Singer
Ailee > T

Ailee was born in Denver, Colorado on May 30, 1989, but grew up in New Jersey. She attended Palisades Park Junior/Senior High School before moving to Leonia. Although she graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, she dropped out of Pace University (where she claims to have studied communications, journalism and criminal justice) in order to pursue a music career. She got into singing by creating a YouTube channel called "mzamyx3" and late ... r "aileemusic" because she wanted to garner more attention to her singing on the web. She moved to South Korea in 2010 after she landed an audition through her uncle's connections. She sang Big Mama's Resignation and was recruited on the spot. Before her K-pop debut, Ailee was an artist under Muzo Entertainment, an independent agency based out of New York and New Jersey, where she collaborated with several artists under the group such as Johnnyphlo, who is also signed in Korea, as well as Philadelphia based rapper, Decipher. During her trainee days under YMC Entertainment, she was featured in Wheesung's "They Are Coming" song released on October 9, 2011. Ailee was also featured in Decipher's song "Catch Me If You Can", which also featured Jay Park. Ailee performed with Jay Park, Art of Movement, Johnnyphlo, Decipher, and Clara C at "projectKorea III" at Rutgers University in 2010. On September 13, 2011 Ailee along with Wheesung held a performance on the MBC's Chuseok special episode of "Singer and Trainee". Ailee's stage presence was immediately felt by the audience, who was amazed that she was like a professional singer, even though she had not yet officially debuted. Following her solo performance of "Halo" by Beyoncé, singer BMK expressed, "Wherever she goes, she has the potential to be a big star. She definitely has the voice." After the judges had graded everyone, Ailee won first place. On February 6, the music video teaser for Ailee's debut song, Heaven, was released. Heaven was written and produced by Wheesung. On the 9th, Ailee released the song and the music video, which featured Beast's Gi Kwang. Later that day, she made her debut stage performance of "Heaven" on M.net M! Countdown, and then on SBS Inkigayo on February 11. Just one month after her debut, she dominated the Cyworld Music Awards on February where she won two awards for, “Song of the Month” and “Rookie of the Month“. The Cyworld Digital Music Awards are based on the Cyworld Music Charts and the winners are determined by the artist or group with the highest sales for the month. On October 16, Ailee released her music video for her title track of the mini album, “I’ll Show You“, which featured MBLAQ's G.O. In addition to the music video, she also released her mini album called Invitation. See more [+]