Life, Works & Story of IU Part 1
Life, Works & Story of IU Part 1
September 23, 2020
IU is without a doubt one of the most loved and respected artist in Asia right now and for the years to come. Which is why the Good Humans Club has decided to research and document her journey. This will be a long read, but we want to make articles that will really stand the test of time.
Early Years of IU
IU was born in Songjeong-dong, Seoul, South Korea on May 16, 1993. Songjeaong-dong, Seoul, South Korea is a place where there is so much culture and history. It is a very charming place, which could explain why IU turned out to be really interesting and fascinating person.
Born to be Iconic
Even at an early age, IU already knows in her heart what she wants and that is to become a part of the entertainment industry. This is why she pursued acting classes. However, due to her family’s financial problems, the young IU had to move to another province Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province.
Uijeongbu where IU lived for some time is famous for the budae-jjigae or what restaurants would call as the army base stew. This stew is made with kimchi stew, hotdogs and SPAM. This is where a high concentration of military units and men had to live. This is also the province where Taeyang from BIGBANG came from.
IU and her younger brother had to live far apart from their parents in a studio room together with their grandmother and cousins for over a year. IU experienced extreme poverty, and during this time she had very little contact with her parents.
The greatest trials in IU’s life is what made her stronger. During her middle years IU discovered her immense love for singing and performing. She entered her school’s sports competitions, and joined over 20 auditions but failed in all of them. IU was scammed by so many fake entertainment companies when she was just starting out.
After that, she trained at Good Entertainment together with Yubin, Heo Gayoon, Jun Hyoseong and Uee. Then she eventually got signed at LOEN Entertainment in 2007, then she moved to Bangbae, Seoul.
Back then she was hoping to become a part of a girl group, but destiny would have it differently. IU had a solo debut instead in 2008 after 10 months of hard training. Because she was so poor during that time, she would prefer to live inside the studio. In the studio she can eat as much as she wanted and she had a place to sleep. Prior to her debut, LOEN entertainment came up with her stage name IU, taking it from the phrase ” I” and You” to symbolize unity in music between people.
As fate would have it, IU started seeing success in her line of work. Her blossoming career prevented her from attending school on a regular basis, and her grades declined except for Korean literature. She graduated from Dongduk’s Girl’s High School in 2012.
Early Signs of Success for IU
After 10 months of rigorous training and facing hardships in life IU released ” Lost Child” for her first single. She performed the song live for the first time in M! Countdown on September 18, 2008.
But it wasn’t an immediate success, the people did not immediately accept her. During her first solo performance the crowd hurled insults at her and told her she wasn’t good enough. She felt discouraged at first, but soon gained the inspiration to continue. ” Lost Child” was awarded the ” Rookie of the Month” by South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in November 2008. Her first mini-album Lost & Found had 5 songs and was inspired by emotional ballads.
Several song writers helped compose the tracks including singer Mario who came up with a new genre called ” Hybrid Pop”, it allowed listeners to experience three kinds of sound while listening to one song. IU became known then as a singer that can take up three roles and sound. She can perform the song, chorus and aria differently plus she had a powerful, yet mellow and dreamy vocals.
IU kept on trying and on April 23, 2009 she released another studio album and named it Growing Up with the promotional single ” Boo” on KBS2’s Music Bank.
IU decided to change her formula, instead of sticking to emotional ballad songs, she changed her sound and added more dance choreography, stage costumes and different hairstyles during live performances. She took on the ” cute” image and these transformational changes in her sound and the way she styles her clothes and hair, gained a considerable approval from fans.
During this year, IU took on the image of cute and sexy and began to appear on more TV shows in South Korea.
IU admitted in an interview that this change really made her uncomfortable since she was just 15 years old at that time. The image made her feel awkward and uncomfortable. However, the song did help her get noticed more and the song was nominated as number one contender on Inkigayo.
In 2009, IU released her second extended lay, IU…IM. She promoted the lead single ” Marshmallow” on several music programs and three major television networks.
