Winter (singer)

Kim Min-jeong (born January 1, 2001), known professionally as Winter, is a South Korean singer and dancer. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Aespa which debuted under SM Entertainment in November 2020. In January 2022, she became a member of the supergroup Got the Beat.

Early life
Kim Min-jeong was born on January 1, 2001, in Nampo-dong, Busan, South Korea, but spent her childhood in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do. She was born into a military family with her father, older brother, and several relatives all in the military. Due to this, she initially dreamt of becoming a soldier.

She went to Yangsan Samsung Middle School and was a diligent student who was in advanced math and was popular among students, leading to her being elected vice president. She learned to play multiple instruments, such as the piano and guitar and played various sports like bowling, kendo, fencing, basketball, and badminton. She was also in the school's dance club. She was attending Yangsan Girls' High School until she was discovered by an SM talent scout while performing at a dance festival at her school in 2016. Prior to being scouted, she had never shared her aspirations of becoming a singer with her parents, who were surprised by her decision to audition. She shared that during the audition, she had to sing for over three to four hours. She was accepted and dropped out of high school to immediately begin her training. She later took her GED exam and passed.

Winter was trained vocally by SM Entertainment's in-house vocal coaches, including Yoo Young-jin who was a longtime producer of the agency before his departure in 2023. She was also a student of Waackxxxy, a South Korean dancer who specializes in waacking.

2020–present: Debut in Aespa, GOT The Beat and solo activities
Winter trained for four years, and in 2020, she was revealed as the first member of Aespa, a group with a metaverse concept under SM Entertainment and the company's first girl group since Red Velvet in 2014. They debuted with the single "Black Mamba" on November 17. On December 6, Winter participated in a tribute to her labelmate and SM Entertainment senior BoA, in celebration of her 20th anniversary, and performed a cover of her song "ID; Peace B" at the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards.

In 2022, SM Entertainment created a supergroup composed of their female artists as a counterpart to their male supergroup, SuperM. The Girls On Top project's first unit, Got the Beat, would have 7 members: Winter and her fellow aespa member Karina, Girls' Generation's Taeyeon and Hyoyeon, Red Velvet's Wendy and Seulgi and BoA. The group made their debut on New Year's Day at the 2022 SM Town Live Concert with the single "Step Back", which was officially released on January 3. After making their debut stage on M! Countdown, her individual fancam for "Step Back" went viral and became the fastest female idol fancam in history to amass 10 million views, reaching it in only 25 days. In the same year, she released a duet with fellow aespa member Ningning called "Once Again" as part of the official soundtrack of the South Korean drama Our Blues. The song charted at 119 on the Gaon Digital Chart. In December, she participated in two tracks for the 2022 Winter SM Town: SMCU Palace, "Jet" and "Priority", which featured her labelmates in SM Entertainment.

In 2023, she released a collaboration with Super Junior's Yesung called "Floral Sense" for his second studio album's reissue, Sensory Flows. The song and its accompanying music video featuring Winter were released on February 27. Months later, Winter, along with Im Si-wan, were appointed as the ambassadors of the 2024 World Team Table Tennis Championships which would be held in Busan, the hometown of both singers. To promote the event, Winter and Im Si-wan released the song "Win For You" on September 21 as the event's official theme song. In November, she released a collaborative song with (G)I-dle's Soyeon and Ive's Liz titled "Nobody", which was released on November 16. In the same month, she was announced to be a part of the official soundtrack of the South Korean drama Castaway Diva and released the song "Voyage" on November 19. Winter was also revealed to be part of the lineup for the official soundtrack of the South Korean drama My Demon and released the song "With You", on December 8.

On March 14, 2024, it was announced that Winter would be collaborating with Bang Yedam on a new single "Officially Cool". The single was released on April 2.

Endorsements
On October 13, 2023, she became the brand ambassador of the South Korean skincare and cosmetics brand Mamonde. In November, she became the face of Polo Ralph Lauren in South Korea. A month later, it was announced that she will be the ambassador of the South Korean cosmetics brand Espoir, another brand owned by Amorepacific Corporation after Mamonde, and eventually became its global ambassador. On April 1, 2024, Winter became the new model for the South Korean isotonic drink Toreta.

Personal life
Her family comes from the Gimhae Kim clan, the 22nd generation of the Samhyeonpa branch, and are Buddhist, though she has stated she herself is not particularly religious. On April 12, 2024, SM entertainment confirmed that Winter had undergone surgery after suffering a collapsed lung.