Jessica Ho, best known by her stage name Jessi, is a South Korean-American solo performer based in South

Korea. She was born in New York on December 17, 1988, grew up in New Jersey, and moved to South Korea
on her own at the age of 13 to follow her dreams.

While living in New Jersey, Jessi experienced bullying and racism because of her being Asian. She suffered for
years. There was a day when a boy in her school made a slant-eyed gesture at her. She got fed up with their
teasing and decided to fight back. She threw a table towards the boy, creating a scene. However, the faculty
did not punish the boy but Jessi, who was the victim. Despite being treated unfairly by her school, there has
been no further harassment against her since that incident. She then learned one thing: fighting may not be
the answer, but she had to deal with it when she was treated unfairly. She became stronger, braver, and
learned how to speak for herself against unfair treatment.

She first encountered music at the church's youth choir. She amazed the people around her, and they
encouraged her to become a singer. She then gained an interest in becoming a professional singer. However,
her parents did not have the money to support her dreams at that time, and they could only afford one week
of vocal training. Her coach encouraged her to chase her dreams, causing her to start to dream of becoming a
singer. She then sent a demo tape to various Korean agencies. She received proposals from two agencies: SM
Entertainment, which is one of the most famous entertainment companies in South Korea right now, and
Doremi Records. During the 90s, Doremi records held more famous singers than SM entertainment. So, Jessi
decided to sign a contract with Doremi Records. Her family opposes her flying to South Korea because she’s
too young to go on her own and also due to a language barrier as she can’t speak Korean. Despite the setbacks
she received from her family, she insisted on flying to South Korea on her own. After two years of being a
trainee, she debuted with her real name, Jessica Ho, with the album "Get Up". It is a cute concept, carrying
great expectations as her entertainment invested around 800,000 US dollars. Unfortunately, her debut did not
gain much anticipation and ended in a disappointment. She was forgotten by the people and was unable to
engage in meaningful activities. She then got a job offer as a temporary rapper for the popular hip-hop group
"Uptown". She began to establish her career as a rapper with excellent rap skills while working with Uptown.
Another setback happened to her career as one of the members of Uptown was caught drunk while driving,
causing all of their activities to be cancelled altogether. Due to this, Jessi decided to give up making music and
return to the US. She continued her studies and passed the GED, the high school equivalency diploma in the
US, and began to study fashion. However, Jessi did not stop her passion as a singer. She began to cover songs
and post them on her YouTube account, STUDIO 221. One day, a Korean music agency contacted her after
seeing her videos. She debuted again for the second time. Unfortunately, her second debut did not go as well
as she expected. Her agency got into a bad situation, and her contract got cancelled. Due to this, she became
alone and jobless, with no house or agency. She tried to find a new agency on her own in Korea and,
fortunately, she did find one and debuted in a group called "Lucky J" under YMC Entertainment. However, she
did not achieve much in her solo album activities. The agency then suggested plastic surgery to change her
image. She was forced to undergo double eyelid surgery and a nose job. Although she had the plastic surgery,
she still did not get much attention and her musical activities did not improve either. Jessi then decided to give
up on making music for the second time. She suffered from mental illness for years and despised herself.

One day, a producer from a music show asked her to appear on a program. However, at this point, Jessi had
already closed her mind completely on making music. Nevertheless, the producer did not give up on casting
Jessi. After several attempts, Jessie finally agreed to join the program. Who could have thought that this would
become the turning point in her life? The show was called "Unpretty Rapstar," and it featured various idol and
underground rappers competing to survive and win.The program is really popular among Koreans as the
contestants were popular artists and the organizer of this survival is a famous television music channel, MNET.
Jessi shocked Korean society with powerful effects and aggressive expressions, which are uncommon in Korea.
She received tremendous attention for the first time after 14 years in the music industry. She gradually
established her career and released hit songs such as I Want To Be Me, which talks about her worries as a
singer. After various activities, Jessi moved to PSY’s agency, "P NATION." PSY is a well-known artist all over the
world. Some of his hit songs are Gangnam Style, Gentlemen, DADDY, and New Face. Jessi debuted under P
Nation with her song, Who That B, expanding her activities far beyond Korea to the world. This song ranked
8th on the US Billboard World Digital Songs chart. She then followed her success with her hit song, "NUNU
NANA", which gained so much attention, followed by "What Type of X," "Cold Blooded," and her new hit song,
"ZOOM." To this date, she has also tried hosting and even established her own show called, "Jessi’s
Showterview." She’s currently a member of the entertainment show "Six Sense."

Jessi had to face a very long and difficult time to get where she is now. Through music, she is able to convey
her messages and express her true self. She just proved that after a long dark night, there will always be a light
waiting for us, so we must seize every opportunity we get, whether it may fail or not.