Nicha Yontararak, better known by her nicknameMinnie, is a Thai singer, songwriter, composer and record producer based in South Korea. She is best known as a member of the South Korean girl group I-dle, which debuted on May 2, 2018 under Cube Entertainment.
Life and career
1997–2017: Early life and predebut
Minnie was born on October 23, 1997, in Bangkok, Thailand. She has older twin brothers. She was born into a musical family, with her mother, aunt and uncle playing the piano. Minnie has been playing piano since she was five and taking vocal lessons since she was seven years old. Her mom was her main influence for loving music. She always watched her mom playing the piano, and learned to play it from her. Minnie attended Wattana Wittaya Academy and studied music at Grammy Vocal Studio in Thailand. She was the cheerleader, drummer, actress in a stage play, and more in her school. She also studied Chinese for four years. On September 2014, she participated in the CubeStar World Audition in Thailand and came to Korea in 2015. On March 23, 2016, Minnie was revealed to the public though Cube trainee official Instagram. On November 5, she was featured in Jeon So-yeon's performance stage at Unpretty Rapstar 3 concert. In June 2017, she participated in a promotional video for Rising Star Cosmetics along with Song Yuqi and Shuhua, future members of I-dle. The same year, Minnie was given an opportunity to feature for Line Friends' Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and six songs in Dance Party! – Children's English Songs.
2018–present: Debut with (G)I-dle and collaboration
On May 2, 2018, Minnie debuted with I-dle with their mini-album I Am and the title song "Latata". She is known for having a unique, attractive and soothing voice. In their second album, I Made, Minnie participated in composing, songwriting and arranging Blow Your Mind which was first released through To Neverland. A self-directed music video was released. Minnie confessed that she makes songs on piano and is taking MIDI classes to improve composing. She was credited in composing "For You" for I-dle's Japanese debut album, Latata. In October 2019, I-dle took part in Queendom by Mnet. In the first preliminary stage, the viewers were overwhelmed with Minnie's Thai intro enchantment for "Latata", and was well received from viewers in South Korea and Thailand. In the third pre-contest unit stage, Minnie represents I-dle's vocal member. She shared the stage with AOA's Hyejeong performing "Instagram" by Dean. The stage was voted the most anticipated unit stage by the contestants. Moreover, the song re-entered music charts and grew popularity amongst the general public due to their performance. On October 15, it was announced that Minnie teamed up with Wengie, a Chinese AustralianYouTuber for a collaboration song "Empire" on October 18. "Empire" debuted at number 22 on the Billboard World Digital Songs.
Personal life
Minnie is multilingual. She speaks several languages including Thai, English, Korean, Japanese and Mandarin. Journalist Jake Lau of South China Morning Post, noted that Minnie has a versatile voice: "she sings in a soft, breathy voice when performing more emotive songs and acoustic renditions But on more powerful songs such as Lion, Minnie can belt out the powerful high notes". Apart from her voice, she is also known for her striking eyes and strong gaze that is featured in many of I-dle's music videos. She cites Super Junior whose songs she often sang to while growing up that led her into K-Pop, as well as singer Troye Sivan as one of her inspirations and hopes for a collaboration someday. Through inverview with HelloAsia, she revealed that she get inspired by her own story or from other people's stories or movies.
Discography
Singles
Music videos
Songwriting credits
All song credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise noted.
