Lee Hyori

Lee Hyori (Hangul: 이효리; born May 10, 1979) is a South Korean singer. She debuted as a member of the successful pop girl group Fin.K.L, but has since become a solo artist. In 2003 she released her debut solo album Stylish which won many "Daesangs" (a Korean award equivalent to "Artist of the Year"). In 2006, she was the highest-paid female singer in South Korea when she signed a contract with Mnet Media.

Biography

Beginning in Fin K.L.

She started her career as part of the Korean pop girl group Fin.K.L. As the oldest member, she would become the leader of the group. Lee was discovered while taking sticker pictures with her friends and was actually the last to join Fin.K.L., just before their debut in January 1998. Fin.K.L. debuted officially on May 22, 1998 with their first single "Blue Rain." It was received quite well. The second release from their first album, To My Boyfriend, became the first of their multiple number one hits. Fin K.L. became one of the most popular and successful Korean groups of all-time, rivaling fellow popular girl group S.E.S..

2002–2005:Solo Debut

A year after Fin K.L.'s fourth album Forever, her solo album was released at the end of 2003, entitled Stylish...E. The singer nearly swept the 2003 Daesangs, the most prestigious South Korean music award, winning more than seven of them, including three of the four most prestigious Daesangs. STYLISH...E hyOlee sold over 144,182 copies in South Korea alone, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea in 2003.^[1] Her popularity in her various activities eventually was dubbed as the "Hyori Syndrome" in South Korea, and the Korean Media nicknamed 2003 "The Year of Hyori" as she was rarely out of the news all year.^[2]

Lee Hyori has also appeared as the lead female actress in the SBS drama Three Leaf Clover co-starring opposite Ryu Jin, Kim Jung Hwa, Kim Kang Woo and Lee Hoon. However, the ratings were continually low, and it ended after 16 episodes. On August 8, 2005 she co-hosted the annual Korean Music Festival for the second year running.

2006–2007: Move to M-Net and Dark Angel

In February 2006, Lee released her follow up album, Dark Angel. The first single, "Get Ya", was controversial as the songwriters of Britney Spears' single "Do Somethin'" accused the "Get Ya" songwriters of plagiarism.^[3]

In November 2006, it was revealed that Hyori had signed a three-year contract with M-Net Entertainment for ₩2.2 billion,^[4] becoming the highest paid female singer in South Korea (approx. $650,000/year).^[5]

Meanwhile, Hyori prepared to appear in a new "mini-drama" during February 2007,^[6] despite the failure of her previous drama. She starred alongside Lee Dong Gun in If In Love... Like Them which, although originally announced as being only one episode long, ran for four episodes on MNet. An edited two-episode version of the drama also ran on SBS. During filming for the drama, part of a roof Lee was standing on collapsed. Only her foot fell through the roof and she was able to be saved, and as it was reported the fall would have been fatal if co-star Lee Dong Gun had not rescued her.

In February 2007, Lee announced her new digital single which would essentially be the soundtrack to If In Love... Like Them. She had her comeback on SBS Inkigayo on February 25, 2007, performing all three main tracks from the single. The lead song was "Toc Toc Toc", which was a sexy R&B number like her previous efforts. However, the single also gave Lee an opportunity to sing ballads and to slowly move her image away from the "sexy superstar" that she is known to be. The single, although initially given a digital-only release, was given a limited retail release of only 30,000 copies, and was titled If In Love Like Them. Released on March 6, 2007, it included three of the tracks found in the digital single, along with a reworked version of "Toc Toc Toc". It was the best-selling album for that month, selling 27,845 copies.^[7]

Although her single succeeded, her drama was heavily penalized for violating advertising guidelines, as If In Love had several scenes advertising the products of its sponsors, in addition to using Lee's songs in the soundtrack. The Korean Broadcasting Committee has ruled that the drama can never be aired in South Korea again, and that the network must apologize to its viewers.^[8]

According to The Chosun Ilbo, Lee has also been promoting her work in Japan. Japanese network Fuji TV decided to air If In Love... Like Them and has even invited the singer/actress to visit Japan to promote the drama, where she will be treated to the same VIP treatment offered to other international stars.^[9] However, the drama was broadcast on satellite station CS Fuji, a smaller network that Fuji TV owned. The Japanese considered the leading part of this drama to be Lee Dong-gun.^[10]

