Son Ho-young

Son Ho-young (Korean: 손호영; born March 26, 1980) is a South Korean-American singer and musical actor based in South Korea. Best known as a member of g.o.d, he made his debut in the entertainment industry with the group in 1999 and pursued a solo career as a singer and musical theater actor after the group went on hiatus. He has also regularly appeared on Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend and other music variety shows.

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" (Korean: 운다; RR: Unda), "YES", and "Love Brings Separation" (Korean: 사랑은 이별을 데리고 오다; RR: Sarang-eun ibyeoreul). 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" (Korean: 하늘에 내 마음이; RR: Haneure nae ma-eumi). 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.