Jeon So-yeon (Korean: 전소연; born August 26, 1998), known mononymously as Soyeon, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer, under Cube Entertainment. She first gained attention for competing in the television shows Produce 101 and Unpretty Rapstar before debuting as a solo artist on November 5, 2017. On May 2, 2018, she debuted as the leader and rapper of the K-pop girl group (G)I-dle, later changing their name to I-dle, for whom she has written and produced most lead singles.
In 2018, she joined SM Station X's girl group project Station Young, which released its debut song "Wow Thing" in September of that year. She has also portrayed the League of Legends character Akali in the virtual musical groups K/DA and True Damage.
Soyeon was promoted to a full member of the Korea Music Copyright Association on January 31, 2024.
Jeon So-yeon was born on August 26, 1998, in Gaepo-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul. As a child, she attended a Buddhist kindergarten, before being homeschooled and later enrolling in Kuryong Elementary School. During her time there, she immersed herself in ballet, entering and winning numerous competitions. She quit to pursue a career in music after seeing Big Bang perform; Soyeon secretly attended and failed around 20 to 30 singing auditions. Soyeon later decided to pursue rapping, and received interested calls. With the interested parties' direction of music being different from hers, she let go of her dream of becoming a singer and picked up dancing again. It was then that she began performing as a street dancer. After seeing Cube Entertainment's 2014 audition poster, Soyeon decided to attend the Incheon auditions and became a trainee at the company. She continued her journey, managing both her training schedule and education, and in February, 2017, she graduated from Chung-Ang University.
2016–2017: Produce 101, Unpretty Rapstar and solo debut
In January 2016, Soyeon appeared as a representative trainee for Cube Entertainment in the first season of the girl group talent competition show Produce 101. She remained a popular contestant throughout the show's run, peaking at 10th place on the fifth episode. However, she ranked at number 20 on the last episode and failed to become a member of the winning project girl group, I.O.I.
In July 2016, Soyeon appeared as a contestant in the third season of the rap competition show Unpretty Rapstar. she finished the show as the second runner-up, and three of her tracks were included on the show's final compilation album.
On December 29, 2016, Soyeon signed an exclusive contract as an artist under Cube Entertainment. She officially debuted on November 5, 2017, with the digital singles "Jelly" and "Idle Song", which she wrote.
2018–2020: Debut with (G)I-dle, collaborations with League of Legends and solo activities
On January 11, 2018, it was announced that Soyeon would be re-debuting in Cube Entertainment's new girl group (G)I-dle, as a rapper and its leader. She was credited in writing the lyrics, music and arrangement for both their debut song "Latata" and their next single "Hann (Alone)", both of which were well received and commercially successful. She also helped write five songs from (G)I-dle's debut extended play I Am.
On August 8, 2018, it was announced that Soyeon would participate in a girl group project called Station Young for SM Station's X 0 alongside Red Velvet's Seulgi, Kim Chung-ha, and GFriend's SinB. Station Young released their first song, "Wow Thing", on September 28, 2018.
After their debut, Soyeon and fellow (G)I-dle member Miyeon were approached by Riot Games to collaborate with American artists Jaira Burns and Madison Beer as part of the virtual girl group K/DA for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends where she sang for as the character Akali. K/DA officially debuted with the song "Pop/Stars" during the 2018 League of Legends World Championship on November 3. The official music video for "Pop/Stars" was released on the same day, reaching 30 million views on YouTube in five days, and 100 million in one month. The single release of the song reached number one on Billboard's World Digital Songs chart. Her incarnation as Akali is additionally a subject of cosplay amongst fans of both K/DA and League of Legends.
In 2019, Soyeon composed labelmate CLC's "No", which was selected through a blind test and served as the lead single of the group's EP No. 1. In March 2019, Soyeon made a public apology for using a pirated version of the German music-producing software Kontakt. She wrote on her online fan community site, "I deeply regret that I used an illegal copy of the program; as far as I remember, I used it when I first learned songwriting. I had not even recognized that I did not delete the program. But since the day I began composing in earnest, I have only used authorized programs". The apology came days after a behind-the-scenes YouTube video of preparing the I Made EP, produced by the agency, showed icons of the software's illegal copy on her laptop screen. The agency later deleted the video and apologized.
Soyeon reprised her role as Akali in the League of Legends collaborative hip hop group True Damage. A collaboration with Becky G, Keke Palmer, Thutmose and Duckwrth titled "Giants" was released as a single alongside an animated music video on November 10, 2019. The song is a multilingual track performed predominantly in English, with verses in Spanish and Korean. On the same day, the group performed at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship finals in Paris, France. It was Soyeon's second year in a row to perform at the opening ceremony of the World Championship finals. "Giants" debuted at number fifteen and nineteen at Billboard's Rap and R&B/Hip hop Digital Songs Sales charts, respectively.
In 2020, Soyeon guested on Mnet's hip hop-inspired show Do You Know Hip Hop, collaborating with Double K and Nuck to perform a remix of "Lion". In April, (G)I-dle released their third EP, I Trust. All of the songs on the album, including the lead single "Oh My God", was written and composed by Soyeon and longtime collaborator Yummy Tone. The lead single was released in both English and Korean. On July 22, Soyeon helped write and featured on DJ Hyo's "Dessert" with rapper Loopy, a jungle pop song with "bouncy" beat and moombahton rhythm, synthesizer-based hook, claps and whistles, and lyrics expressing desire for a sweet love rather than a difficult and complex one. In an interview with Melon, DJ Hyo revealed that she chose Soyeon as a collaborator because of her talents. In August, Soyeon composed (G)I-dle's first summer song, "Dumdi Dumdi", alongside Pop Time, who had previously produced songs for rapper Zico and the boy band Block B.
On August 27, 2020, Soyeon reprised her role as League of Legends character Akali in "The Baddest" and "More", on K/DA's EP All Out. Soyeon was credited as the producer of Apink's Namjoo solo debut song "Bird", which was released on September 7. On December 16, it was confirmed that Soyeon, Pentagon's Hui, and AB6IX's Lee Dae-hwi would produce songs for the top seven competition on Mnet's audition show CAP-TEEN. Her song, "Eternal Sunshine", was performed by Lee Seo-bin. It was characterized as having "a groovy" guitar and bass rhythm with lyrics expressing the feelings of a first love. Lee received overall positive reviews and a total score of 354 from the judges for the performance.
2021–present: First solo EP Windy and first studio album What a Wonderful Life
In January 2021, (G)I-dle released their EP I Burn, including the lead single "Hwaa"; Soyeon wrote four of the six tracks. The same month, Soyeon appeared on Face ID, a KakaoTV original entertainment show revealing the everyday lifestyle of celebrities through their phones, which aired every Monday for three weeks from January 25. In the episodes, she revealed the production process of many of her songs, daily lives with (G)I-dle members, 1,600 demo songs, and behind-the-scenes video from the preparation of I Burn to the day of its release. On May 21, it was reported that Soyeon would be releasing a solo album. On June 16, Cube Entertainment announced that her first EP, Windy, would be released on July 5, with "Beam Beam" serving as the lead single. Soyeon won her first music program trophy on SBS MTV's The Show on July 13.