YENA

YENA, whose own channel gives her full name as Choi Yena, is a singer who first became known in the girl group IZ*ONE and has released solo music since January 2022.[1][2][5] Her agency is YH Entertainment, which went by the name Yuehua Entertainment until it renamed itself on 17 November 2025.[1][8] The agency's profile gives her date of birth as 29 September 1999 and her solo debut as 17 January 2022.[1] In 2026 'Catch Catch' became her most-streamed song on Spotify and reached No. 5 on South Korea's Circle Digital Chart.[12][22]

## IZ*ONE

She was one of the twelve members of IZ*ONE, a project group of Korean and Japanese singers chosen through Mnet's 2018 audition show 'Produce 48'.[3][4] The group held its debut press event on 29 October 2018 at the Olympic Hall in Seoul, presenting the album 'COLOR*IZ' and its lead song 'La Vie en Rose'.[4] IZ*ONE released three records in 2020, with combined sales above 1.29 million copies, and its contract ran out on 29 April 2021, two and a half years after the debut, as Mnet had announced in March.[3]

## Solo releases

Her first solo EP, 'SMiLEY', came out on 17 January 2022, led by 'SMILEY' featuring BIBI.[1][5][6] Between August 2022 and September 2024 she released the EP 'SMARTPHONE' (3 August 2022), the singles 'Love War' (16 January 2023, including 'Love War' with BE'O) and 'HATE XX' (27 June 2023, including 'Hate Rodrigo' with YUQI), the EP 'GOOD MORNING' (15 January 2024) and her third single, 'NEMONEMO' (30 September 2024).[6][7]

Her fourth EP, 'Blooming Wings', arrived on 29 July 2025 after a ten-month gap, and she took part in writing the lyrics of its title song, 'Being a Good Girl Hurts'.[7] At its launch she said fans had told her since her debut that she was always 'very Yena', and that this was where the phrase 'YENA-core' came from.[7] The Korea Times later summed up the style as bright energy, kitsch and cartoon-like visuals set to catchy electro-pop.[5]

## Japan

Her first Japanese releases came out through Dreamusic: a Japanese version of 'SMILEY' featuring Chanmina in August 2023 and the EP 'DNA' in February 2024.[6] Her Japanese records since November 2025 carry Victor Entertainment's name, starting with 'STAR!' featuring Hatsune Miku on 26 November 2025.[9] Her third Japanese single, 'Mirror Mirror / STAR!', released on 10 June 2026, reached No. 5 on Oricon's daily singles ranking; 'Mirror Mirror' was her first Japanese tie-in song.[10]

## 'Catch Catch' and 2026

Her fifth EP, 'Love Catcher', came out on 11 March 2026 with the electro-pop song 'Catch Catch' as its title track.[11] The song grew slowly. It entered Melon's Top 100 on 30 March at No. 82 as its dance challenge spread, and peaked at No. 5 on the Circle Digital Chart in the week of 24 to 30 May.[18][12] In China the challenge had passed 900 million views on Douyin by early May, and the music video was the most-watched 2026 K-pop release on Bilibili, the Korea Economic Daily reported.[14] Star News reported that the song passed 100 million Spotify streams on 30 September.[13] Counting the two official uploads, on her channel and on Stone Music Entertainment's, the music video had passed 100 million YouTube views by 22 September.[21][2][23]

Her 2026 tour played Seoul, Macau, Taipei, Hong Kong and Tokyo, where she performed on 13 and 14 June, and ended with encore concerts on 22 and 23 August.[14][10][15] On 2 October 2026 she released 'Dime Girl', a new version of a 2014 Block B song, sung with NOWIMYOUNG.[18][19]

## Awards

- 2026 K World Dream Awards (27 August): the K World Dream award for best digital song, for 'Catch Catch'.[15]

- 2026 SPOTV K-pop Awards (6 September): Daum Female Solo award.[16]

- 2026 The Fact Music Awards (19 September, Busan): Artist of the Year, one of the show's main awards, decided 60 percent on album and song results and 40 percent by judges. She said it was her first time at the ceremony as a soloist.[17]