Tiffany Young

The K-pop artist Tiffany Young had an unusual route into the South Korean music industry having been born and raised in California. She was born Stephanie Young Hwang in 1989 and as a young teenager growing up on the West Coast she listened to material by Kwon Bo-ah, one of the leading K-pop artists of her generation. Hwang's mother died when her daughter was 12 and the young singer had a difficult relationship with her father which might explain the astonishing decision she took as a 15-year-old to move to South Korea to be a K-pop star.

Her Korean adventure started when Hwang was prompted by her brother to attend a singing contest in the USA. She was spotted by a talent scout from SM Entertainments, one of the leading South Korean management companies. Within three weeks Hwang had signed a deal and moved to South Korea where she began a four-year indoctrination into the high-pressure world of K-pop as part of SM Entertainment's meticulous training programme for young artists. She started her professional career as a member of Girls' Generation, an all-girl pop band created by her management company. In 2017 the singer moved back to the USA to study acting and has since launched a solo career and has been one of the main artists responsible for the growth in popularity of K-pop amongst American teenage audiences.