She would face many more trying times, but what has never changed about Jihyo is her determination to keep going and find happiness on her own terms. Here’s all you need to know about Jihyo’s career so far.

Her early life

She was born Park Ji-soo in Guri in South Korea’s Gyeonggi province on February 1, 1997. She legally changed her name to Park Ji-hyo ahead of her K-pop debut. The future star spent much of her childhood in the entertainment world, joining JYP Entertainment at the age of eight.

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While undergoing 10 years of training at JYP, Jihyo became close with many future K-pop idols, and watched many of them move on to prosperous careers, including Sunmi, Jo Kwon, Bae Suzy, and Nichkun of 2PM. She did get a taste of the spotlight as a trainee when she starred as one of the models in a campaign for Korean cosmetic and skincare company Innisfree, and made appearances in music videos such as Miss A’s Only You.

It was rumoured that Jihyo would join a six-member girl group under JYP Entertainment called 6Mix with future Twice bandmates Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Sana, but plans for the group were nixed when some planned members of the group left the company.

Instead, Jihyo and the girls competed on the singing competition show Sixteen that took 16 young K-pop trainees with JYP and selected a new girl group from them called Twice.

Her role in Twice

Despite not being the oldest performer competing on Sixteen, Jihyo was selected by her bandmates as the leader of Twice once the line-up was finalised. Jihyo is also the group’s main singer, with her powerful vocals a signature of almost any Twice song.

Since then she has added songwriting credits to her growing career resume.

Jihyo and Chaeyoung were the first members to write lyrics for a Twice song, penning Eyes Eyes Eyes off the group’s fourth EP, Signal.

She also teamed up with Nayeon (writing 24/7 on their first full-length album Twicetagram), before eventually having the confidence to write on her own, penning fan-favourite tracks including Ho!, Sunset and Girls Like Us.

Her image

As the leader of the girl group, Jihyo has been an important element of Twice. Throughout her time competing in Sixteen, Jihyo’s skills were never questioned, but instead JYP Entertainment founder J.Y. Park criticised her weight. He reportedly told her: “While the other girls practice their singing, you have to lose weight.”

In the summer of 2019, it was confirmed that Jihyo was dating superstar male singer Daniel Kang, who had placed No 1 on South Korea’s singing reality show Produce 101. Romance is a sensitive matter for K-pop stars, but many fans supported the couple.

Still, Jihyo has not been able to completely avoid negative comments and things came to a head in 2019. She revealed that unfounded rumours about her in March 2019 had led to her experiencing anxiety, depression and fear. The 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards event in particular was a tough night for her as she had trouble breathing, although Twice had committed to doing a nine-minute, two-song performance.

Despite all this, Jihyo has always put on a brave face and Twice members have shared how she continues to be a source of strength to her bandmates.

In her own words

Jihyo has discussed her long journey training for a life in K-pop and the doubts that came with it.

“I was a trainee for a long time and it would be a lie to say that I was always happy,” she told the crowd during the “Twice – The Opening” concert in February 2017. “There were times when I wanted to give up and there were lots of painful moments as well. I’m so happy right now because it feels like the moment I’d dreamed about is finally happening.”

But perhaps the most honest words Jihyo has shared came in a statement to Twice fans, who are known as Once.

“No matter what has happened, I’ve never been insincere in front of Once,” she said in a letter to fans in 2020.

“Once has never not been important to me and I’ve never not been concerned about Once. In the future, as long as I’m a celebrity and an idol, there are going to be issues and rumours, but I’m going to do well. I don’t want to make you spend precious time, when we can be happy and laugh and smile together, on other [negative] things.”