A taxi in Seoul, sometime around 2017. I jumped in, and within a few minutes I realised the driver knew a lot about house music and DJs. I was pleasantly surprised. Then he started raving about a Korean DJ, with the kind of reverence usually saved for Daft Punk or The Chemical Brothers. She had taken Berlin’s underground by storm, he said, and her name was Peggy Gou. My first thought was that this doesn’t happen.
Korean DJs never lacked talent, but the road from Seoul to the top of Berlin’s club world had barely been walked. Peggy Gou walked it without apologising for being Korean and without playing the exotic outsider, then took Korean lyrics onto daytime radio. She did it by earning the hardest room first, singing in her own language when nobody asked her to, and keeping control of everything she could.
한국어 요약
페기 구, 인천에서 베를린을 거쳐 라디오까지
페기 구(본명 김민지)는 1991년 인천에서 태어난 DJ이자 프로듀서, 가수로, 베를린 클럽 신에서 이름을 알렸습니다. 대표곡은 「It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)」, 「Starry Night」, 「(It Goes Like) Nanana」입니다.
한국어 가사로 노래한 것이 전환점이 되었고, 「Nanana」로 클럽을 넘어 낮 시간대 라디오까지 진출했습니다. 그녀는 레이블 Gudu Records를 운영하고 있습니다.
잘못된 정보나 날짜가 있다면 알려 주세요.
Peggy Gou, 1991 to 2026
Incheon, London, Berlin, and every stage after
인천에서 베를린까지, 페기 구의 길
- 11991Born 김민지 in Incheon Sent to school in London as a teenager
- 22016Day Without Yesterday On Phonica White
- 32018Once Ninja Tune. It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)
- 42019Gudu Records Her own label, Korean for shoes. DJ-Kicks
- 52023(It Goes Like) Nanana XL Recordings. DJ Mag Top 100 No. 9
- 6Jun 2024I Hear You Her debut album
- 726 Jun 2026Wo,man With Ayra Starr
She sings in Korean on her biggest club records, and Pitchfork calls her the first Korean woman to play Berghain.
UK No. 5 peak for (It Goes Like) Nanana in July 2023, with 12 weeks in the Top 10 and 25 in the Top 100.
No. 10 in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2024, the highest ranked Asian DJ on the list.
Sources: Official Charts · Bandwagon
She Earned Berlin Before Anyone Knew Her Name
She was born Kim Min-ji in Incheon (인천), and her parents sent her to school in London as a teenager. At the London College of Fashion she spent her weekends dancing at Plastic People and Corsica Studios. A friend in Korea had already shown her how to beatmatch, she told The Guardian.
Then Berlin. Her own summary of those years beats anything I could write: “working at a record store, working on music at home, Berghain every Sunday.” Berlin has its own way of deciding who belongs, and in the record store, she said, she was “always the outsider.”
The outsider went on to become, by Pitchfork’s account, the first Korean woman to play Berghain. She built that credibility in the room where it’s hardest to earn, long before casual fans knew her name.
Her Early Records Showed a DJ Who Thinks in Whole Sets
What struck me in her early mixes was how coherent her taste was. You can hear a DJ who thinks about the relationship between tracks as much as the tracks themselves, and that sense of a set as something built, rather than shuffled, is in her records too.
The records came in 2016: the two part Art of War on Rekids, her first release, and “Day Without Yesterday” for the Phonica White series out of the London shop where she used to dig. They’re built on MPC rhythms and pull from Chicago house, Detroit techno, boogie and Italo disco. Pitchfork heard house music splashed “with color until it’s as splotchy as a tie-dyed piece of fabric.”
The DJs she admires tell you how she plays. “I really like Detroit DJs, like Maurice Fulton,” she said. “You feel like he’s going to play something techno, then all of a sudden it’s disco.”
Singing in Korean Was the Breakthrough
In 2018 she released the Once EP on Ninja Tune, and the standout was “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)” (잊게 하네). It was the first time she had sung on a record, and she sang in Korean. It went on to win Best Track at the AIM Independent Music Awards.
