K-pop Star Kim Na Yoon Puts Career on Hold for BU

BU Today



CAS student says academics trumps performing…for now
Tiffany Kim (CGS'16 CAS'18) had never sung in public prior to auditioning for the popular Korean show K-pop Star. She put fame on a back burner to come to BU to pursue a degree in economics. Photo by Michael D. Spencer
Tiffany Kim was a pop star in the making when she applied to BU. At 16, she’d left her home in San Francisco to audition for a televised Korean pop singing competition in Seoul for the new show K-pop Star. She landed in ninth place on the American Idol–style show and was signed by a top record label, where she trained for two years.
But Kim (CGS’16, CAS’18) pressed pause on fame for BU. “I chose to suspend my dreams and aspirations in K-pop for a little bit in order to pursue my academic interests,” she says. “I felt like this was a critical time for me to do that.”
Growing up watching K-pop music videos, she was fascinated by how each song was “a total work of art,” blending choreography, lighting, clothes, and other production elements. From its origins in South Korea in the 1990s, K-pop has exploded onto the international scene with catchy hits like PSY’s “Gangnam Style.” Although she sang only in her room for enjoyment, she sometimes dreamed of becoming a star like BoA, billed as “the queen of Korean pop.”
In 2011, during her junior year of high school, Kim spotted an online ad for auditions for K-pop Star, which was looking for the next Korean pop idol. The ad said that the ideal contestant should have strong musical and dance skills and a command of English, to show they could reach a global audience. She was a cheerleader and played both piano and flute, but she’d never sung in public. Still, with her ...

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