Amber Liu (singer)

Liu was born on September 18, 1992, in Los Angeles, California.[2][3] Her parents are from Taiwan and her father has Teochew ancestry.[4] She has one older sister named Jackie.[5] She attended El Camino Real High School in Los Angeles. Liu was cast from SM Entertainment's Los Angeles global audition in 2008, where she and one male were selected to be trainees for SM Entertainment. After a year and a half of training, she debuted as a member of the South Korean girl group f(x) in September 2009.[6] During an episode of the group's reality show, Go f(x), Liu revealed that her parents initially had mixed feelings regarding her music career. She stated: "My dad was very cautious, at first ...but then my mom was always supportive from the beginning. I really thank her and she also convinced my dad".[5]

Amber performing at Seoul Plaza.

She has composed and written lyrics for some of the group's songs such as "Goodbye Summer" which was a track in their second studio album, Pink Tape,[7] and "Summer Lover" from their third studio album, Red Light. Aside from featured songs, she also worked with fellow group mates Luna and Krystal for the soundtrack of KBS drama God of Study, in a song called "Spread its Wings".

She frequently collaborated with other SM Entertainment artists. Label mate Yuri of Girls' Generation performed a cover of Ciara's song "1, 2 Step" at their first concert, Into the New World, held on December 19 and 20, 2009 in Seoul and featured Liu as a rapper and dancer. The song was then included in their first live album. In June 2010, she was featured in the lead track of Taiwanese singer, Danson Tang's third Mandarin studio album, The First Second. She performed the Korean and English rap parts of the song, and was also featured in the song's music video.[8]

Liu has also made a career on television. From October 2011 to April 2012, she was part of the reality-variety show, Invincible Youth. She had to leave the show to prepare for her group's debut in Japan.[9] In 2013, she was featured in the Korean version of the title track of Henry's's debut album, called "1-4-3 (I Love You)".[10] She has hosted MBC's music show Show Champion with T-ara's Eunjung for a year, both of them stepped down as hosts on December 18, 2013.[11] On June 6, 2014, she became a host of the KBS show, A Song for You with Kangin of Super Junior and Yook Sungjae of BTOB.[12] She was also a host of We Got Married Global Edition.[13] In the same year, she appeared in a 9-episode travel reality series, One Fine Day, with singer Ailee, who is a close friend of hers. The show, which aired on MBC Music, followed a vacation trip they took and was filmed on Jeju Island.[14] On December 31, Liu was confirmed as a cast member for the second female soldier special of MBC's Real Men.[15]

Amber Liu at the Jeju K-Pop Festival, in October 2015.

Liu officially debuted as a solo artist, releasing her debut EP, Beautiful, on February 13, 2015. The title track, "Shake That Brass", featured Girls' Generation's Taeyeon.[16] A few days prior to the release of the album, a lyric video for the B-side track, "Beautiful", was released. The music video contained childhood photos of the singer, as well as photos since her debut as a member of f(x). Its lyrics tells the story of the difficulties she faced as she chased after her dreams of being an entertainer and how she liked herself the way she is.[17] Beautiful debuted at number two on Billboard's World Albums chart and number 19 on Heatseekers Albums. According to Jeff Benjamin of Billboard K-Town, this ranking shows Amber has a large international fanbase.[18]

As a part of SM Station project, Liu's solo single, "Borders", was released in March 2016. She participated in composing, lyrics writing and arrangement of the song. Written entirely in English, the hip hop track relates her childhood experiences and gives a message not to give up on oneself against life difficulties.[19]

Liu released digital single "On My Own" on May 18, 2016. On May 25, she released "Need to Feel Needed".[20] On September 9, 2016 SM Entertainment published the official music video for "Breathe Again". This was Liu's first entirely English song and her first collaboration with Japanese DJ, Ksuke.[21] On April 15, 2018, Liu released a solo mixtape in English, Rogue Rouge, with six tracks, free on SoundCloud. She also released a music video for one track, "Closed Doors", on YouTube, with plans to release a total of six videos.[22]

In July 2018, she signed with Steel Wool Entertainment and was also registered as her full name, Amber Liu. The agency represents and promotes her in the United States through singing, acting, as well as directing videos.[23] Liu is also signed with United Talent Agency to represent her worldwide activities.[24] In September 2018, Liu released a single album White Noise + Lost At Sea, which includes two songs "White Noise" and "Lost At Sea".[25]

On September 1, 2019, Liu announced her departure from SM Entertainment.[26] Five days later, she confirmed that she would continue forward with her Steel Wool Entertainment contract, and would release an album that she previously prepared with the label.[27] On September 12, Liu announced that she was releasing her second EP, X, with six tracks. It was later confirmed that she would drop one track each month until the album's release on January 10, 2020.[28]