It’s not a banger in the usual sense. There’s no drop that throws hands in the air. Her voice moves between murmuring and singing, the spoken parts sit low in the mix, and the chorus has a lilting cadence that Pitchfork compared to Brazilian pop. The patient repetition builds into something close to a trance state. The first time I heard it I felt something I hadn’t felt in years: a producer who understood minimalism and soul at once, and used space and silence as much as sound.
Then the crowds started singing it, in Korean, without knowing the words. “They don’t even know how to sing these lyrics,” she told The Guardian, “and they still love it.” The Chosun Ilbo later credited the Hangeul lyrics with helping make her a star. She wasn’t going to hide where she came from, and it turned out she didn’t need to.
Nanana Took Her From the Club to Daytime Radio
“(It Goes Like) Nanana” came out on XL Recordings in June 2023 and went to number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, with 25 weeks on that chart and number 1 on the dance and independent charts. She told the Korea Herald she had worked on it for three years.
Where Nanana and I Hear You Landed
Peak positions on the UK Official Charts
차트에 오른 페기 구
| Record | Chart | Peak |
|---|---|---|
| Nanana (2023) | UK Singles | No. 5, 25 weeks |
| Nanana (2023) | Dance and Independent Singles | No. 1 |
| I Hear You (2024) | UK Albums | No. 39 |
| I Hear You (2024) | Dance Albums | No. 3 |
| I Hear You (2024) | Independent Albums | No. 2 |
How to read itA club record that went top five on the national singles chart, sung partly in Korean. The album sold to the dance and indie crowd more than the mainstream.
I was in Seoul when that song started showing up on mainstream radio, and I didn’t know what I was hearing at first. It’s a 1990s house hook engineered to make a room move together, and it works at 3am in a club and on daytime radio, which most tracks that try both never manage.
It earned her a 2024 Brit Awards nomination for International Song. In 2023 she had already reached number 9 in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs and the poll’s World’s No. 1 House DJ. She has stayed near the top since, at number 12 in 2025 and number 13 in 2026. The debut album, I Hear You, followed on XL in June 2024, with Lenny Kravitz on “I Believe In Love Again.”
Gudu Records Put Her in Control
In 2019 she started her own label, Gudu Records, and launched it with her own Moment EP, which carried “Starry Night.” The name is the Korean word for shoes (구두) and, as RA reported, a play on “Gou do.” The artist Jee-ook Choi, who drew the Once sleeve, took on the label’s art direction.
The reason was control. “With another label, I didn’t have much freedom: they decided everything,” she told The Guardian. “I wanted to have control over when I release, artwork, everything.” She also said she wanted to sign others, particularly Asian and female artists, and she did. Seoul’s Mogwaa has released electro flavoured techno on Gudu, and Maurice Fulton, the DJ she held up as a model, turned up on the label too, on a joint track called “Jigoo.”
She runs the rest the same way. She has never had a manager; The Guardian said so in 2019, and Pitchfork was still saying it in 2024. The sunglasses, the precise clothes and a fashion label of her own, KIRIN, named for the Korean word for giraffe (기린), are all her decisions. In a scene where women DJs get judged on appearance in ways men never are, she decided how she wanted to be seen.
Coming Home Has Been Complicated
Fame on those terms has made her a target, and The Guardian noted that the criticism sometimes carries racism and misogyny with it. Her answer: “I choose who I take the advice and criticism from.” The music has its critics too. Pitchfork wished I Hear You had more anthems, though nobody was arguing about the singles.
The homecoming shows haven’t been smooth either. She played Seoul in March 2023. Then, on 27 July 2024, her headline set at Boiler Room Seoul, at S-Factory (에스팩토리) in Seongsu (성수), was called off around 1am, just before she was due on, because of the size of the crowd. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that she was “deeply upset and heartbroken” and that her team was working on a new date, and RA covered the cancellation too. She finally got her homecoming in 2026: on 30 May she headlined the concert after the third round of LIV Golf Korea at Asiad Country Club in Busan (부산), and Newsis reported that the show went ahead.
She keeps bringing Korea into the music anyway. In 2021 “Nabi” (나비), Korean for butterfly, slowed things to 98 BPM, with a spoken verse from OHHYUK (오혁) of the Seoul band Hyukoh (혁오). RA heard 1990s electronica and Japanese city pop in it, and it was nominated at the 17th Korean Music Awards.
