Soju is the former stage name of Tony Hyunsoo Ha, a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n- American retired

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

, singer and television/

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

personality. Soju is best known for her online reviews of the reality show ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'', until being cast on the show's eleventh season.

Early life

Ha was born on May 12, 1991, in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

, South Korea. His family moved to

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. ...

when he was ten years old, due to his father’s military background. He came out as gay when he was 21 and his drag mother is

Kahmora Hall Kahmora Hall (born September 13, 1991) is the stage name of Paul Tran, a Drag (clothing), drag performer most known for competing on RuPaul's Drag Race (season 13), season 13 of ''RuPaul's Drag Race''. Career Kahmora Hall was the first contestant ...

. Ha's original drag name was Soju Love, but later shortened to just Soju, which is taken from the drink of the same name.

Career

Outside of drag, Ha is the owner of a

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. ...

academy. Soju was announced as one of fifteen contestants on the eleventh season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' on January 24, 2019. She was eliminated in the first episode after doing poorly in the sewing challenge and losing a

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

to " The Best of Both Worlds" by

Hannah Montana ''Hannah Montana'' is an American teen sitcom created by Michael Poryes, Rich Correll and Barry O'Brien that aired on Disney Channel for four seasons between March2006 and January2011. The series centers on Miley Stewart ( Miley Cyrus), ...

against Kahanna Montrese. A conversation between Soju and the judges about a

cyst A cyst is a closed sac, having a distinct envelope and division compared with the nearby tissue. Hence, it is a cluster of cells that have grouped together to form a sac (like the manner in which water molecules group together to form a bubble ...

became a viral

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

within the ''Drag Race'' fandom. After season eleven, YouTuber Miles Jai became the co-host for the third season of ''Shot with Soju''. Comedian

Margaret Cho Margaret Moran Cho (born December 5, 1968) is an American comedian, actress, LGBT social activist, and musician. She is known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially regarding race and se ...

appeared in the first episode of the season in March 2019. In 2019, World of Wonder announced that Soju was set to star in her own webseries, ''I Want To Be A K-Pop Idol with Soju''. The series aired for four episodes before its apparent cancellation in August 2019. Soju is one of the founders and performers of the touring LGBTQ+ K-Pop drag show ''Seoul Train Party.'' She appeared in the music video for

Lizzo Melissa Viviane Jefferson (born April 27, 1988), known professionally as Lizzo, is an American singer, rapper, and flutist. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston, Texas with her family when she was 10 years old. After college she ...

's song "

Juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such ...

" on April 17, 2019.

Music

Soju released her first single "So Juicy" with a music video on January 11, 2018. Her second single, "K-Pop Idol Reject" featuring Edward Avila was released on November 6, 2018. In an interview with ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', Soju stated, "We want to bring more foreigners, we want to see queer people in K-pop. It's slowly changing - the industry is very conservative and very old school, so it will take a while for them to change. But it's happening."

Personal life

Soju lives in Chicago, as of 2017. On January 21, 2021, Soju was accused of sexual assault. On March 9, 2021, Soju announced that she had quit drag to focus on her mental health and that she wouldn't be returning. In 2022 Soju returned to Instagram and has refused to address questions about these allegations. She has since deactivated her Instagram account again.

Filmography

Television

Music videos

Web series

Discography

Singles

References

External links

Soju
on

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

{{RuPaul's Drag Race 1991 births Living people 21st-century American LGBT people 21st-century South Korean LGBT people American gay musicians American LGBT people of Asian descent American LGBT singers American people of Korean descent Asian-American drag queens Gay entertainers LGBT people from Iowa LGBT YouTubers Entertainers from Chicago Entertainers from Seoul

Soju (; Hangul: ; Hanja: ) is a clear and colorless Korean distilled alcoholic beverage. It is usually consumed neat. Its alcohol content varies from about 12.9% to 53% alcohol by volume (ABV), although since 2007 low alcohol soju below 20% ...

South Korean drag queens