Son Hoyoung

Early life

Son is the younger of two children and was born in the United States to Korean parents who are naturalized American citizens. After their parents divorced they moved to South Korea with their father and spent most of their schooling years there. His mother remained in the U.S. and he only reconnected with her in adulthood. He was raised by his father, whom he had a difficult relationship with in adolescence, and would run away from home to escape being disciplined for misbehavior. Son was elementary schoolmates with Kang Sung-hoon and Ko Ji-yong, both of whom went on to form Sechs Kies. As a teenager he developed an interest in music and dance and would enter competitions.

Son later stated that he had been a runaway living on the streets when he befriended future g.o.d bandmate Danny Ahn. In 1997 he successfully auditioned for Park Joon-hyung and Park Jin-young's project group at Ahn's suggestion and only returned home almost three years later to reconcile with his father.

1999–2005: Early years and g.o.d

Son, Danny Ahn, Shoo and Kim Hwan-sung were initially part of a mixed-gender project group but it fell through when Shoo signed with S.M. Entertainment; she went on to debut as a member of the girl group S.E.S. while Kim was recruited as the final member of NRG. Ahn was recruited by his cousin Park Joon-hyung to join his and Park Jin-young's mixed-gender six-member project group and persuaded Son to audition. Yoon Kye-sang and a female singer were also recruited but the latter left and was replaced by Kim Tae-woo. With Park Jin-young as their producer and primary songwriter, the group eventually became a five-man boy band g.o.d, short for "Groove Over Dose", and made their debut in January 1999. Despite the lukewarm response to their debut performance, g.o.d would go on to be one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000's. Initially Son and the other original members were managed by SidusHQ. In 2003 he signed with Park's agency JYP Entertainment.

2006–2013: Solo career

With Yoon having left the group in 2004, the four remaining members performed as g.o.d for the final time in December 2005 before going their separate ways. Son did not renew his contract with JYP Entertainment and signed with Lobe Entertainment, which was later absorbed into LOEN Entertainment. He released his first album YES, which had the singles "I Know", "운다" (Unda) ("Crying"), "YES", and "사랑은 이별을 데리고 오다" (Sarang-eun ibyeoreul) ("Love Brings Separation"). The album won the Bonsang award for Best Artist (Judges' Choice) at the 21st Golden Disc Awards and "Love Brings Separation" placed #1 in the rankings for January 4, 2007 on Mnet's M Countdown and for January 14 on Inkigayo. Son has since re-released the album containing a DVD of the album's music videos. He continued to periodically collaborate with former bandmate Kim Tae-woo, often performing with one another or appearing on variety shows together.

In 2007, Son released a single album entitled Sweet Love; the lead song is "하늘에 내 마음이" (Haneure nae ma-eumi) ("My Heart in Heaven"). He performed the song with Lee Min-woo of Shinhwa during the "Special Stage" segment of Music Bank, in which two singers or idol groups would cover one another's songs. Under the Sea concert DVD was released the same year. In late 2008, Son released his second album, Returns.

Son performed as a soloist at the Korean Music Festival in 2008 and 2009 and was also MC for the 2009 and 2012 editions. During the 2012 edition he briefly reunited with three of his former g.o.d bandmates for a special performance. He was also a regular participant in Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend. He won for the first time in episode 75 (broadcast on November 17, 2012).

From November 25, 2011 to January 29, 2012, Son starred in the musical Fame along with Eunhyuk of Super Junior, Tiffany of Girls' Generation, Go Eun Seong, Kim Chan Ho, Shin Ui Jeong, Lina of The Grace, Choi Ju Ri, KoN and Kim Jung-mo of TRAX.

In February 2013, Son participated and won in MasterChef Korea Celebrity alongside other Korean celebrities, Fei, Henry, Tony, comedian Shin Bong-sun.

2014–present: g.o.d reunion and other activities

In early 2014, Son came back to the entertainment industry after a 1-year hiatus, joining O'live TV's Share House as his first appearance on TV since 2013. On July 24 he co-hosted the M Countdown 10th anniversary special with Moon Hee-jun and Lee Hong-gi.

g.o.d was officially reunited as a five-piece when Yoon Kye-sang agreed to rejoin and a 15th anniversary nation-wide tour beginning on July 12, 2014 was announced. They largely concentrate on releasing new material and holding live concerts rather than promoting on music programs to allow individual members to concurrently maintain their solo careers.

Son collaborated with Danny Ahn to record their version of "One Day" (하루만), one of the soundtracks for the tvN drama series Marriage, Not Dating. It was first played during the closing credits at the end of episode 8, which aired on July 26, and the accompanying music video uploaded later that week by CJ E&M. The single peaked at #33 on the Gaon Digital Chart. He also featured in Natthew's single "Love Will Be Ok" and its music video, which were both released in November 2014. The week after its release to little fanfare, the single immediately peaked at #25 in the Gaon Social Chart.

In May 2016 Son released a teaser for his upcoming second solo mini album, entitled May, I, to mark his tenth year as a solo artist. The music video for the title track "My Weak Point" was uploaded on CJ E&M's YouTube channel. It debuted at #8 on the Gaon Album Chart and remained in the top 100 for the months of May and June. The repackaged album, which included an additional new single "None Like You" (너 같은 사람 없어), was released in October.

Son returned to musical theater for much of the latter half of 2016. He was double-cast as Dr. Rieux in Peste, the translated musical adaptation of Albert Camus's novel The Plague. Featuring music by K-pop legend Seo Tai-ji, the musical premiered on July 20, 2016. In December 2016 he was cast as the protagonist in the musical Geumgang 1894, which was based on the Donghak Peasant Revolution.

Son renewed his contract with his current agency MMO Entertainment, a subsidiary label of CJ E&M in May 2017. He was one of eight guest artistes featured in Kim Tae-woo's sixth solo album T-WITH, which was released in June 2017.

Personal life

In 2000 Son and three of his bandmates were injured in a car accident on the Yeongdong Expressway. He was the most seriously injured and required treatment in hospital.

Son's older sister is actress and VJ Son Jung-min (ko). They also have a much younger half-sister from their father's second marriage. Son and his older sister both hold American citizenship as they were born in the United States to Korean parents who were naturalized American citizens.

His citizenship became the subject of controversy when his father's estranged second wife revealed in 2005 at a press conference that the former had recently given up his Korean citizenship and claimed that he had done so to evade mandatory military service. Son clarified that he had been given Korean citizenship due to an administrative error and had returned his passport at the request of the Immigration Office to correct the error. He was never eligible for Korean nationality due to the fact that he was born overseas to parents who did not hold Korean citizenship and thus did not meet the requirements.

On May 21, 2013, police found the body of a woman in Son's car. They discovered that the woman was his girlfriend, who had borrowed his car and then committed suicide in it. The entertainment company that Son is currently under has stated that the suicide had nothing to do with her relationship to Son. Son Ho-young attempted to commit suicide following his girlfriend's death on the morning of May 24, 2013. According to the police, at 4:36 am, Son parked his car at a parking lot near Onnuri Community Church, Seoul and attempted to commit suicide in the same method as his girlfriend by lighting butane gas inside his car. The car caught on fire, and as the singer tried to back away from it, a passerby noticed the fumes coming out of the car and made a call to the police for help. He was then rushed to the hospital and was treated immediately, and is fortunately said to be fine with no damage to his health.

Solo albums

Soundtrack and singles contributions