Kim Yoo-jin (born March 3, 1981), professionally known in English as Eugene, is a South Korean singer and actress, known mostly for her musical career as part of the hit K-pop group S.E.S..
Early life
Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, but spent her childhood in Guammoving there after finishing elementary school. She returned to Korea with her parents and younger sister sometime in high school, and eventually graduated from Korea Kent Foreign School [1]. She is fluent in English, and her native Korean, [2] and is a Christian.[3]
Career start
Main article: S.E.S. (group)
By way of an audition tape, Eugene was able to be part of a music group for SM Entertainment in South Korea, even though she was still in Guam. Debuting in 1997, S.E.S. became one of the biggest Korean groups of all time, having the record for biggest selling album by a female group in Korea. While in S.E.S., Eugene became known for her beauty and was part of the reason why S.E.S. had many advertising contracts. In fact, for certain print campaigns (like for Korean cosmetics company Etude), Eugene had the leading role, being the focus of the advertisements. Though vocally weaker than Bada and Shoo, Eugene became the face of SES in advertising.
Solo career
Eugene's second solo album, 810303.
After the split of S.E.S. in 2002, Kim has appeared in four Korean dramas: Loving You, Save The Last Dance, Wonderful Life, and I Really, Really Like You. She has also appeared in commercials and advertisements, most notably for Korean cosmetics company Cathy Cat. In addition, she has released two solo albums. My True Style, her first album, has sold nearly 65,000 records and had one hit ballad, The Best. Her second album 810303 sold a disappointing 19,000 copies. Although sales were low, Eugene still had a very successful single with Windy, mostly due to her new "sexy" image (compared to her previous girl next door image). This song was performed on all the music video programs in Korea for many months, in addition to her second single. Promotions were stopped near the end of the year. Eugene did some promotional work in thePhilippines in mid-2006.[citation needed]
As of 2007, she is one of the co-hosts of KBS's Happy Together: Friends, taking over from Lee Hyori. Also, she has become part of the musical version of the film Innocent Steps[4].
She also co-starred in her movie debut in "Unstoppable Marriage"(May 10, 2007 Korean) Starring Kim Soo-mi, Im Chae-mu, Yu Jin (Eugene Kim), Ha Seok-jin, Yun Da-hoon, An Young-hong. [5
