Ha Chun Hwa is a South Korean trot singer. Her reputation for singing well from an early age was growing and her father introduced her to the music industry. After she completed a songwriting course at Seoul Dong-a Academy of Arts for 8 months at the age of 6 in 1961, she recorded her debut song "효녀 심청 되오리다", making her the youngest debut in Korea, and presumably, the world’s youngest recording singer at the time.
Due to her young age, she had to wait until 1971 to release her first full-length album, at the age of 17, when she officially debuted and became her full-time singer with the trot song "A Water Bird" that quickly became popular.
In 1977, she was one of the 1,158 injured in the Iri station dynamite explosion that killed at least 56 and forced her to pause her singing activities for a while. In 1979, she announced her retirement to enroll at a university and prepare for marriage. She returned to the stages in 1981 and was one of the main performances in North Korea during an inter-Korean artist exchange performance in 1985.
She made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1991 by reaching her 8,000th solo performance. In 1994, she completed her courses at the Korea University’s Graduate School of Natural Resources. In 2000, she obtained a master’s degree in performing arts from Dongguk University Graduate School. And a while later, she earned a Ph.D. in Art Philosophy, becoming the first Korean singer to hold a Ph.D.
(Source: Wikipedia)
