This K-Pop Idol Debuted In 3 Different Groups And Trained Under 5 Entertainment Companies Before Finally Going Solo
K-Pop idol hopefuls will often try their hardest to make their debut and achieve their dreams of stardom. This desire from K-Pop trainees has led to the invention of shows like the Produce series as a chance to gain popularity in order to debut. Normally, these trainees are new to the industry, but several had already made their debut in one group, like Hwang Minhyun and WOODZ (Cho Seungyoun).
There is one K-Pop idol whose determination for success has been unmatched as she has debuted in three different groups and appeared on four different reality survival programs, in addition to almost debuting with several popular girl groups including f(x) and Girls’ Generation.
Huh Chanmi (also known as Heo Chanmi) first entered the K-Pop entertainment industry as a trainee under SM Entertainment in 2004. At the time, the company was preparing to debut Girls’ Generation, who Chanmi trained alongside. According to her, she was almost in the group but ultimately was not included because she was only in seventh grade at the time. She also missed out on debuting with f(x) before leaving the company in 2010.
After joining Core Contents Media, Chanmi finally made her debut as a member of Coed School, a ten-member group made up of four women and six men. The group debuted in 2010 with the track “Too Late” and in 2011 debuted two subunits of the group, F-VE Dolls and SPEED. F-VE Dolls included the four female members of the group and a new member named Eunkyo.
The two subunits did not reunite after that, and Chanmi left the group in 2012, joining Pledis Entertainment as a trainee. She eventually left and joined Duble Kick Entertainment, where she came into the spotlight again as she participated in Produce 101‘s first season.
Her time on the show was eventful, from other trainees saying that she had an unfair advantage because she had already debuted to accusations of “evil editing” being directed towards Mnet in her favor. Chanmi caused criticism herself when she liked a comment on one of her Instagram posts. In the post, she and a friend were shown using a filter that made them into gorillas, and she liked a comment from a fan that called the two “The Obamas.”
Chanmi was eventually eliminated from Produce 101 and ranked 26 overall. It was initially rumored that she might become a contestant on Duble Kick’s reality show, Finding MOMOLAND, but the company released a statement saying they had different plans for her debut. In 2016, after leaving Duble Kick, Chanmi joined Mostable Music‘s pre-debut group HIGHCOLOR (also known as High Color), and appeared on MC Mong‘s song “And You.”
In 2017, Chanmi and the other members of HIGHCOLOR joined JTBC’s reality show MIXNINE, where she placed 20th overall.
Chanmi left Mostable Music sometime in 2018 and did not join another agency until 2020 when she joined FirstOne Entertainment. After this, she finally released her first solo album Highlight in July 2020.
Chanmi appeared on yet another survival reality program called Miss Trot, a program that aimed to discover the next big female trot stars, no matter what age. While she did not win, she released a trot single album soon after her appearance.
Since then, she has competed on King of The Masked Singer, as well as made a few other TV guest appearances but has not yet announced her next musical plans. She is active on Instagram, where she shares her day-to-day life and has a YouTube Channel as well.
Share This Post
