Trivia: Who Is The Oldest Female Idol To Make Her Debut?

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She is still hanging around the K-Pop scene today.

Koreaboo

Just now

As more K-Pop groups debut, the members’ ages are often brought up when discussing the industry’s impact on the idols. When NewJeans debuted, there was much debate over their promotional activities as all the members were underage at the time, to the point of suggesting age restrictions.

This isn’t new, as many idols started in the industry at very young ages, like NCT’s Jisung and IVE‘s Jang Wonyoung, who both started their K-Pop careers at the age of 14.

While younger debuts are the trend, many idols are currently challenging this status quo. When boy group XEED debuted in 2023, their youngest member was 27 years old.

This doesn’t mean there weren’t older idols in the past — in fact, the oldest female idol to debut was 28 years old! In 2009, girl group After School debuted with a line-up of five members, including leader Kahi.

Kahi was born in 1980, making her nearly 29 when After School began promotions. The star was an active group member until her graduation in mid-2012, continuing as a solo artist under Pledis until her contract ended in 2015.

In 2016, the star married her husband and gave birth to their first child that October.

While many female idols who get married settle down for a life outside the limelight, Kahi was not one of them! In addition to working as a judge on the first two seasons of Produce 101, Kahi returned to the stage first in June 2021 as part of a reunited After School line-up.

Kahi was also one of the members of Mamadol, a group of former idols who left the spotlight to become mothers. Throughout eight episodes, the idols competed for positions in the group and released a single before their disbandment.