Natty: The Thai K-pop Idol

By Susan Egbert

Having a K-pop idol who is not Korean is not something new. However, what makes Natty stand out from other non-Korean idols is that she is a soloist. This girl has survived a lot in order for her to be shaped into the person that she is today. The road was not easy, but I think that she’s starting to see the reward of her hard work over the past couple of years.

Despite being nineteen, this girl is just showing off her skills and someone to look forward to in the near future as a soloist in K-pop.

The world first knew Natty from the show called “Sixteen” (the same show that produced TWICE). Unfortunately, she was eliminated in the last episode and ranked. JYP mentioned that the reason why he did not want to put her into TWICE was because of her age (she was 13 by the time the last episode aired). This came as a shocker as she was one of the popular contestants because of her dancing skills. After the show, Natty went back to Thailand feeling lost and was wondering if the K-pop life was for her. It would be a couple of years before the world can see her again.

In 2017, a new program “Idol School” was aired in July. This program is another survival show in which the top 9 contestants from this program are selected to form the group Fromis 9. It came as a shock to see Natty’s face again in another survival program to some of the contestants.  She was instantly praised by trainers for not only performing well in dancing but also in singing.  However, just like “Sixteen,” Natty placed 13th on the show and did not join the group.

Fans of Natty from “Sixteen” and “Idol School” were anxiously waiting for her to debut and after three years, hope for Natty’s debut arrived. Natty finally debuted as a soloist under Swing Entertainment in May 2020. The song for her title track is “Nineteen.” It was a good song to start her career as the song was based on her journey thus far from trainee to soloist.

With her latest comeback “Teddy bear,” Natty has been coming in for special stages in which she covers some famous songs from the earlier 2000s. One was a song by BoA who started the Hallyu wave in Japan. Another was Jessie J’s “Price tag” to show her capabilities to not only perform songs in Korean but also songs in English too. Despite being nineteen, this girl is just showing off her skills and someone to look forward to in the near future as a soloist in K-pop.

Susan is a culture writer for La Tonique.