Yuqi

Yuqi (우기) also known as Sòng Yǔ Qí (宋雨琦) is a Chinese singer signed under Cube Entertainment. She is the lead dancer, vocalist, rapper and face of the South Korean girl group (G)I-DLE.

Early life
Yuqi has enjoyed listening to music from a young age. Whilst her mother was pregnant with her, she would often use MP3 players and let her listen to all kinds of music. This may have influenced her to gain an interest in music as a child and even go on to pursue a career as a singer. As she started singing, she wondered if more practice would allow her to sing even better. This inspired her to sing every day, which would also give people a chance to hear her voice. She also learnt Chinese dance at a young age, more specifically the Daizu dance. The Daizu dance is not particularly well-known, however Yuqi has performed it previously in a video that can be watched here.

K-Pop became an important part of Yuqi’s life during her secondary school years. She began watching more and more K-Pop dance videos online and was very interested in K-Pop songs and choreographies. In fact, she would spend lots of time watching these dance videos in order to learn the choreography herself. At home, she would often imagine herself standing on a stage and holding a pen, practicing her singing and dancing, and enjoying a concert of her own creation. Among the many types of dance, she was mostly into the ‘Girl Crush’ style and was a big fan of HyunA.

She participated in the 2015 Cube Audition held in Beijing and was later contacted by Cube Entertainment for a second evaluation. The process of going alone to South Korea was not easy for her as her parents were strongly against the idea of her becoming an idol. She would try to persuade them daily and eventually they approved of her decision, realising that Yuqi should be able to do what she wanted to. To this day, she is very grateful for her parents’ support in her decision. At the same time, she feels bad due to her mindset that “training was even better than thinking of exams” which she admits was troublesome at the time. During her 2018 debut trailer, she was quoted as saying "This is troublesome...it's not that I'm pretending to study, I've always been a good student...The fact that people say I'm a know-it-all and it makes [me] sad".

She passed her final audition in South Korea and her trainee life commenced soon after. On May 2nd 2018, she has debuted with the rest of (G)I-DLE, releasing high-charting records and winning numerous awards. She is supposedly in charge of the group's aegyo (acting cute).