Son Ho-young

• Name — Son Ho-young • Other Names — Andrew Son • Born — 26 March 1980 • Birthplace — New Jersey, United States

Son is the younger of two children and was born in the United States to Korean parents who are naturalized American citizens. They moved to South Korea, but their parents divorced and the siblings remained in South Korea with their father, a university professor and amateur singer; mother and son only reconnected when he was an adult. Son was elementary and middle schoolmates with Kang Sung-hoon and Ko Ji-yong, both of whom went on to form Sechs Kies. Despite growing up in a musical home, he showed no inclination towards a career in the music industry until he was a teenager. He had a difficult relationship with his father in adolescence and would run away from home to escape being disciplined for misbehavior, finally leaving home for good at age seventeen and only returning after nearly three years. Son later stated that he had been living on the streets when he befriended future g.o.d bandmate Danny Ahn and eventually auditioned for a project group that Ahn's cousin Park Joon-hyung was forming. He returned home after his debut to reconcile with his father and present him with a copy of g.o.d's debut album.

Son, Danny Ahn, Shoo and Kim Hwan-sung were initially part of a mixed-gender project group but it fell through when Shoo signed with S.M. Entertainment; she went on to debut as a member of the girl group S.E.S. while Kim was recruited as the final member of NRG. Ahn was recruited by his cousin Park Joon-hyung to join his project group under EBM and persuaded Son to audition. Yoon Kye-sang and Kim Sun-a were also recruited but the latter left to pursue acting and was replaced by Kim Tae-woo. With Park Jin-young as their producer and primary songwriter, the group eventually became a five-man boy band g.o.d, short for "Groove Over Dose", and made their debut in January 1999. Despite the lukewarm response to their debut performance, g.o.d would go on to be one of the most popular boy bands of the early 2000s. Son was both a rapper and vocalist but was mainly given rap parts in the first and second albums. He was gradually given more singing parts, as seen in the third album. Son and the other original members were managed by SidusHQ, the successor company of EBM. In 2003 their group contract with SidusHQ expired and they moved to Park Jin-young's agency JYP Entertainment. Son and Park signed individual contracts with JYP Entertainment while Yoon and Ahn remained with SidusHQ.

With Yoon having left the group in 2004, the four remaining members performed as g.o.d for the final time in December 2005 before going their separate ways. Son did not renew his contract with JYP Entertainment and signed with Lobe Entertainment, which was later absorbed into LOEN Entertainment. He released his first album YES, which contained the singles "I Know", "Cry", "YES", and "Love Brings Separation". The album won the Bonsang award for Best Artist (Judges' Choice) at the 21st Golden Disc Awards and "Love Brings Separation" placed #1 in the rankings for January 4, 2007, on Mnet's M Countdown and for January 14 on Inkigayo. Son has since re-released the album containing a DVD of the album's music videos. He continued to periodically collaborate with former bandmate Kim Tae-woo, often performing with one another or appearing on variety shows together. In 2007, Son released a single album entitled Sweet Love; the lead song is "My Heart in Heaven". He performed the song with Lee Min-woo of Shinhwa during the "Special Stage" segment of Music Bank, in which two singers or idol groups would cover one another's songs. Under the Sea concert DVD was released the same year. In late 2008, Son released his second album, Returns. Son performed as a soloist at the Korean Music Festival in 2008 and 2009 and was also MC for the 2009 and 2012 editions. During the 2012 edition he briefly reunited with three of his former g.o.d bandmates for a special performance. He was also a regular participant in Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend. He won an episode for the first time in episode 75 (broadcast on November 17, 2012). In February 2010, with Kim Tae-woo having been discharged from the military, the duo toured overseas together for the first time. They held six concerts in Chicago, Seattle and Vancouver. Son was one of three former JYP Entertainment artists, the others being Kim and their close friend Rain, invited to perform at the first JYP Nation concert TEAMPLAY held at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena that December. On November 10, 2011, Son released his second mini album U-TURN. The promoted single "Pretty But Hateful" featured rapper Bizzy, best known as a member of pioneer hip hop group Drunken Tiger, and peaked at #72 in the Gaon Digital Chart. The music video starred Suzy of miss A. The album was well-received critically and was featured on Mnet's Pick. From November 25, 2011, to January 29, 2012, Son starred in the musical Fame along with Eunhyuk of Super Junior, Tiffany of Girls' Generation, Go Eun Seong, Kim Chan Ho, Shin Ui Jeong, Lina of The Grace, Choi Ju Ri, KoN and Kim Jung-mo of TRAX. In 2013, Son participated and won in MasterChef Korea Celebrity alongside other Korean celebrities, Seo Hye-jeong, Lee Kye-in, Shin Eun-jung, Kim Sung-soo, Tony An, Shin Bong-sun, Hwayobi, Fei (Miss A), Henry (Super Junior-M) and Jiyul (Dal Shabet).

In 2000, Son and three of his bandmates were injured in a car accident on the Yeongdong Expressway. He was the most seriously injured and required treatment in hospital. It was reported in March 2006, after g.o.d discontinued group activities, that Son had undergone surgery on his right knee as it had never fully recovered since the accident and that he had been performing throughout the god is Back National Tour while on painkillers and delayed treatment. Son's older sister is actress and VJ Son Jung-min (ko). They also have a much younger half-sister from their father's second marriage. Son and his older sister both hold American citizenship as they were born in the United States to Korean parents who were naturalized American citizens. His citizenship became the subject of controversy when his father's estranged second wife revealed in 2005 at a press conference that the former had recently given up his Korean citizenship and claimed that he had done so to evade mandatory military service. Son clarified that he had been given Korean citizenship due to an administrative error and had returned his passport at the request of the Immigration Office to correct the error. He was never eligible for Korean nationality due to the fact that he was born overseas to parents who did not hold Korean citizenship and thus did not meet the requirements. On May 21, 2013, police found the body of a woman in Son's car. They discovered that the woman was his girlfriend, who had borrowed his car and then committed suicide in it. Son's company stated that the suicide had nothing to do with her relationship to Son. Son Ho-young attempted to commit suicide following his girlfriend's death, on the morning of May 24, 2013. According to police, at 4:36 am, Son parked his car at a parking lot near Onnuri Community Church, Seoul and attempted to commit suicide using the same method as his girlfriend, by lighting butane gas inside his car. The car caught on fire, and as the singer tried to back away from it, a passerby noticed the fumes coming out of the car and called the police for help. He was then rushed to the hospital and was treated immediately, incurring no long-term damage to his health.

• Year — Work — Role — Notes • 2010 — Becoming a Billionaire — Ha Joon-tae — cameo • 2012 — Salamander Guru and The Shadows — Kim Shi-hoo — cameo • 2013 — Pure Love — Son Dae-ri — Supporting • 2016 — Thumping Spike — Kim Ki Joon — Main • 2021 — We're Family — Cast Member • 2022 — Groom's Class — New groom candidate

• Year — Title — Role — Ref. Reference(s) • 2021 — Hoyoung and Swing Girls — Host

• Year — Title — Role — Ref. Reference(s) • 2021–2022 — Fantastic Fairy Tale — war clown • 2022 — Again, Oh Hae-Young — Park Do-kyung