Kim Taeyeon

Kim Tae-yeon
Taeyeon in November 2016
Born	Kim Tae-yeon (1989-03-09) March 9, 1989 (age 27) Jeonju, North Jeolla, South Korea
Residence	Seoul, South Korea
Occupation	Singer
Musical career
Genres	K-pop pop rock R&B soul
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2007–present
Labels	S.M. Entertainment
Associated acts	Girls' Generation TTS SM the Ballad SM Town
Website	taeyeon.smtown.com

Kim Tae-yeon (born March 9, 1989), more often credited only as Taeyeon, is a South Korean singer. Born in Jeonju, North Jeolla, Taeyeon was a trainee at S.M. Entertainment's Starlight Academy during middle school and debuted as a member of S.M. Entertainment's girl group Girls' Generation in 2007. Since then, she has risen to prominence thanks to the group's success on the Asian music scene and further participated in S.M. Entertainment's projects Girls' Generation-TTS and SM the Ballad. Aside from group activities, she has also recorded tracks for various television dramas and movies.

In October 2015, Taeyeon debuted as a solo artist with her first extended play, I. It peaked at number two on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and spawned the single with the same name, which peaked atop the Gaon Digital Chart and has sold over one million digital copies. Her second extended play, Why (2016), debuted at number one on the Gaon Album Chart and yielded two South Korean top-ten singles "Starlight" and "Why".

Following her debut, she was awarded Best Female Artist at the Mnet Asian Music Awards. Gallup Korea ranked her as the third most popular artist of 2015, and Forbes Korea listed her among their Top 40 Power Celebrities of 2016. Taeyeon is renowned for her vocal abilities: she was voted in a survey by 40 music industry officials as the best K-pop vocalist in October 2015, and as the best female vocalist by twenty music companies in April 2016. In 2016 Gallup Korea ranked her as the most popular artist of 2016, the year before she was third.