Ahin

Ahin
Momoland January 2022.jpg Momoland January 2022.jpg Momoland in 2022 with Ahin third from left
Born	Lee Ahin (이아인) (1999-09-27) September 27, 1999 Wonju, South Korea
🏳️ Nationality	Korean
Other names	Lee Ahin (이아인)
🏫 Education	Shanghai United International School Seoul Performing Arts School
💼 Occupation	Singer dancer host actress

Lee Ahin (이아인), better known by the mononym Ahin, is a singer, dancer, and a member of the kpop group Momoland with which she performs worldwide. Although Ahin is Korean, she speaks fluent English with an American accent, fluent Mandarin, and has been interviewed in Spanish and Japanese. Her ability to communicate fluently in multiple languages has been a catalyst for broadening the international popularity of Momoland, particularly through social media.

Early life

She was born in Wonju, South Korea on September 27, 1999. At age six she moved to China where she resided for 11 years. She studied at Usan Gangham Middle School and later Shanghai United International School for three years, where her education was based upon the IB Primary Years Programme and the International Curriculum of England. When she returned to Korea she attended the High School of Performing Arts in Seoul, colloquially known as "SOPA".. She graduated on 14 February 2019, in a class that included other K-pop artists. Besides performing arts, she also joined the track team as a sprinter running the 100-meter dash.

KPOP career

Finding Momoland

Her parents moved the family to China for her elementary and high school years. Ahin said that she had wanted to be a singer since her school days, but kpop stardom did not seem attainable to her as a Korean girl growing up in Shanghai. Yet in late 2015 when she was studying for her exams, she received a message from Lee Hyung-jin, CEO of MLD Entertainment (then called Duble Kick Entertainment) inviting her to be trained to be a K-Pop artist. He flew to Shanghai just to meet her. The opportunity would require her to move back to Korea, and train for two months, before competing in a public audition for aspiring members of the new K-Pop girl band. This was her big break. The audition was actually part of a Korean television reality show called "Finding Momoland"(모모 랜드 찾기), a talent show during which 10 contestants would compete for 7 spots in a new kpop girl band to be called Momoland. Ahin was one of the winning contestants announced in the finale, coming in fourth place. It was unclear how well the band would be received, and its debut had to be delayed until Duble Kick Entertainment could muster 3,000 spectators. Finally, the band debuted on November 10, 2016, with their first extended play record, financed through crowdfunding:Welcome to Momoland. Premiering on the music television program M Countdown Momoland also performed another track from their EP, Jjan! Koong! Kwang! The winning members who became the 7 members of Momoland were Hyebin, Yeonwoo, Jane, Nayun, JooE, Ahin, and Nancy; they debuted with EP Welcome to Momoland on November 10, 2016. On April 10, 2017, they released Wonderful Love; when the album was released, Momoland added two new members Daisy, another native English speaker who lived in Canada, and Taeha, completing the current 9-member line-up.

Breakout with Great! and Baam

On August 22, 2017, they released their second EP Freeze! named for its title track. The group saw a breakthrough after releasing their third EP, Great!, which included the track “Bboom Bboom” on January 3, 2018. The week after, they performed the song and immediately took the win on Mnet’s M Countdown program. The single jumped to No. 4 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales, becoming the third-best-selling K-pop song in America in the last week of January. On May 23, 2018, the group announced it the release of new music and would tour again in June 26, 2018.

After achieving some success, Momoland announced that it had decided to name its fan club "Merry Go Round", and the members referred to their fans as "Merrys". Part of the group's appeal is the respect and appreciation shown to the Merrys, with Ahin addressing their international fans in Mandarin, Japanese, English, Spanish, and Tagalog languages, often fluently, and in doing so Ahin has helped expand the popularity of Korean popular culture to more of fans.Her international appeal was often through social media posts, particularly in English and Mandarin. Momoland continued touring the world in 2019 including the United States, Mexico, Japan, Tiawan, Phillipines, South Asia, and the United Arab Emirates.

After returning from their first Mexico tour, the band went through major transitions in 2019. Three members left the group. Yeonwoo and Taeha left to pursue other opportunities, and Daisy, one of the other fluent English speakers, left in an acrimonious contract dispute with MLD Entertainment. Now a six-member group, Momoland began to record songs about more mature topics. The band released "Thumbs Up", a song whose upbeat lyrics are contradicted by a somber view of destructive social media obsessions.

