Hong Sung-mi (; born 17 July 1986), known professionally as Dana, is a South Korean singer, musical actress and vocal coach. Dana first made her public appearance with acts on the boy group H.O.T's sci-fi movie Age of Peace in 2000. Dana later made her official debut as a solo singer, with released full-album DANA (2001) and Maybe (2003). Concurrently with her music career in 2002, Dana made her acting debut with cast in the third season of MBC sitcom Nonstop and also made her musical theatre debut with cast as Wendy in Peterpan.
After she took a break for music scene almost two-years, Dana returned with debuting as a member of girl group The Grace in April 2005. Through the group's career, they releases and performs music in Korean and Japanese with a total of three studio albums. In mid 2010, the group's halted all their activities and focusing their own activities. In July 2011, the groups returned with formed duo sub-unit Dana & Sunday with only released single "One More Chance" before also took a break.
Dana returned in musical theatre with cast in Daejanggeum Season Three, Rock of Ages, The Three Musketeers in 2010. Following this, she earned a number of roles, appearing in the notably musical Catch Me If You Can (2012), Bonnie and Clyde (2013), The Great Gatsby Re:Boot (2016). In 2016, Dana later returned to the music scene with released her single "Touch You" through SM Station.
Career
2000–2003: Career beginnings Prior to debuting in a girl group, she promoted as an actress in popular boyband H.O.T's Age of Peace movie and in Kangta's "Polaris" music video.
Starting off as a solo artist under Lee Soo Man's SM Entertainment label, Dana was labeled the "next BoA".
In 2001, she released her fairly successful debut single "Sesang kkeut kkaji" (Until The end of The World), which was an adapted song of "Tell Me No More Lies" composed by European songwriter Stefan Aberg. She followed up with "Diamond", a pop/dance track featuring Jung Yunho (U-Know, who eventually became a member of TVXQ in 2003).
Her career blossomed and was furthered through appearances on variety shows, such as X-Man, as well as playing a main role in the sitcom Nonstop. Her second album "Maybe" was released in 2003; however, it sold poorly. From that point on, she disappeared from the music industry (aside from SMTOWN collaborations) until the debut of The Grace.
2005–2011: The Grace and Dana & Sunday
Dana redebuted as a member of South Korea girl group The Grace in 2005. The group debuted on 29 April 2005 in China and 1 May 2005 in South Korea. For the group's fourth Japanese single, she composed the music to her own solo song "Sayonara No Mukou Ni".As of 2010, the group was indefinite hiatus.
Starting in May 2010, Dana started her musical acting career with played role on Daejanggeum Season Three. Later the same year, she starred in Rock of Ages as Sherrie.
In late 2010 and early 2011, she starred as Constance in The Three Musketeers.Kang Seung-hun "Super Junior Kyuhyun says advice from cast members helps with musical" 10 Asia, 17 December 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2015. She commented in an interview about being nervous about having to kiss Super Junior Kyuhyun.
In June 2011, an image was leaked of SM Entertainment's itinerary for 2011 which included a release for a new single by CSJH. SM later confirmed that CSJH would be making a comeback with a new image. On 8 July 2011, CSJH's Dana & Sunday made a comeback as a sub-unit with a digital single titled 'One More Chance'; the single was released on 11 July.
2012–present: Solo activities From March 2012 to June 2012, she was cast as Brenda Strong for the re-run of the musical Catch Me If You Can. In September 2013, she starred as Bonnie for the musical Bonnie and Clyde. In February 2014, she returned to cast as Constance in The Three Musketeers. In early 2015, she was cast as Joy for the musical Robin Hood.
After 13 years, Dana returned as soloist with release "Touch You" on 20 May 2016, as a part of SM Entertainment project SM Station. To promote the song, Dana performed on several music programs, The Show, M Countdown, Music Bank, Show! Music Core and Inkigayo from 24–28 May 2016.
In December 2018, Dana starred her first reality show Danalda aired on Lifetime cable channel. The reality show containing Dana's diet challenge after break-up and losing her close brother.
On 24 June 2020, it was reported that Dana would be leaving SM Entertainment after 19 years. SM Entertainment confirmed the news and added, "Our exclusive contract with Dana ended recently. We hope people will continue to support her in her future activities."
Personal life On 4 May 2016, during MBC's Radio Star, Dana revealed that she had been in a relationship for three years. It was later revealed that Dana's boyfriend is Lee Ho-jae, who is a film/music video director. On 6 November 2018, SM Entertainment announced that the couple broke up.
