Peggy Gou

Kim Min-ji (born 3 July 1991), known as Peggy Gou, is a South Korean DJ, singer, songwriter and record producer based in Berlin, Germany. She has released seven EPs on record labels including Ninja Tune and Phonica. In 2019, she launched her own independent record label named Gudu Records, and released a DJ-Kicks compilation titled DJ-Kicks: Peggy Gou, through !k7 Records. Her debut album I Hear You was released on 7 June 2024 through XL Recordings.

Early life and education
Peggy Gou was born Kim Min-ji in Incheon, South Korea, on 3 July 1991. Her father, Kim Chang-yong, is a former journalist, a professor of mass communication at Inje University and standing commissioner of the Korea Communications Commission.

Gou began classical piano lessons at age eight. At age 14, her parents sent her to London, England, to study English. She moved back to Korea when she was 18 years old, but six months later she returned to London to study fashion at the London College of Fashion. After graduating, she worked as the London correspondent editor for Harper's Bazaar Korea, and then moved to Berlin, Germany.

Career
Gou was taught to DJ in 2009 by her friend from Korea. She had her first gig in Cirque Le Soir, Soho, and later performed weekly at The Book Club, East London. In 2013, she learned to use Ableton Live and began to create her own tracks. Her first track, "Hungboo", was completed in 2014. "Hungboo" was named for the hero of a Korean fairy tale. She played the track in Korea for the first time at the 2016 Style Icon Awards opening show, featuring award-winning actor Yoo Ah-in in a visual art video.

Gou made her recording debut in January 2016 on Radio Slave's Rekids label with The Art of War Part 1, featuring a remix from Galcher Lustwerk. She next released four EPs including Seek for Maktoop, with hit track "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)". Maktoop was named after the Arabic word "maktoob", the equivalent to "written" or "destiny". This was followed by the EPs Once in 2018, and Moment in April 2019. Once is the first time she has sung on a record.

In 2017, Gou embarked on her first North American tour and made her Boiler Room debut in New York City. She became the first Korean DJ to play in Berlin's nightclub Berghain. She plays more than one hundred live gigs in a year and has performed alongside the likes of Moodymann, The Blessed Madonna and DJ Koze. She has since played gigs as a part of worldwide festival lineups including Coachella, Glastonbury, Sonus in Croatia, Amsterdam's Dekmantel, London's Printworks, Ibiza, Amsterdam Dance Event, Primavera Sound in Portugal, Barcelona's Sónar, as well as Virgil Abloh's Off-White fashion show among others. In an Interview with Vice, she stated that she preferred to stay out of politics and would just perform for the people who want to hear her music.

Gou released her music on record labels Ninja Tune and Phonica in 2018. That same year, "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)" won Best Track at the AIM Independent Music Awards. "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)" was also listed on the tracklist for FIFA 19.

In 2019, Forbes named Gou as one of the Asian leaders, pioneers and entrepreneurs under age 30. She launched her own fashion label KIRIN ("giraffe" in Korean), supported by Virgil Abloh, under the New Guards Group in February,  followed by her own independent record label, Gudu Records (gudu means "shoes" in Korean) in March. She has stated that she launched Gudu to give artists starting out better opportunities and treatment than she received at the beginning of her career. She next released DJ-Kicks: Peggy Gou, the 69th installment of !K7's DJ-Kicks mix compilation in June. The album became her first Billboard chart appearance, reaching number nine on the Dance/Electronic Album Sales chart, and the second compilation to reach the top 10 after Moodymann's. In July, Gou released her first music video for her hit 2019 track "Starry Night" exclusively on Apple Music, directed by Jonas Lindstroem, and once again featured Yoo Ah-in, the lead actor in the award-winning South Korean film, Burning. The music video was released worldwide on YouTube in September 2019.

In December 2020, Gou joined Apple Music's New Year's Eve DJ Mixes with 21 other electronic music artists. She next released her seventh single "Nabi" in June 2021, featuring Oh Hyuk from Korean indie rock band Hyukoh, followed by a tribute to her teenage years, "I Go", that she called "My own reimagination of the sounds I grew up loving."

In June 2023, Gou released "(It Goes Like) Nanana" through XL Recordings, featuring a sample from André Tanneberger’s 1998 song "9 PM (Till I Come)". It was the lead single from her debut album, I Hear You, which was released on 7 June 2024. "I Believe In Love Again" with Lenny Kravitz was released as the second single from the album in November 2023, followed by "1+1=11" in April 2024.

DJ mixes

 * DJ-Kicks: Peggy Gou (2019)

Extended plays

 * Art of War (2016)
 * Day Without Yesterday / Six O Six (2016)
 * Art of War (Part II) (2016)
 * Seek for Maktoop (2016)
 * Once (2018)
 * Moment (2019)

Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col" | Award ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Nominee(s) ! scope="col" | Category ! scope="col" | Result ! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref. ! scope="row" |BBC Sound of... ! scope="row" rowspan=5|International Dance Music Awards ! scope="row"|Music Week Awards ! scope="row"|UK Music Video Awards
 * +Awards and nominations for Peggy Gou
 * 2024
 * Herself
 * Sound of 2024
 * Third
 * rowspan="3"| 2019
 * "It Makes You Forget"
 * Best Song (Electronic)
 * rowspan="7" Nominated
 * rowspan="3"|
 * rowspan=3|Herself
 * Breakthrough Artist of the Year
 * rowspan="2"| Best House Artist (Female)
 * rowspan="2"| 2020
 * rowspan="2"|
 * "Starry Night"
 * Best Song (Electronic)
 * rowspan="2"|
 * "Starry Night"
 * Best Song (Electronic)
 * Best Song (Electronic)
 * 2023
 * Magnum #ClassicsRemixed
 * Music & Brand Partnership
 * 2019
 * "Starry Night"
 * Best Color Grading in a Video