Both of them met at a radio show that he was hosting in IU fell in love with Jang Ki Ha at first sight and they started dating soon after. They went public with the relationship on October admitting they had been secretly dating for two years. They broke up on January after four years together. They cited busy schedules as the reason for their break up. IU is one of the most influential female celebrities in South Korea.

She is one of the highest earners and has received numerous awards for her acting and music. She and her brother lived with her grandmother and cousins in conditions of poverty and apart from her parents for over a year during her middle school. Share with us. What else would you like to see on our site? See any errors? Send us your corrections by listing the artist and the mistake.

Share your ideas! Similar Ranking. The album contains seven renditions of tracks that hailed from the s and s with a mixture of genres that included ballad, dance, folk and rock. The album came about at the request of fans and due to the positive feedback she had previously received for her cover songs. The album was well received by The Korea Times for providing "a pleasant, calming respite from the mainstream music of today's times", and praised IU for her reinterpretations: "For every track, IU keeps a careful balance between preserving the song's original sentiments and altering the original with her own color and arrangements.

IU's wish to conduct a more intimate and smaller scale concert was fulfilled in her third solo Korean concert series, "Just One Step That Much More". The concert series took place over eight nights from May 22, to June 1, at Sogang University's Mary Hall, which had a capacity of people. Tickets to all eight shows were sold out within 10 minutes of release on May 7, As well as playing the keyboard for the first time on stage, IU performed all the seven songs from A Flower Bookmark among various new arrangements of her earlier songs.

Profits made from the concerts were donated to the victims of the Sewol Ferry Disaster. After "Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms" topped Billboard' s Korea K-Pop Hot chart, IU became its "all-time chart leader" with five number-one songs and the artist who has spent the most number of weeks at number one since the chart's creation in September Subsequently, she participated in Sony Korea's promotional campaign for its MDR series headphones with You Hee-yeol and continued to be Sony Korea's representative and model for its audio products in In November , soju production company HiteJinro announced that IU had become the spokesmodel for its Chamisul brand.

Her contract renewal was announced in December Her character was described as a "loser" who is seemingly average in every way except for her daring and bright personality, which helps her to overcome hardships. Despite the worries of casting someone who is better known as a singer in the role, director Yoon Sung-sik decided to cast IU after seeing her performance in Dream High and thought that she suited the image he had envisioned for the character.

Her co-stars Go Doo-shim and Lee Ji-hoon, as well as the production crew, praised her performance, especially during emotional scenes. As the series progressed, IU's performance garnered positive critical reviews despite early reservations shown about her casting, with the viewership ratings reaching a peak of Two tracks from the album were released as singles; "Beautiful Dancer" and "New World" peaked at number 66 and 76 respectively on the Billboard Japan Hot , ranking significantly lower than her Japanese-translated versions of "Good Day" and "You and I", which were top 10 releases.

Rolling Stone Japan gave the album a positive review, highlighting "Beautiful Dancer" and "Truth" as stand-out tracks.

It was described to be "a big shift from the young singer's K-pop roots" that showcased a "more mature and sophisticated sound and image" than her previous work. IU composed and wrote two out of the album's 13 tracks, which ranged from swing to jazz, bossa nova, Latin pop and folk genres. The diversity of jazz styles and the mix of collaborative tracks were highlighted in reviews by Billboard, The Korea Herald and Seoul Beats.

Billboard described the album as one that features "throwback vibes with a modern twist a la Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics record", with IU proving to have "musical sensibilities well beyond a typical year-old". The Korea Herald wrote: " Modern Times has a distinct carefree feel that is reminiscent of jazz during the Roaring Twenties. The album's real strength is how seamlessly the tracks flow together.

She played the "quirky" and "playful" role of Kim Bo-tong, a carefree girl in her twenties who has had an unrequited crush on the male protagonist since high school. Promotions for Modern Times progressed into with IU performing in Hong Kong for the first time in a solo concert. Her self-composed track, "Friday", was originally intended to be included in Modern Times but was later released as the lead single of Modern Times - Epilogue. Described as a "mid-tempo, acoustic swing-pop number", "Friday" held the number one position on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot chart for two weeks after release.