Music releases

Momoland has enhanced several new musical products and primarily distributes them through digital media. Unlike groups in North America and Europe, which typically release just one version MTV style music promotional video for their major releases, Momoland has released several, each one with a special theme or variation. The official video of their biggest hit, BAAM, opens with a Momoland Jet flying around the world, featuring the band members in a traditional national dress around the world, varying quickly from scene to scene; Ahin is seen wearing a Japanese Kimono, court clothes of the Egyptian Ptolemaic Kingdom, formal wear from the Royal French Court of Louis XIV, traditional Chinese dress, and modern clothes.. Another version of the video is a dance practice in which the group is wearing casual clothes, with Ahin in shorts and sneakers, rehearsing but with the choreography fully developed and a professional yet intimate feel. Another version of the BAAM music video features a nine-year-old dancer in the music video, Na Haeun (나하은), performing with high production values in a shopping mall, who Ahin introduces in the opening. This type of video has no American or European counterpart and charms in person and online the audience. Another Momoland innovation is the dance tutorial music video, in which band members teach their dance moves and choreography specific to their new song. These tutorial music videos are released in multiple languages with one of the girl members explaining the steps in advance, in which the polyglot members like Ahin introduce the choreography in Korean, English, Mandarin, and other languages.

The impact of having multiple music videos for each song has been complemented by the planned use of colors in their costumes to complement the themes in their sound recordings, and in their performances generally.

Another novel product featuring Ahin is the "Dance Cover". Rerecording a musical composition by a new artist is called a "cover", and this is common in many countries. However, kpop as a genre uses much more choreography than western versions of pop music, and specific dance moves are associated with almost every major kpop release and are one of the reasons for the growing popularity of the genre. The advanced choreography and association with the master recording that kpop makes kpop conducive to "dance covers". Momoland did an early dance cover of a mash-up of songs by the 1990s kpop boy band called H.O.T. The music video imposed the mash-up of four H.O.T. recordings over a synchronized Momoland music video mashup with clips from these catalog tracks: Warrior's Descendant, Candy, We Are the Future, and Hope. They matched the original H.O.T. choreography closely, as well as matching the color of the costumes worn by H.O.T. in their original promotional videos. Ahin features in Candy and Hope. However, remarkably, Momoland itself has become inspired dozens of dance covers from all around the world including Russia, Vietnam, France, USA, and many others, probably further inspired by Momoland recording Youtube videos in multiple languages on how to perform their dance moves to the song, including the "Baam shuffle".

Momoland has recorded many songs, and many supporting music videos in multiple languages, although as Korean pop culture and KPop generally have grown in popularity, fans are increasingly used to listening to the music in Korean, but having regular snippets and the chorus in English or Mandarin allow the global audience to understand the meaning of the song. Accompanying social media videos explaining the meaning of the song in world languages helps the fan base connect a lot, and Ahin has helped the group with this, although he skills in this way remain underexploited.

Post-pandemic comeback

The pandemic negatively impacted Momoland as many of the group's concerts were canceled, and creative projects were delayed. In November 2020 Momoland released their third single Ready or Not with an increasing list of international collaborators, with lyrics by superstar Psy White 99, produced by JeL, and the musical score composed by Alexander Karlsson, Alexej Viktorovitch, and Louise Lindberg. The track received mostly positive reviews, with a simple but catchy teenage dance beat with the music video featuring the better choreography and more dance that kpop has been differentiating itself from other subgenres of western pop music. Along with her band mates Ahin continued to evolve as a dancer in the life performances and YouTube version of the video, which also broke new artistic ground in its use of fine art like pastel colors, and domestic props.

Momoland its second tour of Mexico in early 2022 as the pandemic was ending. The tour was interrupted when several members tested positive for covid-19 in spite of being fully vaccinated in the midst of the tour requiring several of the dates to be canceled. Ahin, who also speaks Spanish, showed how comfortable she is with international media in an interview with La Prensa Latina. " “I think that in these years Momoland has changed a lot in terms of our music, in how we see ourselves on the outside and how we are on the inside, but specifically in music, we have grown a lot. I think this evolution has made us have more support here than part of our fans. We’ve received a lot of love with the song [Yummy, Yummy Love] ... We want to continue releasing music in different languages, if we had the opportunity we would love to record a song in Spanish, we are interested in being able to communicate better with our followers."

Latent success

Momoland has experienced a delayed growth in international popularity, primarily through TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Youtube; the group members most responsible for this are primarily Nancy Jewel McDonie and secondly Ahin. As Instagram short form vertical videos began matching up against newer algorithms, more and more international fans become exposed to and identify with Nancy; it is not just that she is an English speaker, but she actually is American and bears an Irish surname like so many fans in Australia, North America, and Europe. As fans became more exposed to Nancy, combined with Ahin's ability to speak fluently to half the planet, Momoland started getting more and more international fans, from a much broader age range than a normal Kpop band would. The authenticity brought by Nancy and Ahin has increased the popularity of K-Pop generally with a much broader audience, and this synergy has increased the exposure of other group mates like JooE. This international exposure has built up slowly but has accelerated beginning in 2021 and 2022, years in which the pandemic years have stunted the group's creative output. While most KPop bands experience a flurry of creativity in their early years and fade when the members reach their late twenties, the broader, authentic international exposure that Nancy and Ahin have brought could be used to help the group continue to reinvent themselves in ways that other KPop bands cannot.