When I moved to Seoul I expected a thriving electronic music scene, and found talented musicians working in near invisibility. When I started playing Seoul clubs in 2006, Korean DJs had very few names of their own on the global circuit to point to. Now young Korean producers can point to her and say that someone like them did it. The rooms in our nightlife guide and the events in our Korean DJ festivals guide get looked at differently now. Not all of that is down to her, but it was a watershed for everyone making serious music in a market that usually gets overlooked.
Where to Start Listening
Start where Berlin started, with “Day Without Yesterday.” Then play “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)” loud, in a dark room, and “Starry Night,” the first record on her own label. Play “Nabi” on a Sunday afternoon, and save “Nanana” for the moment a room needs to become one room. Watch the Dekmantel set above to see how she builds a night.
For what she’s doing now: as of October 2026 her official site lists “D.A.N.C.E.” from F1 The Movie and a remix of JENNIE’s “like JENNIE” from 2025. “Wo,man” featuring Ayra Starr came out on XL on 26 June 2026, her first release since the album, alongside a remix of Madonna’s “I Feel So Free,” NME reported.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Peggy Gou’s real name?
Her birth name is Kim Min-ji (김민지). She records and performs as Peggy Gou.
Where is Peggy Gou from?
She was born in Incheon (인천), South Korea, in 1991. Her parents sent her to school in London as a teenager, and she later moved to Berlin, where she built her name as a DJ.
What is Peggy Gou best known for?
Nanana, the single that took her from club DJ to daytime radio, and Gudu Records, the label she runs. Singing in Korean on her own records is part of what set her apart.
Further Reading on The DJ Diaries
- Korean DJs to Know in 2026
- Seoul Club Culture at a Crossroads
- A Brief History of DJing
- Building a DJ Career in Asia
- House vs Techno
- Techno vs Trance
Sources
The Guardian, Just Gou it: how Peggy Gou became the world’s hippest DJ, 2019
The Guardian, AIM Independent Music Awards 2018
Resident Advisor, Peggy Gou starts her own label, Gudu Records
Resident Advisor, Nabi feat. OH HYUK review
Resident Advisor, Boiler Room Seoul cancellation
Resident Advisor, RA.922 Mogwaa
Mixmag, Peggy Gou picks her Moment with EP on her new label
Official Charts, (It Goes Like) Nanana
DJ Mag, World’s No. 1 House DJ, Top 100 DJs 2023
Bandwagon, DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2024
Korea Herald, Proud Korean Peggy Gou aims to make timeless music, 2023 (via Daum)
Korea JoongAng Daily, Boiler Room Seoul set cancelled over overcrowding, 2024
Yonhap, Brit Awards nomination (Korean)
Newsis, profile (Korean), 2025
Newsis, Nabi release and Korean Music Awards (Korean)
Chosun Ilbo, how Hangeul lyrics helped make Peggy Gou a star (Korean)
NME, Wo,man featuring Ayra Starr, 2026
DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2025, Peggy Gou
DJ Mag Top 100 DJs 2026, Peggy Gou
LIV Golf, Peggy Gou to headline Saturday concert at LIV Golf Korea, 2026
Newsis, LIV Golf Korea 2026 wrap (Korean), June 2026
Credits and Rights
Lead photo: Peggy Gou press photo. Used for editorial purposes.
This article is about the work of Peggy Gou, Kim Min-ji, and is written as research and opinion. We haven’t interviewed her. Official site: peggygou.com, label Gudu Records. Nothing here is affiliated with or endorsed by her.
Rights, corrections and takedown. Images on this page are used editorially to illustrate writing about the artists and records discussed. Where a photographer or rights holder is identified, they’re credited above. If you hold rights in any image here, or if anything on this page is factually wrong about you or your work, get in touch and it will be corrected, credited properly or removed, promptly and without argument.
Written from Seoul, by someone who has been in the booth for more than twenty years. More on the site, or book a DJ.
Watch and listen: peggygou.com · YouTube · I Hear You on Apple Music · SoundCloud · Instagram · Gudu Records on Bandcamp
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