This is the album where IU began expressing herself more. IU was 17 years old when the song and music was released. The title of the song ” Marshmallow” is based on rock and roll of the 60s and is identified as ” French Pop”. It allows listeners to enjoy retro and modern sensations. Koreans top producer and composer Kim Do-Hoon and Park Su-jong worked with IU for this song together with Choi Gap-won.
If asked to recall these times in her career, IU has confessed in a 2013 episode of Happy Together that she disliked wearing this girlish costumes, it wasn’t her personality at all. But at times you have to go with the trends, the performances were also well received. It allowed IU to gain more following and listeners.
Back in 2009, IU also participated in creating her first soundtracks via MBC television dramas for, Strike Love and Queen Seondeok. She also had collaborations with Mighty Mouth and Three Views on their albums.
IU’s popularity continued to rise, she began appearing in Star Golden Bell, Kim Jung-eun’s Chocolate and You Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook. She also began creating acoustic covers for artists like Girl’s Generation, Super Junior and Big Bang.
These acoustic performances earned her a lot of internet fame. Her live performances made her even more famous. In 2009, IU became a TV presenter for the first time, she hosted the weekly music chart show on Gomtv. She also became a fixed guest for radio programs like Kiss the Radio, Volume Up, MBC, Standard’s FM’s Starry Night and Best Friend Radio.
IU enters the world of TV and Film Making
On June 3, 2010, IU released ” Nagging” a duet that she recorded with 2AM’s Lim Seul-ong. This single debuted on number twelve at the Gaon Digital Chart, and after a week it climbed to number one. It was so successful, that they used it for the variety show, “ We Got Married”.
After this, IU also released the song “ Because I’m a Woman”. It was used as a theme song for MBC’s historical drama, Road №1. It peaked on the 6th spot on Gaon Digital Chart. Then she did a collaboration with Sung-si-kyung for “It’s You”. The First debuted at number one spot on the Gaon Digital Chart.
IU then released her third EP, Real on December 9, 2010 with the lead single ” Good Day”, she worked with lyricist Kim Eana and composer Lee Min-soo.
“Good Day” is about a shy girl who is nervous about expressing her feelings to the boy she likes. This song made IU even more famous in South Korea and it led her to topping music programs like M! Countdown, Inkigayo and Music Bank.
IU’s fan base continued to increase, her vocal abilities also improved as she got older, and she was soon tagged as the face of someone who doesn’t age.
To make sure that her success won’t be short lived, IU strategized and joined the cast of variety shows like Heroes back in 2010 until 2011. This made her work schedule even busier. But she recalls fondly of the friendship she was able to build and experience with other cast members despite the hectic 2-day shooting schedules, which gave her only 2–3 hours of sleep.
After Heroes, IU would be cast to join the teen drama Dream High. They had to shoot this drama from December 2010 until February 2011. While shooting Dream High she was still a part of Heroes, and actively promoted her music album.
IU’s first memorable role is to be Kim Pil-sook, a shy and overweight school girls who dreams of one day becoming a professional singer. IU was adamant and fearful of acting at first, not sure if she belongs in this line of industry. But she was able to gain confidence and learned while filming Dream High.
IU also recorded the soundtrack for Dream High ” Someday” which quickly gained the top position on Gaon Digital Chart. In 2011, the single had sold 2, 209, 924 digital copies, and remains one of IU’s best-selling singles. This is where she was able to work with K-drama actor Kim Soo Hyun who became IU’s long time friend and work partner.
IU was clearly becoming a household name. In 2011, she released more songs like ” Only I Didn’t Know”. The song was well accepted by fans, and many believe that this song is closer to the music preference of IU herself.
It was also in June 29, 2011 that IU appeared at Disney Channel for a Disney Junior launching event in South Korea.
IU continued to take on side-projects at the end of Dream High. And in 2011 she was the opening act for British singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae in Seoul. Bailey Rae is an artist that IU considers as her role model. Bailey Rae had high praises for IU saying the IU has an incredible and soulful voice even though she is still young.
She also took on the hosting of Inkigayo until July 2013, and also starred in two music videos alongside Lee Joon and No Min woo. In May 2011, IU started composing her songs and released ” Hold My Hand”, for the rom-com TV series, The Greatest Love.
