Shannon Arrum Williams, known professionally as Shannon, is a British-South Korean singer and actress based in South Korea. She officially debuted as a solo artist in December 2014 with her digital single, Daybreak Rain.
Early life
Shannon Arrum Williams was born on 26 May1998 in England to a Welsh father, Chris Williams Lees, and a Korean mother, Kim Jung-mi. Shannon is the youngest in their family with two older twin half-brothers, Christian and Jonah Lees, from her father's previous relationship. She attended Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, and at the age of 7, she was given the role of Cosette in the musical Les Misérables. Shannon studied at Dwight School Seoul but dropped out. Shannon was originally trained to be in a girl group as its main vocalist but later her agency changed their plans and announced that she would continue to be trained for preparing her debut as a soloist. She revealed in a magazine interview, "I was preparing for a debut as the main vocalist of a girl group, but I had a lot of greed towards singing. I asked my agency to let me debut as a solo artist. I'm grateful that they decided to listen to me and I was able to go solo."
Career
2010–2014: Career beginnings
Shannon first appeared on South Korean media through SBS's Star King in 2010 and gained attention after she expressed her singing excellence in 2011. Core Contents Media recruited Shannon after seeing her excellence performance on SBS's Star King in 2011. In 2012, Shannon released a collaboration single, Day and Night with Areum and Gun-ji and also was featured in singer Yangpa's song, "Together." On 23 November, Shannon appeared an episode of JTBC's Hidden Singer 2 as one of the impersonators of singer IU. On 8 January 2014, Shannon appeared on JTBC's Hidden Singer 2 for the King of Kings finale round and performed IU's "Good Day" and Beyoncé's "Listen", but was eliminated before the final round. On 29 January, her pre-debut single "Remember You" featuring Speed's Jongkook was released to commemorate the end of her three-year training for her debut. On 12 February, Shannon made an appearance on her labelmate showcase, Speed Day, which aired on SBS MTV. She performed "Let It Go", a song from the film Frozen, and Rihanna's "Diamonds" with Dani. On 1 December, Shannon made her official debut with released digital single titled "Daybreak Rain". The single charted at number 32 on Gaon digital chart. On 26 December, she along with Vasco and Giriboy released a collaboration single titled "Breath".
2015–present: ''Eighteen'', ''K-pop Star 6'', ''Hello''
On 6 March 2015, Shannon released her first mini album, Eighteen, which consists of seven track with the lead single "Why Why". On 10 July 2015, Shannon collaboration with rapper Yuk Ji-dam released digital single "Love X Get Off". In September 2015, Shannon was confirmed to starred in the KBS drama Moorim School. On 3 March 2016, Shannon released a single, "Lachrymal Gland", featuring Soheechan as part of the 2gether project. From 20 November 2016 to 9 April 2017 she took part in the TV reality show . She competed against other trainees and talented individuals in hopes of scoring a contract that would grant the winner promotions from YG, JYP and Antenna Music. Shannon received high praise for her technical singing ability but was critiqued for her lack of emotion. She was selected into YG's group and sang songs such as "Man in the Mirror", "Who's Your Mama", "Happy", and "Ain't No Other Man". She advanced to the Top 4 before she was eliminated. Shannon released her second digital single "Love Don't Hurt" on 26 June 2017. The single contains two versions: a Korean version and an English version featuring f's Amber. Her second mini album, Hello, released on 28 July with five tracks, including the title track of the same name and the previously-released single "Love Don't Hurt". Shannon held her comeback showcase at the Yes24 Muv Hall on 27 July, one day before the album's release; she performed on Music Bank the next day. The music video for "Hello" was released on 31 July. On 24 June 2018, Shannon released her third digital single "Hatred Farewell". In the first half of 2019, Shannon announced she would leave MBK following the expiration of her contract in the same year. In October 2019, Shannon was confirmed to cast in the musical We Will Rock You, as Scaramouche, which will be held in December. Shannon confirmed that she was the voice actor for "Jett" in the first-person shooter Valorant by Riot Games. After the gamecame out, she began streaming Valorant on Twitch and playing with her friends.