Discography
Studio albums Title Album details Sales Dana Released: 10 September 2001 Label: SM Entertainment Formats: CD, cassette, digital download KOR: 44,783 Maybe () Released: 1 October 2003 Label: SM Entertainment Formats: CD, cassette, digital download KOR: 14,408
Single TitleYear Peak chart positionsSalesAlbum KOR "세상끝까지" (Until the End of the World) 2001 — First Album "Diamond" — "Maybe" 2003 — Maybe "What is Love?" — "Touch You" 2016 228 SM Station Season 1 "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region.
Featured artists Title YearAlbum "달이 태양을 가릴 때 (Eclipse) (Remastered Remix)" (with Moonbyul)2026
Compilations Albums Release dates Christmas Winter Vacation in SMTown.com - Angel Eyes 4 December 2001 Summer Vacation in SMTown.com 10 June 2002 2002 Winter Vacation in SMTown.com - My Angel My Light 6 December 2002 2003 Summer Vacation in SMTown.com 18 June 2003 2003 Winter Vacation in SMTown.com 8 December 2003 2004 Summer Vacation in SMTown.com 2 July 2004 2006 Summer SMTown 20 June 2006 2006 Winter SMTown - Snow Dream 12 December 2006 Billie Jean Look at Me OST 24 January 2007 Air City OST 23 May 2007 2007 Summer SMTown - Fragile 5 July 2007 2007 Winter SMTown - Only Love 10 December 2007 2011 Winter SMTown – The Warmest Gift 13 December 2011 Opera Star 2012 Round 1 13 February 2012 Opera Star 2012 Round 2 20 February 2012 Opera Star 2012 Round 3 27 February 2012 SM Best Album 3 10 August 2012 To the Beautiful You OST 19 September 2012 King of Mask Singer: Episode 41 10 January 2016 Golden Pouch OST 21 December 2016
Songs written by Dana YearSongAlbumArtistLabelLyricsMusicCreditedWithCreditedWith 2006 Sayonara No Mukou Ni Juicy Love Dana Rhythm Zone 2013 No More Pink Tape f(x) SM Entertainment
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes2000 Age of Peace Dana 3D Movie2015 Sunshine Sulji
Television series Year Title Role Notes 2002 Nonstop 3 Dana Sitcom 2011 Bravo, My Love! Cameo Sitcom2012 Drama Special Series:"Amore Mio" Mi-rae Special Drama2016 Golden Pouch Geum Doo-na Daily Drama
Television Year Title Channel Role Notes 2003 Dana's DMZ (Daily Music Zone) iTV MC 2012 Opera Star Season 2 tvN Regular Cast with Kim Jong Seo, Park Ji Yoon, 8eight's Joo Hee, Son Ho Young, Park Ki Youn 2014 Law of the Jungle in Solomon SBS Regular Cast with Tao, Kikwang, Kim Tae-woo 2016 King of Mask Singer MBC Contestant As Heart Racing Snow Queen
Musical theater Year Title Role Notes2002 Peter Pan Wendy Musical 2010 () Daejanggeum Season Three Seo Jang-geum () Musical () Rock of Ages Sherrie Christian Musical also starring Sunday, Onew, and Jay2010–2011 ()The Three Musketeers Constance Musical also starring Kyuhyun and Jay2012 () Catch Me If You Can Brenda Strong Musical also starring Kyuhyun, Key and Sunny2013 () Bonnie and Clyde Bonnie Musical2013–2014 ()The Three Musketeers Constance Musical also starring Jun.K, Key and J-min2015 Robin Hood Joy Musical also starring Cho Kyuhyun, Yang Yoseob2015–2016 (위대한캣츠비 Re:Boot) The Great Gatsby Re:Boot Seon Musical 2016 () Byeol-i Bichnaneun Bam-e Hanjuri Musical
Videography
Solo Music Video 세상끝까지 Diamond 남겨둔 이야기 (Maybe) What is Love (Original Ver.)
Awards
South Korean Performing Arts Awards
Year Category Work Result 2001 Newcomer Award
Mnet Asian Music Awards
Year Category Work Result 2001 Best New Female Artist "Until the end of the World""2001 MMF part 1" , mwave.interest.me. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
MTV Style Awards Year Category Work Result 2003 Annual Korean Artist Award
Special awards
Chinese Ministry of Culture Year Category Work Result 2003 Minister Contribution Award
References
External links
Dana official website