Her self composed song peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and sold 2, 031, 787 digital copies in 2011. During this time she also took on the role for reality ice skating competition series Kim Yuna’s Kiss & Cry as a celebrity contestant.
2011 was an immensely busy year for IU, she had to withdraw on some projects to continue writing her second studio album, Last Fantasy which was released in November 29, 2011. She created a regular retail version, and another one that came with a special storybook edition that only had 15,000 copies. IU began creating a dramatic, fantasy feels to her work. orea JoongAng Daily described her album as ” suit all kinds of musical tastes and fans”, while Billboard stated that IU had a cinematic feel to her albums.
The creative integrity of IU’s work was quickly noticed, the download sales soared through the roof. A total of 10 Million people downloaded the songs in the first two weeks.
“You and I” (Korean: 너랑 나) became the most successful among all the songs included. It garnered 5.5 million digital copies sold by the end of 2012.
After the release of Last Fantasy, IU signed with EMI Music Japan now Universal Music Japan. IU began planning her entryway to the Japanese market and she made her debut on December 14, 2011.
IU’s Japanese Debut and First Solo Concert
IU made serious preparations towards entering the entertainment industry in Japan. She started by playing two shows at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo to 4,000 people on January 24, 2012. She sang 6 songs including ” Lost Child” and the Japanese version of ” Good Day” accompanied by a live orchestra and her acoustic guitar.
Her song sold 21,000 physical copies during its first week in Japan and made it to the number 6th spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in Japan. She toured 5 cities including Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka in a mini concert called ” IU Friendship Showcase-Spring 2012″. She toured Ulsan, Jeonju, Suwon, Busan and Daegu. Her guest performers were Ra.D, Lim Seul-ong and Lee Seung-gi.
IU became extremely busy for her first real solo tour, this hampered her TV guest appearances. She focused on writing and releasing music instead and released ” Peach” and ” Every End of the Day”. Then she released a 26-minute long documentary-style music film that was shot in Venice and Burano along with her album.
After the mega success of her concert in South Korea. IU came back to Japan on September 17, 2012 to perform one show ” IU Friendship Special Concert-Autumn 2012 at the Tokyo International Forum. She performed to a crowd of 5,000 and took Sunny Hill as a guest cast. After her concerts, IU came back as a host in Inkigayo after a 3-month leave. She also became the host of MBC’s short lived television quiz show, Quiz Show Q.
On Dec. 29, IU hosted the 2012 SBS Gayo Daejeaon a yearly music program together with Bae Suzy and Jung Gyu woon. She became the show’s producer.
It was also in 2012 that IU received two major awards at the 2012 Seoul Music Awards. Last Fantasy became the Record of the Year, while ” Good Day” was chosen as Song of the Year and Best Pop Song. Netizens also voted her as Female Musician of the Year. All of this she achieved when she was just 20 years old.
Straight to the Top!
2013 was the year IU became a bonafide K-drama star, she took on her first leading role in a TV series for You’re the Best, Lee Soon-Shin. It is a 50- episode weekend series from March 9 to August 25 on KBS2. IU played the role of a loser, someone who is average in every way. The only difference was that she had a positive and bubbly attitude in life, this allows her to overcome trials in her life. Not a lot of critics believed that IU will do well with this show, but she gave justice to the role and viewership ratings soared high. She was nominated for the Excellence in Acting Award for a Serial Drama by KBS Drama Awards.
During this time IU still tried to enter the Japan market, but her songs did not receive much attention as she would have liked it. She focused instead on her TV show appearances and K-drama roles and decided to join the rom-com series Bel Ami where she played a quirky and playful Kim Bo-tong, a careful girl in her twenties suffering from an unrequited crush since high school. While the show did not perform well on TV ratings, IU still gained a nomination for Outstanding Korean actress at the 2014 Seoul International Drama Awards.
IU was receiving accolades and audience acceptance in South Korea more than she expected. In Dec. 2013, she released Modern Times-Epilogue with additional tracks ” Friday” and “Pastel Crayon”. She composed ” Friday” which became number 1 on Billboard Korea K-pop Hot 100 Chart.
Part II is coming soon stay in tune!
© https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IU_(singer)
