# Dana (South Korean singer)

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
### 2001–2003: 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. 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 May 24–28, 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 June 24, 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 Track listing 세상끝까지 (Until the End of the World) Diamond Feat. Yunho Pretty... Jealousy Tonite Lover Pray:Play Feel for You Behind Love Valentine Love Takes Time For You | KOR: 44,783 |
| Maybe (남겨둔 이야기) | Released: 1 October 2003 Label: SM Entertainment Formats: CD, cassette, digital download Track listing 길들이기 (Friend VS Lover) 남겨둔 이야기 (Maybe) What is Love? 바램 (Fight Till The End) N&N (End and and) 너를 꿈꾸며 (Love is All I Need) Dream How 2 Love I Will Kiss me Unhappy Day My Melody -Streaming TRAX- What is Love? (Morden Rock Ver.) Swear Wanna Be | KOR: 14,408 |

### Single

| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Sales | Album |
| Title | Year | KOR | Sales | Album |
| "세상끝까지" (Until the End of the World) | 2001 | — | — | First Album |
| "Diamond" | 2001 | — | — | First Album |
| "Maybe" | 2003 | — | — | Maybe |
| "What is Love?" | 2003 | — | — | Maybe |
| "Touch You" | 2016 | 228 | — | SM Station Season 1 |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. |||||

### 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

| Year | Song | Album | Artist | Label | Lyrics | Lyrics | Music | Music |
| Year | Song | Album | Artist | Label | Credited | With | Credited | With |
| 2006 | Sayonara No Mukou Ni | Juicy Love | Dana | Rhythm Zone | — | — | Yes | — |
| 2013 | No More | Pink Tape | f(x) | SM Entertainment | Yes | — | No | — |

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2000 | Age of Peace | Dana | 3D Movie |
| 2015 | Sunshine | Sulji | |

### Television Series

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2002 | Nonstop 3 | Dana | Sitcom |
| 2011 | Bravo, My Love! | Cameo | Sitcom |
| 2012 | Drama Special Series: "Amore Mio" | Mi-rae | Special Drama |
| 2016 | 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 | Notes |
| 2002 | Peter Pan | Wendy | Musical |
| 2010 | (고궁뮤지컬 대장금) Daejanggeum Season Three | Seo Jang-geum (서장금) | Musical |
| 2010 | (락 오브 에이지) Rock of Ages | Sherrie Christian | Musical also starring Sunday, Onew, and Jay |
| 2010–2011 | (삼총사)The Three Musketeers | Constance | Musical also starring Kyuhyun and Jay |
| 2012 | (캐치 미 이프 유캔) Catch Me If You Can | Brenda Strong | Musical also starring Kyuhyun, Key and Sunny |
| 2013 | (보니 앤 클라이드) Bonnie and Clyde | Bonnie | Musical |
| 2013–2014 | (삼총사)The Three Musketeers | Constance | Musical also starring Jun.K, Key and J-min |
| 2015 | Robin Hood | Joy | Musical also starring Cho Kyuhyun, Yang Yoseob |
| 2015–2016 | (위대한캣츠비 Re:Boot) The Great Gatsby Re:Boot | Seon | Musical |
| 2016 | (별이 빛나는 밤에) 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 | — | Won |

### Mnet Asian Music Awards

| Year | Category | Work | Result |
| 2001 | Best New Female Artist | "Until the end of the World" | Nominated |

### MTV Style Awards

| Year | Category | Work | Result |
| 2003 | Annual Korean Artist Award | — | Won |

### Special awards
#### Chinese Ministry of Culture

| Year | Category | Work | Result |
| 2003 | Minister Contribution Award | — | Won |