IU아이유

IU (아이유; real name Lee Ji-eun, 이지은) is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress, born on May 16, 1993, in Seoul. She signed with LOEN Entertainment as a trainee in 2007 and made her debut performance, with "Lost Child" (미아), the lead single from her first EP, Lost and Found, on M Countdown on September 18, 2008.¹ LOEN is now part of Kakao Entertainment, which set up the label EDAM Entertainment in 2020 to manage her.¹⁵ Her breakthrough came with "Good Day" (좋은 날), released in December 2010, which spent five consecutive weeks at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart (now the Circle Digital Chart). She has since had 31 number-one singles, the most of any artist in South Korea. Two songs she wrote, "Through the Night" and "Friday", are the third and fifth best-selling singles in South Korea, with more than seven million and five million sales.¹

At the Melon Music Awards she has won five daesang (grand prizes), the most of any solo artist; only BTS have more. They are Song of the Year for "Good Day" (2011), Artist of the Year (2014 and 2021) and Album of the Year for Palette (2017) and Lilac (2021).³ In January 2021 "Blueming" made her the first female soloist to win two grand prizes at the Golden Disc Awards, and Gallup Korea named her its Singer of the Year in 2014, 2017 and 2025.¹ In September 2022 she became the first Korean female artist to perform at Seoul Olympic Stadium. The final show of her HEREH world tour, at Seoul World Cup Stadium in September 2024, was the first by a female musician at that venue and the 100th concert of her career.¹ Gucci named her a global brand ambassador in March 2022, a role listed in DabPop's K-pop idols who are luxury brand ambassadors.⁴

Her first acting role was in the teen drama Dream High (2011). She went on to play Lee Ji-an in tvN's My Mister (2018), lead the fantasy drama Hotel del Luna (2019) and star in Hirokazu Kore-eda's film Broker (2022).¹ In Netflix's When Life Gives You Tangerines (폭싹 속았수다, 2025), written by Lim Sang-choon, she played both Oh Ae-sun and her daughter, Yang Geum-myeong.⁶ The series spent nine weeks in Netflix's global Top 10 for non-English shows, two of them at number one, and won Best Drama at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards.⁶⁷ The role won IU Best Actress at the 4th Blue Dragon Series Awards and the daesang at the 2025 APAN Star Awards.¹² In 2026 she starred opposite Byeon Woo-seok in MBC's Perfect Crown, which aired from April 10 to May 16.⁸ On September 10 she released the single "Unknown Planet", whose two lead tracks she wrote herself.¹