Youn Sun Nah was born and raised in Seoul in a family captivated by the voice; her father is a choir conductor and her mother a musical actress. She learned piano in her childhood but spent most of her time to her general studies until she graduated in French Literature at the University of Konkuk in 1992.
A year later, she was invited by the Korean Symphony Orchestra to sing gospels. She made her first steps on record and on stage. Following that experience, she was noticed and hired in musicals. A career was opening to her but she was not convinced to be on the right track. She finally decided to go back to school to study music and singing.
Francophile, amateur of chanson, she settled down in Paris during the fall of 1995. She registered at the National Institute of Music in Beauvais, at the Conservatory of Nadia and Lili Boulanger and at the CIM, school of jazz and modern music. It was in that school that the epiphany happened.
Around the year 2000, she did her first tours and collected prizes during jazz competitions. The beginning of a long list of distinctions, that will be marked by a decoration of the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres given by the Cultural French Ministry in 2009 and also the Sejong Prize of Culture awarded by the Korean government in 2013.
From her first album Reflet (2001) released only in Korea, to Voyage (2008) her first album released worldwide, she established herself step by step as a rising star of Jazz vocal.
In 2010, with the album Same Girl, her career took an international turn. This album was a critical and commercial success in Europe, especially in France (Gold record and Académie du Jazz Award), in Germany (Echo Jazz Award) and in Korea (Korean Music Award). She covered the most famous festivals: Montreal, Marciac, Monterey or Montreux that also entrusted her with the presidency of the jury for the Voice Competition 2013.
The album Lento, released in 2013, was also a Gold record in France and Germany, it definitely made her part of the contemporary jazz figures.
Throughout the seasons, her voice and personality marked people's minds and hearts all around the globe. Between 2009 and 2015, Youn Sun Nah performed around 500 concerts in the world, sold out for the most part. On February 23rd 2014, she made a stop in Sochi to sing during the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
After these 6 full seasons, she decided to take a break.
She made her come back in 2017 with the album She moves on. The same year she was invited to sing during the International Jazz Day in Havana.
2019 is a new turning point in her career: a signing with the US-based Arts Music division of Warner Music Group and the release of the album Immersion.