Cover Get to know South Korean singer-songwriter and actress IU aka Lee Ji-Eun (Photo: Getty Images)
Get to know South Korean singer-songwriter and actress IU aka Lee Ji-Eun (Photo: Getty Images)
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Everything to know about South Korean singer-songwriter and actress IU, who sold out her two-day ‘2024 IU H.E.R. World Tour Concert in Kuala Lumpur’ concert tickets in just four hours
Lee Ji-eun, also known by her stage name IU, who’s currently on her massive 2024 IU H. E. R. World Tour Concert run, will be meeting her Malaysian Uaenas in the Kuala Lumpur leg of her tour on June 8 and June 9, 2024. Tickets for the two-day concert were quickly snapped up, selling out in just four hours.
This followed the consecutive sold-out shows in Seoul, Yokohama, Taipei, six cities in North America (Newark, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Rosemont, Oakland, Los Angeles), Jakarta, and Singapore.
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Who is IU, and why does this pint-and-a-half-sized South Korean singer-songwriter and actress have such a strong global presence, commanding such large audiences wherever she goes? Here’s everything you need to know about her.
What were IU’s early beginnings like?
Born Lee Ji-eun on May 16, 1993, in Seoul, IU was interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry at an early age, so she took acting classes. After elementary school, she moved to Uijeongbu, in Gyeonggi Province, where she lived with her younger brother, grandmother, and cousin.
It wasn’t until middle school that IU found her passion for singing. She decided to become a singer after a performance she gave at a school event was applauded and well-received.
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IU graduated from Dongduk Girls’ High School in 2012 but decided to drop out of her post-secondary education to focus on her singing career.
How was IU’s relationship with her family?
As her family’s financial situation deteriorated due to an underwritten debt that went awry, she lived apart from her parents in a studio room for over a year in poor conditions due to poverty. During this time, she was under her grandmother’s care and had little contact with her parents. As a result, IU has a great relationship with her grandmother.
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When did IU’s rags-to-riches story begin?
She may be a mega global star now, but it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies for IU. She attended 20 auditions before finally getting accepted into a company. In the auditioning process, however, she was scammed by a fake agency that tricked her into giving them a large sum of money for training and appearing on TV.
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IU trained at Good Entertainment before signing with LOEN Entertainment and moving back to Seoul. Having lived a hard life growing up as a trainee, she enjoyed being in the studio, where she could eat as much as she wanted and had a place to sleep.
What do her stage name, IU, and fandom name mean?
After training for 10 months, IU made her debut in 2008 with Lost Child under her stage name, conceived by LOEN Entertainment to mean “I and You become one through music”. Two years after her debut, she earned the title “Nation’s Little Sister” when her 2010 song Good Day became a viral hit for her vocal chops. Good Day was later crowned by Billboard as the best K-pop song released in the 2010s.
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IU’s fans are called Uaenas and the name stems from IU’s fancafe (a Korean blogging platform dedicated to specific celebrities) which used to be called Uaena. The ‘U’ in ‘Uaena’ stands for ‘you’, ‘ae’ is Sino-Korean for ‘love’, and ‘na’ in Korean for ‘me’.
Why did IU struggle with an eating disorder?
The “IU diet”—consuming one apple, two sweet potatoes, and a protein drink only a day–was wildly popular but there was a dark side to it. IU had put herself on the unusual diet plan to lose five kgs in five days. She also became bulimic due to her anxiety over her success being taken away and her obsession with losing weight, which led to self-hate and self-pity.
“I was really unhappy. Once I started disliking myself, there was no end to that. I kept digging deeper and deeper into a hole of self-pity. I was so lethargic and felt like I only had two choices–to sleep or to eat. So whenever I wasn’t sleeping, I was binge eating,” IU once revealed.
When did IU debut as an actress?
IU made her acting debut in the 2011 K-drama, Dream High, in which she starred alongside Bae Suzy (Miss A), Kim Soo-hyun, Ok Taec-yeon (2PM), Hahm Eun-jung, and Jang Wooyoung (2PM). The series centres on six students at Kirin High School who are training to become idols.
In 2023, she was cast in her first leading role for You Are the Best! which earned her a nomination for the Excellence in Acting Award (Best Actress in a Serial Drama) at the 2013 KBS Drama Awards.
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IU would later go on to star in some of the most popular K-dramas of all time such as The Producers (2015), Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016), My Mister (2018), and Hotel del Luna (2019).
IU was initially offered the role of Hong Hae-in in 2024's Queen of Tears but politely declined, paving the way for Kim Ji-won to portray the character in the mega-hit K-drama.
How much is IU's net worth?
By 2009, IU had earned enough to help turn things around for her family and their financial situation and even buy her father his dream car. However, she revealed that her parents had repaid their debt with the money they had earned, leaving IU’s money untouched.
Years of music streams, album sales, commercials, brand endorsements, sold-out concert tours, and film and TV acting have made her one of the richest K-pop idols today. Today, IU’s net worth is said to be approximately US$40 to US$25 million.
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A philanthropist, IU established the “IU Scholarship” at her high school alma mater in 2016, designed to help four graduates from families needing financial aid. She also actively donates to charity organisations, underprivileged children, vulnerable social groups, senior citizens living alone, and disaster reliefs.
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Lainey was the Digital Director of Tatler Malaysia. When not whiling away the hours watching documentaries, the latest K-drama, or reruns of Friends, she can be found indulging her wanderlust by stalking travel platforms or feeding her obsession with music. She loves animals, running, all things social media, a good conversation over coffee or soju or wine (often rambling on if nobody pulls the brakes on her), and is an avid fan of bursting-at-the-seams laughter.
