Energetic Singer Finds Success Beyond the Dance Floor

Multi-talented Instagram star Peggy Gou is enjoying global popularity among young music fans. The energetic 28-year-old, who is based in Berlin, visited Korea recently to film a video for her new song "Starry Night".

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Gou is one of the three young Koreans who were included in Asia's "30 Under 30" by Forbes magazine in early this year, along with K-pop girl group Black Pink and model Han Hyun-min.

"It Makes You Forget", written by Gou, won the Independent Track of the Year award at the AIM Independent Music Awards in London in September last year.

She performed over 200 times around the world in 2018 alone, showcasing both her own music and her DJing skills.

Born in Incheon, Gou moved to London at the age of 14 to study fashion design. But shortly after, she was unexpectedly opened to another passion which she didn't know she had.

"One day, I went to a gathering of Koreans in London and I ended up being in charge of playing music", she said. "It was a total revelation. It felt as if my whole life was being sucked into it", she recalled.

Immediately after graduation, she left for Berlin in pursuit of her newly inspired area of interest, music. She worked in a record shop during the day and went to the city's largest club, Berghain, at night. Each night she stayed as close as possible to DJs until dawn, while writing music in her spare time. After two years, the club suggested Gou try DJing herself, and she became Berghain's first Korean female turntable artist.

Peggy Gou (center) plays music at a club in London early this year in this photo from her Instagram account.

Gou quickly established a reputation, as her DJing and music spread rapidly on YouTube, with young people flocking to see her, and she has accumulated over 800,000 followers on Instagram.

British daily The Guardian named her "one to watch" in its article in April. "Ask clubbers from Berlin to Bali which DJ is poised for global domination and they'll tell you: Peggy Gou. The [Korean] selector's eye-wateringly rapid rise has taken her from lighting up party lineups to being a must-see at festivals to, now, an unstoppable artist, label head, fashion darling and designer with, frankly, the world's most enviable Instagram page", it wrote.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of her music is the mix of Korean lyrics in her songs. "You naturally pay more attention to songs in a foreign language that you don't know. I wanted to write lyrics in my own language", Gou said.

It did not take long for her fame reach her homeland. She has modeled for a smartphone brand here and in February launched her own fashion brand as well. Gou recently signed with the label XL Recordings, which also works with famous stars such as Adele and Radiohead.