Peggy Gou trivia: 43 facts about the famous DJ and music producer

Peggy Gou is a Berlin-based South Korean DJ, record producer and fashion designer, also the first Korean female DJ to play at Europe’s temple to dance music, the notorious Berghain.

So, let’s find out more about her early life, career and discography.

1. Peggy Gou is a worldwide known DJ, playing tech house, minimal trance and dance music.

2. She was born in Kim Min-ji in Incheon, South Korea on July 3, 1991. (28 years old)

3. She has released seven EPs on record labels, including Ninja Tune and Phonica. 

4. Gou’s track It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) became one of the most unforgettable tracks of 2018.

5. In 2019, she launched her own independent record label, named Gudu Records, and released a DJ-Kicks compilation, DJ-Kicks: Peggy Gou, on !k7 Records.

6.  She began classical piano lessons at age 8.

7. However, her musical education really began when she moved to London at the age of 14 for school.

8. Her parents sent her to London in England, in order to study English.

9. She moved back to Korea at the age of 18.

10. Six months later, she returned to London to study fashion at the London College of Fashion.

11.  After graduating, she worked as the London correspondent editor for Harper’s Bazaar Korea. 

12. Then she decided to move to Berlin, Germany.

13. Peggy Gou was taught how to DJ in 2009, by her friend from Korea. 

14. She had her first gig in Cirque Le Soir, Soho.

15. Later, she performed weekly at The Book Club, East London

16.  In 2013, she learned to use Ableton and began to create her own tracks. 

17. Her first track, Hungboo, was completed in 2014. It was named this way for the hero of a Korean fairy tale. 

18. She played this track in Korea for the first time at the 2016 Style Icon Awards opening show, featuring award-winning actor Yoo Ah-in in a visual art video.

19. Gou made her recording debut in January 2016 on Radio Slave’s Rekids label with The Art of War Part 1, featuring a remix from Galcher Lustwerk.

20. Later, she released four EPs, including Seek for Maktoop, with hit track It Makes You Forget (Itgehane).

21. Maktoop was named after the Arabic word “maktoob”, the equivalent to “written” or “destiny”.

22. This was followed by EPs Once and Han Jan in 2018, and Moment in April 2019. Once is the first time Gou has sung on a record.

23. Growing up, Peggy Gou was a huge K-pop fan. As she has said in the past, “old K-pop is better than new K-pop”.

24. Gou sometimes refers to her music as “K-house”. 

25. According to her: “I believe that a lot of Korean and K-pop artists, they want to be European” […] “But there are so many beautiful things in Korea. And that’s also one thing that I always get touched by: both of my big ‘hits’ are not in English. “

26. And that’s definitely true: Even though in many of her tracks (“It Makes You Forget”, “Han Jan“) the lyrics are in Korean, the audience is very excited to hear them. Yes, we don’t have the faintest idea about what they are saying, but still love them.

27. As she said, “When I see that crowd reaction, it’s like, they don’t even know how to sing these lyrics, and they still love it. But I remember, every time I found a record where I couldn’t understand the lyrics, like a Japanese record, it becomes somehow precious. I know that feeling.”

28. Gou embarked on her first North American tour and made a Boiler Room debut in NYC in 2017.

29. She also became the first female Korean DJ to play in Berlin’s most exclusive nightclub, the Berghain.

30. She plays more than 1.000 live gigs in a year and has performed alongside the likes of Moodymann, The Black Madonna and DJ Koze.

31. She has since had gigs in the worldwide festival sets at Coachella, Glastonbury, Sonus in Croatia, Amsterdam’s Dekmantel, London’s Printworks, Ibiza, Amsterdam Dance Event, Primavera Sound in Portugal, Barcelona’s Sónar, as well as Virgil Abloh’s Off-White fashion show among others.

32. In 2018, Peggy Gou released her music on record labels Ninja Tune and Phonica.

33. In September 2018, she won Best Track for It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) at the AIM Independent Music Awards.

34. It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) was listed on the tracklist for FIFA 2019.

35. In 2018, Peggy Gou played an amazing DJ set inside the beautiful Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, for Cercle.

36. In 2019, Forbes named Peggy Gou as one of the Asian leaders, pioneers and entrepreneurs under age 30.

37. In February 2019, Gou launched her own fashion label KIRIN (which means“giraffe” in Korean), supported by Virgil Abloh, under the New Guards Group.

38. The following month, she announced the launch of her own independent record label, Gudu Records (Gudu means “shoes” in Korean).

39. In June 2019, Gou released DJ-Kicks: Peggy Gou, the 69th installment of !K7’s DJ-Kicks mix compilation. 

40. The album became her first Billboard chart appearance, reaching 9th in Dance/Electronic Album Sales, and the second compilation that ever got into the top 10 after Moodymann’s.

41. On July 25, 2019, Peggy Gou released her first music video for her mega-hit track Starry Night exclusively on Apple Music, directed by Jonas Lindstroem, and once again featured Yoo Ah-in, the lead actor in the award-winning South Korean film, Burning.

42. The music video was released worldwide on YouTube in September 2019.

43. Her singles are: “Day Without Yesterday” / “Six O Six”, “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)”, “Han Pan”, “Travelling Without Arriving”, “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) [Remixes]” and last but not least “Starry Night”.

You may also like this: 👇