Background:
Born on November 20, 1984, Cho Yong Jin, better known as Ali, is a South Korean singer-songwriter. She also worked as a professor in applied musical arts in Seoul Technical Arts College (source). She debuted on October 9, 2009 with her mini album “After The Love Has Gone”. However, she has been part of the music industry since 2004 working with artists such as Leessang, Bobby Kim, and more. She became more well known after being a contestant on the show “Immortal Song 2”(source)
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Thoughts on Ali:
I think Ali is pretty underrated. There are a few international fans who have heard of her, but she deserves to be more well known. Her songs are really nice, but most of all, I love her charming voice. Her voice distinguishes her from other female performers. As I have stated before, Ali became more well known through Immortal Song. When I watched her performances on the show, my jaw dropped. She slayed her performance of Cho Yong Pil’s “Red Dragonfly”. It gave me goosebumps!
Her voice isn’t the only reason why I like her. I became a huge fan of Ali after listening to her song, “Na Young”. “Na Young” is based on a true event; it’s about an 8 year old girl who was raped and violently assaulted by a 57 year old man who was drunk at that time. She had severe injuries to her internal organs, which required surgery. The rapist deserved to be locked up for life; however, we all know how shitty (excuse my language) Korea’s laws are towards rapists. The man, who was a REPEATED offender, only received 12 years in prison even though he took away a little girl’s innocence, even though he injured her physically and mentally, even though he caused so much pain not only to her but her parents. Do you want to know the reason why he was received such a light punishment? It’s because he was drunk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayoung_Case). Does that make any sense? When Ali released this song, she received a lot of harsh criticism because netizens believed the lyrics were “negative”. Ali and her agency quickly removed the song from all sites and apologized. In a press conference, Ali revealed she was also the victim of a sexual assault. She talked about how the hoobae that raped her was first sentenced to only 2 years but then got off free due to the fact there were no evidence (Author’s Note:I am trying so hard not to curse as I type this right now) even though the hoobae had injured her face. She explained her intentions were not to hurt the little girl; she just wanted to comfort her. She met up with the girl’s family and apologized to them. You can read the story here: http://thegrandnarrative.com/2012/01/20/ali-rape-na-young/.
Ali is just an amazing woman. She sings well and she is extremely brave for singing about a subject that is very personal and a taboo in the public. There are just many reasons to love her. Another thing that I really like about Ali are her amazing collaborations. One of my favorites is Leessang’s “Ballerino”. This song is just fantastic. Gil’s husky, rough voice, Gary’s unique off beat rapping, and Ali’s lovely voice meshes so well. I highly recommend listening to this song. She also worked with them on another song called “I’m Not Laughing”. Ali sounds so darn perfect in this song. Her voice makes me shiver because of how nice it sounds. Her and Jung In are almost like the 3rd and 4th members of Leessang (Leessang fans should know what I mean!). Another favorite collaboration of mine is Ali and Loco’s “What is Luv”. It’s very reggae inspired and I think these types of songs fits Ali the most. There are some songs in which the rapping ruins it, but the rapping part here makes the song even nicer. Lastly, I also recommend Ali and C-Clown’s Kang Jun, “The Tears Gone”. Their voices sound so good together!
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