Jung Yong Joo (English name: Nicole) is a South Korean singer and former member of the girl group Kara. She was born in Glendale, California, and moved to South Korea after being accepted by DSP Media as a trainee. Nicole debuted as a member of Kara on March 29, 2007, with their single "Break It". Despite the success of Kara, in January 2014, Nicole decided to leave the group as well as DSP Media to debut as a soloist.
In October 2014, Nicole signed an exclusive contract with B2M Entertainment, which was established by one of Kara’s managers. "First Romance" was the name of her first mini-album, released on November 19. By the end of the year, "First Romance" sold over 10K copies. In April 2015, Nicole announced her solo debut in Japan with the single "Something Special", which debuted at the top 10 Oricon charts with almost 12K copies sold the first week. Since then, Nicole has been active as a solo artist in Japan.
In 2020, Nicole opened a YouTube channel and signed with the Japanese agency Diamond Music.
On July 11, 2022 she signed with JWK Entertainment.
(Source: Wikipedia)