The lead single was successful on the Gaon Digital Chart, peaking at number one, and became the 10th best-selling digital single of Its popularity was also demonstrated by its simultaneous number one ranking on all three of Korea's major music programs without any live performances. In their review, Los Angeles Times opined that IU had a "sprightly stage presence, and as a solo female singer, she's breaking the molds for K-pop stardom.

IU expressed her anxiety performing at the event in her interview with Billboard: "I always get nervous when I'm performing at international shows I think I need to study English for the next visit to the U. It's suffocating not being able to communicate with fans IU has released a total of four studio albums and nine extended plays in her career, scoring three number-one albums and twenty-four number-one singles on the Gaon Music Charts.

One of the best-selling solo acts in the group-dominated K-pop industry, she has been included on Forbes magazine's annual Korea Power Celebrity list since and reached a peak ranking of number three that year. Billboard recognized IU as the all-time leader of its Korea K-Pop Hot chart with the most number-one songs and the artist who has held the number-one position for the most number of weeks. According to a Gallup Korea survey, she was the most popular idol and artist among South Koreans in Her burgeoning career led to her decreased attendance at school and declining grades, with the exception of Korean literature.

After graduating from Dongduk Girls' High School in , IU decided not to pursue post-secondary education in tandem with her singing career. As promotions for Last Fantasy and its main single "You and I" continued into in South Korea, IU began preparations for her debut in Japan by playing two shows at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo to an audience of about 4, people on January 24, She performed six songs including her debut single, "Lost Child", and the Japanese version of "Good Day" with the support of either a live orchestra or her own acoustic guitar accompaniment.

Subsequent to the concert, both "Good Day" and "You and I" were released as new singles in Japan with translated lyrics to moderate success. According to Japan's Oricon Singles Chart, the single album of Good Day sold 21, physical copies on the first week of release with the single debuting on the chart at number six.

IU embarked on her first solo concert tour, titled "Real Fantasy", in June She played shows in six different cities across South Korea, starting with two shows in Seoul. The opening shows on June 2—3 were sold out within 30 minutes of the tickets going on sale on April It was reported that The tour continued to Ulsan, Jeonju, Suwon, Busan and Daegu, before returning to Seoul with two encore concerts that ended on September 23, Guest performers included Ra.

D, Lim Seul-ong and Lee Seung-gi. In place of the usual 4—5 minute music video that usually accompanies a single release, a minute-long documentary-style music film was shot in Venice and Burano and released alongside the album, featuring both "Peach" and "Every End of the Day". Live recordings of "Friend" and "Aishiteru" from the event were later released as promotional digital singles.

Nearing the end of her "Real Fantasy" tour and promotions in Japan, IU resumed her hosting duties on Inkigayo after taking a three-month leave due to concert commitments. She was selected by the program's producer for her MC skills that she demonstrated on Inkigayo.

For her accomplishments over the past year, IU won two awards at the Seoul Music Awards; Last Fantasy was named Record of the Year, while she was among the ten musical acts who were awarded the Main Prize.

Billboard magazine named IU as one of the hottest musicians under 21 years old in for her "unique charm and undeniable hits [that] have made her into a bona fide superstar". IU has received five Daesang awards, also known as grand prize awards, from various award shows.

This includes three Daesang awards from the Melon Music Awards. Daesang awards are the most significant awards given in the Korean music industry. In , IU was identified as one of the most influential people in South Korea by the Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list, and has since been mentioned five times.

Since February , IU has been an ambassador for South Korea's National Police Agency in their anti-bullying campaigns in schools; she was made an honorary member of the police force in before being promoted to an honorary senior police officer in for a two-year term.

She has also volunteered for the organization. IU later established a scholarship at her high school alma-mater in after regularly donating there for the past several years. The scholarship, dubbed the "IU Scholarship", is designed to help four graduates from underdeveloped families. Her philanthropy efforts earned her a mention in Forbes' Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy: Catalysts For Change, being the youngest to have made the list.

