G.NA Almost Debuted As The Second Park Ji Yoon

Jul 28, 2010

It was revealed that Five Girls’ last runner Gina (real name Gina Choi) prepared her debut as the second Park Ji Yoon.

In a recent interview with eDailySPN, Gina revealed, “Once the debut of Five Girls was cancelled, I returned back to Canada, but I couldn’t give up my dream of becoming a singer. So, I did an audition in Korea again and I went into JYP Entertainment.”

Gina was born in Canada and she spent her childhood there. Because she wanted to become a singer, she came to Korea in 2005 when she was about 18 years old, and she did an audition to get into the group Five Girls (which is now called the “misfortunate” group today). After she passed the auditions, she waited for a year as she prepared her debut during her trainee life, but due to agency problems, her debut was cancelled and her team was disbanded. As a result, Gina was heartbroken and she returned to Canada.

But, she didn’t easily give up her dream. Once she returned to Canada, she only thought about becoming a singer. During the time of the auditions for Five Girls, Hong Seungsung of JYP Entertainment (but who is now the representative for CUBE Entertainment today) gave Gina another chance of an audition and she was able to come into JYP Entertainment in November 2007.

Gina said, “In the beginning, I received my training in New York under JYP, but I came back to Korea in May (2008) to practice. Since then, I prepared my debut as the second Park Ji Yoon. Because there wasn’t a female solo singer with outstanding singing and dancing ability like Park Ji Yoon sunbaenim, I wanted to become a female singer with outstanding singing and dancing ability [just like her].”

Since Gina’s trainee days, she received attention with her skinny appearance and her nickname was “promising seed” because of her excellent singing ability.

Later, when representative Hong Seungsung came out of JYP Entertainment and set up CUBE Entertainment, Gina followed right behind him. In the end of 2008, Gina spent a year and a half preparing for her solo debut, and the results came out on the 14th.

Gina showed her strong-will by saying, “When I think about the past, it was a great opportunity for me to become stronger even with all those tragic periods. From now on, I know that the path I’m taking is dangerous, but I will work hard.”

On the 15th, Gina had her debut performance and her title song “I’ll Back Off So You Can Live” is gaining popularity on various music charts with high rankings.