Sunmi Reveals How She Was Scouted For JYP During SM Audition + The Stage Names Wonder Girls Almost Debuted With

Apr 25, 2021

Sunmi told the story of how she joined JYP Entertainment on KBS 2TV’s “Come Back Home”!

On the April 24 episode of the new variety show, Sunmi talked about how she wound up at her former agency JYP Entertainment, where she made her debut as a member of Wonder Girls in 2007.

To the hosts’ surprise, Sunmi explained that she was actually scouted for JYP Entertainment while auditioning for another agency: SM Entertainment.

“When I was in sixth grade or so, I auditioned for SM,” she said. “I was at the stage where they were deciding whether or not I would become a trainee. But then, one of the employees at SM who was moving to JYP at the time asked me, ‘Do you want to try auditioning for JYP?’ So I went to the audition, and I passed right away.”

“But to be honest,” she added with a laugh, “back then, I wanted to join SM a little more. Because BoA was at SM.”

Sunmi later went on to crack up the hosts by revealing the stage names that JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin Young had originally come up with for her and the other Wonder Girls members.

“Like he did for Rain, he gave us stage names,” Sunmi recalled. “I was Berry, and Sohee was Icy. Yeeun was Silver, because of the ‘eun‘ in ‘Yeeun.'” (“Eun” is the Korean word for “silver.”)

As everyone burst out laughing, Sunmi confessed, “We were really worried at the time. But we couldn’t tell [Park Jin Young], since it was before our debut. Fortunately, though, other employees at the agency were opposed to the names.”