own way to K-pop stardom
- Jinny trained alongside the future members of Blackpink, before leaving YG Entertainment
- She appeared as an independent artist on various reality shows before joining Secret Number
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One surprising aspect of the K-pop industry is the way some performers develop long backstories even before they are officially introduced. While singer Jinny made her debut with the promising girl group Secret Number this year, her story has been years in the making.
Her early life
Park Jin-hee was born in Los Angeles, California, in January 1998. Jinny grew up loving pop stars including Justin Bieber, and K-pop artists such as Big Bang and 2NE1 – in particular G-Dragon and CL.
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Jinny followed in her idols’ footsteps by becoming a trainee under YG Entertainment, the South Korean label that manages Big Bang, 2NE1 and Psy among others.
Fluent in English and Korean, as well as possessing a talent for songwriting, Jinny was considered a top future contender at YG. For years, the label teased new girl groups – promoting one as a “future 2NE1” featuring four young female trainees dancing in the summer of 2012.
Jinny trained alongside the future members of Blackpink – Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa – as well as other future K-pop stars including Miyeon from (G) I-dle), Lee Seo-yeon of Fromis-9, and soloists Kim Eun-bi and Jang Hanna. Collectively, the trainees were known as “Pink Punk” – a nickname given to them by the label and assumed to be their group name upon debut.
While Jinny trained with Blackpink, and seemed to be particularly close with Lisa by the look of several photos, she was not in the final line-up for the group. In 2017, she left YG after five years of training.
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