In the long term, the impact of the cross-cultural appeal of Ahin and Nancy of Momoland is already influencing the evolution of the composition of new musical groups. Momoland's Agency, MLD Entertainment, has been forming a new group called Lapillus, whose members speak fluent Spanish, English, Filipino, Chinese and Japanese. The KPop genre is very conducive to forming polyglot groups with a broad east-west appeal because of the expanding popularity of Korean popular culture generally, and because the KPop performers are more likely than American and European artists to speak and sing fluently in both Asian and Western languages. The international appeal of KPop performers is enhanced by a sort of respectful bond with their audiences, their avoidance of vulgarities, explicit sexual references, lyrics about violence, and other references that American and other western music is sometimes permeated by.

Collaborations and solo work

Ahin has teamed up with music celebrity DJ Soda to record "OKAY!" on Purple Fly records; this indie record label, Purple Fly, creates cryptocurrency NFTs to finance the recordings and to remunerate their artists. Purple Fly also uses the NFTs to combine multiple forms of art, combining music, visuals, and fashion. The label drops NFTs with each track released, allowing direct support from fans for their favorite artists. In this collaboration, Purple Fly groups the three diverse performers, DJ SODA, Lost Chameleon, and Ahin to create an electro-pop sound in a fusion of EDM and kpop. “OKAY!” is catchy; Ahin’s vocal performance meshes with the electronic sound of DJ SODA and LOST CHAMELEON, portraying a sweet simple sound before the loud and uptempo break.

In 2018 Ahin recorded a duet with Korean vocalist J_ust, the track entitled "That Kind of Love". This slow ballad contrasts her high voice with his melancholic, and is quite different than most of her other recordings. In 2019 Ahin recorded a track called "I need you and I want you with fellow Momoland member Taeha, before Teaha left the group. Ahin also recorded a solo ballad called "You're my everything" for "Different Dreams", a 2019 South Korean television series commemorating the centennial of the March 1st Movement which led to the formation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in 1919.

Film and television

Ahin’s popularity in Momoland made her sought after by casting directors for Television shows, and she has appeared on more than 40 television shows. She did appear in an episode of “The Liar and His Lover” in 2017. Aside from that, Ahin has appeared on “Weekly Idol” (2011), “After School Club” (2013), “Idol Room” (2018), “Idol Star Athletics Championships” (2018 and 2020), and “Same Age Trainer” (2019). Ahin appeared on “King of Mask Singer” as a “fortune cookie”.

Fashion

Momoland itself as a band has used extensive attention to costumes. Generally, Kpop girl groups have more members than their western counterparts and in the 2000s influential groups like Girl's Generation would wear matching outfits. MLD Entertainment designers took this too another level with Momoland where the band members would wear more or less matching costumes, with slight variations between members, such as one in a skirt with another girl in hot pants all in matching colors, while another would wear a short one-piece dress. For some members, they would wear the same colors on top and bottom, yet for another, they would flip the colors. From 2017 through 2019 some of these outfits with shorts bore a resemblance to legacy basketball uniforms, and the tops were marked "MMLD" as if it were their team name, the group members had a number on the top; Ahin wore the number 20.

In the music video, Thumbs Up, Ahin wore a pink tulle tier maxi by design house Kiki Riki. By late 2019 Momoland's popularity was growing in other countries including India and the Phillippines, and the group was selected for the cover of Metro Style Magazine. Ahin was asked to do a fashion photo shoot, in which she revealed her desire to become a fashion content creator. “I was really considering to be a beauty content creator, and it was actually hard for me at first to choose between becoming that or a singer. But obviously, I love singing more. I can do beauty content creation anyway someday in the future, but I can’t do singing if it’s not right now. Although I’ve always wanted to be a performer, still, someday, I want to build my own beauty brand."

In February of 2022 the Italian edition of Vogue Magazine featured Ahin for style, and noted her long, wavey pastel pink hair.

“I’ve always looked up to Ariana Grande when it comes to performance, fashion, and beauty. I really love how she does her makeup. I love earrings and hats for sure as they’re my go-tos; they spice up any outfit. Headbands are really famous in online shopping malls right now, so I’ve been into those a lot these days.” Ahin also sports the OHTNYC jewelry design brand from New York City. Her style is “cute and sexy,” and Ahin said that her fashion and beauty essentials are “generally girly,” such as skirts and headbands and beauty products like lipstick, blush, and mascara.

Ahin has done endorsement work for the brand FrontRow International.

Personal life

She has an older sister, Sophie, who lives in Hong Kong, and her parents live in Shanghai. Her maternal grandmother still lives in Korea. Her family is very close, and their strong support and encouragement have been a factor in her success. She has a puppy. Ahin is Catholic. Ahin, both on her own, and with the other members of Momoland, has supported social causes, positive messaging, empowerment of women and girls and racial equality. She and all the other members of Momoland have publically supported Black Lives Matter.

This article "Lee Ahin" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Lee Ahin. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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