2008–2009: TV hosting and It's Hyorish

During breaks in her solo music career, Lee also hosted various television programs, including Time Machine and Happy Together, which she co-hosted with Yoo Jae-suk in 2006. It was reported on March 26, 2008 that Lee would join KBS's Sang Sang Plus as a co-host alongside Country Kko Kko members Shin Jung-hwan and Tak Jae-hoon, replacing various outgoing hosts; she debuted on April 8, 2008.^[11] She was one of the original co-hosts of Change, a show on SBS's Good Sunday line-up, before leaving in early July. She is also a former cast member of season one of the variety show Family Outing. Mnet also ran a 12-episode show called "Off The Record: Lee Hyolee" in which Hyori's life was on the set for three months. The purpose of the show was to lessen the gap between the superstar and her fans/anti-fans by letting them see that she is just another human being like anyone.

Her third album, It's Hyorish, was released on July 16, 2008. "U-Go-Girl", her first single, hit #1 on various online and offline charts, including the various television music shows.

In November 2009, the contract with M-net was set to expire. Lee planned to sign a contract with Gil Entertainment and work with Gil Jong Hwa who was Fin.K.L's co-manger and worked since as Fin.K.L debuted.^[12] However, her 2010 album is released under the label of Mnet Media.^[13]

2010–Present: H-Logic

Almost two years after her previous album, Lee returned with H-Logic on April 13, 2010. The album has 14 tracks, including a collaboration with Daesung from Big Bang, 4Minute's Ji Yoon, After School's Bekah, Gary from Leessang, and Sang Chu from Mighty Mouth. The singer also worked with E-Tribe, the team behind "U-Go-Girl", the lead single from her previous album.

A music video was released for "Geu-ne" (Korean: "그네", Swing), featuring Gary from Leessang, on March 31, 2010. The lead single "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and its music video were released soon after. The self-penned song, which features Ceejay (from Freshboyz), was released the same day as her album.She won two mutizens within two weeks for her lead single.^[14]

Seven of the songs in her H-Logic album, given by Bahnus, were accused of plagiarism, including Canadian girl group Cookie Couture's "Bring It Back", soon after the album's release. On June 21, 2010, Hyori had announced and admitted that the plagiarism accusations placed against her album were confirmed and that she would temporarily stop all her activities as a singer and also suspended her TV appearances.^[15][16]

Endorsements

Lee has done many endorsements for various companies, her most prominent commercials being for Samsung Anycall. In late 2003, Lee signed an advertising contract with Samsung, for which she would make three musical commercials and songs for their Anycall cell phones. The first commercial and song, "Anymotion", was released in early 2005, featuring Eric Mun from Shinhwa. In early 2006, the followup commercial "Anyclub" was released in two parts; the music video starred Eric Mun and Korean actor Kwon Sang Woo. The song "Anyclub" featured Park Teddy of 1TYM. The songs from the commercials served as singles for Lee in between her albums. The final commercial was released in December 2006, titled "Anystar" and differed from the first two in that it featured mostly dialogue. The commercial starred Korean actor Lee Jun Ki and YG Family trainee Park Bom (2NE1).

Hyori also became a model for Black Bean Therapy, a health drink, and she made several CF (commercials). Hyori finished her contract with Biotherm early February 2007 and is no longer a representative for the company. Her contract with Samsung has also ended in December 2007. She has recently signed on with KB card and has starred in commercials along with fellow K-pop sensation Rain. She was chosen as the first ever Asian-wide model for Calvin Klein Jeans, modeling for the "Pure Calvin" Collection. She was also briefly featured in a 2010 commercial for the clothing company Adidas. Also in 2007, she starred in a commercial for Korean cosmetics company Isa Knox with Jessica Alba.

She has done so many CFs in Korea, she is known as being the 'CF queen.'

Discography

Studio albums

• Stylish (2003)
• Dark Angel (2006)
• It's Hyorish (2008)
• H-Logic (2010)

Digital/Commercial Singles

Tours

• It's Hyorish : Hyori's First Concert (2008)

Filmography

TV Series

Variety shows

Music Videos

Awards and nominations

See also

• Contemporary culture of South Korea
• K-pop
• Korean music
• List of Korea-related topics
• List of Koreans

References

External links

• Official website
• Lee Hyori on Twitter
• Hyolee World
• Lee Hyo-lee’s weibo