IU's third full-length album release, Modern Times , showcased a more mature style that marked a departure from her earlier girlish image, with several tracks reaching the top 10 positions on Gaon Digital Chart. While her subsequent releases, including albums A Flower Bookmark, Chat-Shire, and Palette, continued to deviate from the mainstream K-pop style, IU retained her dominance on music charts.

Chat-Shire marked the first time she is credited as the sole lyricist and composer of her own album. Yoon Sang wrote the song for IU after spotting her momentary sad expression on a television broadcast. The ballad's tone was a departure from her more recent releases, with IU describing it as "dark", "sad" yet "nostalgic", which is closer to her music preference. The song performed well commercially, debuting at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart.

IU took on various side-projects after the end of Dream High. Bailey Rae, whom IU described as her role model, said of IU, "It's incredible that her voice is so soulful even though she's young.

For K. Since it was the first time she had written a song not for herself but at the behest of the drama's producers, IU found the experience difficult as she had to match the drama's cheerful tone. The song peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and sold 2,, digital copies in During this time, she also participated in Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend but eventually withdrew after recording one episode due to her overwhelming schedule.

On her wide-ranging activities in entertainment, IU remarked that while singing, acting and variety are all difficult, she finds variety to be the most tiring.

IU's second studio album, Last Fantasy, was released on November 29, in two editions, a regular retail version and a special storybook edition, of which only 15, copies were produced. The total number of download sales made from the album's tracks exceeded 10 million within the first two weeks. Eight out of the album's thirteen songs debuted in the top ten on the Gaon Digital Chart, while the album debuted at number one on the Gaon Album Chart. The single debuted at twelve on the Gaon Digital Chart and shot up to number-one position the following week, where it remained for three weeks.

Written by Kim Eana and composed by Lee Min-soo, the pop ballad duet was used as one of the theme songs for the second season of the variety show, We Got Married. The song was popular on music programs, where it won the Mutizen award on Inkigayo and was placed first on Music Bank. The song peaked at number six on the Gaon Digital Chart.

The uptempo song, as explained by Kim Eana, is about "a shy girl who is nervous about expressing her feelings to the boy she likes. Countdown, Music Bank, and Inkigayo. In addition to receiving praise for her vocal abilities, IU's fan base also expanded to a more varied demographic as compared to other K-pop groups. To maintain public visibility, IU joined the cast of the variety show, Heroes, which aired from July 18, to May 1, Speaking fondly of the show, IU recalled the camaraderie she built with the other regular cast members despite the hectic two-day shooting schedules which only allowed them two-three hours of sleep.

Filming ran from December to February , during which time she remained committed to Heroes and her existing promotions for "Good Day".

In her first acting role, IU played Kim Pil-sook, a shy and overweight school girl who dreams of becoming a professional singer.

Admitting that she was doubtful about her readiness to take on acting, IU remarked that she gained confidence in learning that the part would require singing and would later describe the experience as a tremendously enjoyable one. For the series' soundtrack, she released the single, "Someday", which achieved number-one position on the Gaon Digital Chart on the week of January 30 — February 5, By the end of , the single had sold 2,, digital copies and is one of IU's best-selling singles for a soundtrack.

IU is one of the highest-earning celebrities in South Korea, with endorsements attributing to a proportion of her income. Over the course of her career, she has endorsed various products that ranged from electronics to clothing and cosmetics.

After consecutive hit single releases and increased television appearances in , her growing popularity led to her first endorsement deals with Crown Confectionery's MyChew candy, Crown Bakery and clothing brand, Y'sb. Also among her first endorsements were video games. Although considered unusual for a female singer, IU has been involved with video game endorsements since She was chosen for her "simple and innocent image" to endorse the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Alicia: The Story of My Horse and I, in November In addition to the game's advertisements, IU also participated in its soundtrack.

She was also part of Nexon's promotions for Dungeon Fighter Online in