Youn Sun Nah
PROJECTS:
Hailed by The Guardian as “a style-bending star,” South Korean singer, songwriter, and composer Youn Sun Nah, has built “an impressive mainstream following” (The Times UK) performing on some of the world’s greatest stages, such as the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and International Jazz Day.
Youn’s 2026 release, Lost Pieces, is a captivating journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. The album explores themes of doubt in love, people, and even oneself – touching on loss, separation, and the complexities of relationships. As with her evocative 2022 record, Waking World, Youn wrote and composed the music entirely independently. Lost Pieces reflects her interest in a wide range of musical styles, intuitively combining seemingly disparate indie pop sensibilities with an unrestricted jazz vocabulary and delicate folk song echoes, all the while following her own idiosyncratic path.
Youn’s refreshingly rich voice, which All About Jazz describes as “dramatic, sensual, and bluesy,” is a reflection of her cultured background. She was born into a family with a high appreciation for the arts in South Korea and quickly earned a reputation for her astonishing musical prowess. After relocating to Paris to study chanson and jazz, Youn’s new home embraced her with the great distinction of being appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2019. Youn made her Warner Music debut that same year with the highly lauded Immersion. Stuck in place by the pandemic, she wrote and recorded her first ever collection of all original songs, 2022’s evocative Waking World, marked as always by deep emotional insight and a haunting musical approach bridging pop gestures, folk intimacy, and surprising jazz instrumentations. The award-winning vocalist teamed with pianist Jon Cowherd for her 2024 release - a collection of songs made famous by iconic female artists including Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Grace Jones, and others. Entitled, Elles (the feminine “they” in French), the album arrives via Warner Music Arts and was mastered by Tomek Miernowski (producer) and Bob Ludwig.
PRESS QUOTES:
The Korean vocalist presented her set’s sumptuous music, she and her rich voice, a treasure box of timbres, were the focal points.
Ottawa Citizen
A style-blending star.
The Guardian
An impressive mainstream following.
The Times UK
The South Korean singer Youn Sun Nah showed how seamlessly she could move between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity.
The Guardian
