Exclusive Interview: Korea’s Biggest Arab Celebrity Kim Miso Shares Her Success Story

Kim Miso, an Arabic singer making it big in Korea, has continued to make waves since she first started YouTube back in 2015. Now what turned out to be a fun way to share Korean culture with friends became an exciting venture into a music career people can only dream of.

With over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube and 687K followers on Instagram, her widespread fandom continues to grow and Kim Miso shows no signs of slowing down here in Korea. If you follow her YouTube, you can see how the love and fun of sharing Korean culture blossomed into a completely new career path with undying support from fans. Kim Miso has released various covers and personal music in Korean, has met idols like BTS and worked with XEED, auditioned at HYBE, and more!

Now, Kim Miso shared with us not only her exclusive photos and behind-the-scenes shots you can see throughout the interview but she also discussed how she feels about her incredible music journey, her life as a K-Drama fan, the growth of her social media presence, and her budding interest in Korea’s culture and entertainment scene.

Kim Miso first shared how she became interested in K-pop and Korean culture. She recalls it as if it were just yesterday.

“In 2008, there was a Korean drama on Moroccan TV called My Name Is Kim Sam Soon. I was amazed at how funny and good the drama was and, from that time, I started wanting to watch more Korean dramas because I fell in love with the Korean language at first sight—or first sound.”

Now, just almost a decade later, Kim Miso finds herself living in Korea and mastering the Korean language. As if she were a local, she doesn’t just get by in her daily life with simple Korean. Kim Miso speaks with locals, works with artists, and even teaches Korean on YouTube in some of her fun and useful videos. So, how exactly did she master Korean what seems to be overnight?

“When I started to search about Korean culture, I started listening to some K-pop songs like Super Junior and Girls’ Generation. Then, I started picking up words like ‘Hello’ or ‘Thank you.’ I came to Korea in 2018 to study the language at SNU (Seoul National University). It helped a lot.”

Aside from the challenges of speaking Korean, we wondered what it is like to work, sing and produce music in Korean.

“As a foreign Moroccan girl, it is very challenging because I think Korean people are still not open to Arab girls being celebrities or singers here in Korea, and making myself known here is still a big challenge.”

While Kim Miso has a full list of songs we could go through, many are quite popular and we wondered which ones she enjoyed working on and felt the most success with.

“I think my most successful song is ‘Drop’ as it’s my big second song that was a surprise for my fans. It helped people recognize me as the Arab idol girl who sings in Korean and I got so many views and listeners. However, my last album ‘Shine’ was a project I worked hard for and I needed to make my own team I could vibe with, so I’m proud of it in the end, too.”

Kim Miso really stresses the importance of being an Arab singer. As expected, we were curious as to how Koreans react to learning she is a famous influencer and singer here in Seoul.

“I didn’t know that I had Korean fans here until I had my last concert in December in Korea. I found out that people are getting to know me and saying things like ‘Do you know who Kim Miso is?’ and more. Sometimes some Koreans get surprised about the fact that I’m a singer or celebrity here so they start asking for photos or my signature.”

However, with all the fame does come some hate and even negativity. If someone says you’re not really a K-pop singer, how do you feel? A tough pill to swallow, but Kim Miso answered with confidence.

“Being a singer was a childhood dream of mine because I loved being on stage and the attention, but I have to work hard for that even now. I never learned how to sing, dance or perform on stage, and I started learning music only a year and a half ago. I have a very long way to go, and I do respect all people’s opinions and comments, but the negative ones won’t get me down. That will only make me work harder and show them my ideas like my song ‘No More’—people loved the message of it!”

Since music is relatively new to Kim Miso, we questioned just how she became so famous! “Well, five years ago when I arrived in Korea, I started a YouTube channel just to show Arab people the amazing and beautiful parts of Korean culture. That got a lot of people’s attention, and my channel started getting bigger and bigger as we are now.”

With a little dedication, anything is possible! Now that Kim Miso is successfully living out her childhood dreams, we pondered over which genres she enjoys, inspirations she finds in music, and her future plans!

“I love R&B and mainly K-pop ballads and that is why I started to sing. I felt that these songs make me happy. My favorite K-pop band is BTS of course and my favorite K-pop artists are Jessi, Hyuna and J-hope.  If I had the chance to work with these artists I wouldn’t wish for anything else!”

Kim Miso also shared her favorite song amongst all the Korean ballads she enjoys and why it means so much to her. “My favorite ballad is ‘Breathe’ by Lee Hi. When I was having a hard time, the lyrics helped me. The lyrics are so sad but help me breathe in this crowded city called Seoul. These days I’m into ballad songs even more and would love to make an inspirational song for people who have dreams and think they can’t achieve them. But I still think rapping suits me best.”

In the end, Kim Miso shared a final message with her fans.

“I’m really thankful for all the support my fans have given me so far. My precious fans are called ‘soupdel’ – and I wish they can achieve their dreams and will never give up.”

Talented, sweet, and endearing to her fans, Kim Miso is and will be an artist worth noting in the K-pop scene. As she continues to grow in her career and represent her country, Kim Miso has many plans for holding more concerts and releasing more music in Korea. Who knows, maybe you will catch her on the very next red carpet or K-Pop music stage. What did you think of Kim Miso and her music? Share your love and support for her in the comments below and stay tuned for more future exclusive interviews.

Don’t forget to follow Kim Miso on Instagram and see her exclusive behind-the-scene photos down below!