Known as the "Sister of the Nation", she is currently one of the top female solo singers in Korea.
IU Lee Ji-eun, known as the "South Korean Rich Woman", entered the Forbes celebrity list at the age of 19, refreshed the Korean Gaon list at the age of 27, and downloaded more than 120 million times of audio sources, and finally achieved the first place in the fault line.
The 29-year-old has been debuting for 14 years, so some people jokingly called: "The idols of flowing water, the iron Li Zhien".
IU's strength in singing is obvious to all, and it is also growing day by day in acting, but before his debut, do you know how hard IU's life is?
From cute to big
When IU was in elementary school, her parents had a huge debt, and her parents gave her to her grandmother to raise. Grandma took her to rent a cheap small private room, in that simple small single room, at night, when the lights were turned off, the sound of cockroaches crawling on the ground could be heard.
Later, IU borrowed it for a while. Relatives listened to her singing and sneered at her: If you can be a star, I can be a billionaire.
IU did not give up and participated in more than 20 tryouts for trainees, but none of them succeeded. Later, a brokerage company finally told her that she was selected, and IU hurriedly took out the living expenses that her grandmother sold jewelry in exchange for and handed it over to this brokerage company, who knew that it was a fraudulent company, and disappeared after receiving the money.
IU once talked about this experience on the show: "Although it is an acting planning company, it is college-style, and you need to be paid to train you... But one day, the company suddenly disappeared. ”
Instead of being depressed after crying, she practiced harder, and 14-year-old IU finally became a trainee.
IU once said in an interview: "If I learn badly, everything is over." Because I was homeless, I could only find a home in music. ”
IU's fame so far has not been a step to the sky, let alone a song of fame. Her first song to win first place wasn't even a song from her album, but the theme song "Nagging" that she sang in 2020 with 2AM member Ceryong for the show "We're Married".
The song "Nagging" made her famous, but what really made her popular was "Good Day". This song made her popular all over South Korea. The three high notes in the song are classics within classics, and men, women and children compete to imitate them.
After that, IU, who was less than eighteen years old, embarked on the road of being a creator and won the Korean MMA Composer Award, and even the superstar Kwon Ji Ryong, who was popular all over the country at the time, raped and sang for her.
But do you think that with a song that is popular, IU can sing happily until now? Reality is much harsher than story, and the road to success is often not easy. As a girl who became famous at a young age, it is inevitable to go through all kinds of mistakes and difficulties.
When 16-year-old IU sang on stage, the audience shouted "Get out".
At the age of 18, her song "Someday" for "Dream high" was caught up in a plagiarism storm.
At the age of 19, IU uploaded an intimate face photo with Super Junior Eunhyuk on Twitter, which caused an uproar, and then the new album was accused of being "pedophile", which can be said to be IU's darkest year.
As the so-called red is not much, IU black powder is very much. Even the cute image of her "national sister" has become one of the black materials.
At the time of its debut, IU was portrayed by the company as a pure and sweet image, although it was loved by fans, it also attracted many black fans. Black Pink said she was contrived and pretending to be cute, and she herself has revealed that her brother was ashamed of her cute image in the early days.
In addition, IU's early acting skills were poorly reviewed.
Many of IU's early performances were roles performed in their true colors. For example, in "Dream High", he played an art student who sings very well but is restricted from debuting because he is fat. There is also a big star who plays a mean appearance but a kind heart in "The Producer". But as long as the character is divorced from her original character, her acting shortcomings will be revealed.
So by the age of 23, after IU starred in "Step by Step: Li", the whole network complained about her acting skills overnight. A large number of bad reviews poured in, and it was the lowest period of her career.
However, after repeated grinding, in 2019's "Druna Hotel", IU finally showed superb acting skills and won a full house!
IU admits that it is afraid of a decline in popularity. She said: "Now people often listen to my songs, but after a long time, if I don't go on TV, many people will forget me... I often think that it would be better not to have a red memory. When my popularity drops, I should feel even more lonely than before. ”
IU is a singer-songwriter and actress loved by few men, women and children, and hopes that she can create more and better works in the future.