Who is Lee Hyori? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

South Korean Celebrities Born In May

Age: 44 Years, 44 Year Old Females

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Lee Sang-soon (m. 2013)

Actresses South Korean Women

Height: 5'6" (168 cm), 5'6" Females

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Childhood & Early Life

Lee Hyori was born Lee Hyo-ri on May 10, 1979 in Cheongwon, South Korea. She is the youngest daughter in her family. Her family included her parents and an older brother as well as an older sister. As a child, she wanted to become a police officer.

Hyori started developed love for acting and drawing at a very young age and took up acting seriously later. She studied in the Gook Min University.

Her stunning natural beauty was discovered during a photo shoot with her friends in early days. She was then trained at Daesung Entertainment.

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Career

After getting discovered by Daesung Entertainment and her subsequent training, Hyori joined the K-Pop Girl Group ‘Fin K. L.’ as the eldest and the last member. Just after she joined the group, they officially made their on May 12, 1998 with their first single, ‘Blue Rain’. It was the second song from their album, ‘To My Boyfriend’. They later became very popular in South Korea giving a tough competition to their rivals, the S.E.S. group.

Fin K.L. released around four studio albums in the following year. Just after that, Lee debuted as a solo singer in 2003 with her first solo album ‘Stylish’ which became very popular and earned her many accolades. The lead single ‘10 Minutes’ from the album became her signature song.

She then made her acting debut in the 16-episode drama series, ‘Three Leaf Clover’. However, the series received low ratings and she was criticized as a misplaced character and viewers claimed that she was no match for a character so downtrodden.

After her contract with DSP Entertainment ended, she entered into another one with Mnet Entertainment, which is currently known as Mnet Media. It was a 3-year contract worth ₩2.2 billion. She was then the highest paid female singer in South Korea.

She has co-hosted TV programs like ‘Happy Together’, ‘Sang Sang Plus’, ‘Change’, and ‘Time Machine’ In 2008, she launched her third album ‘It’s Hyorish’. After that, she released her 4th album in 2010, called ‘H – Logic’. It was the last one under Mnet Media.

Her fifth studio album, ‘Monochrome’ was launched on 21st May, 2013. In February 2015, after some minor failures in TV hosting and shows, she decided to take a hiatus from the industry. She stopped all activities, shut down her blog and removed her Twitter account.

In October 2016, it was hinted that she had resumed her music activities and had signed a contract with the Kiwi Media Group. In 2017, she made a return by posting on Instagram.

On 4th July, 2017, her fourth album ‘Black’ was released along with the rustic themed official music video for the title track. She has written eight and composed nine out of the ten songs and is an executive producer for Black.

Hyori has also appeared in TV shows like ‘Take Care of My Dad’, ‘Korea’s Next Top Model’, ‘Jung Jae-hyung & Lee Hyo-ri's You and I’, ‘The Generation of Sensibility’, and many others.

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She has been a part of films like ‘Emergency Act 19’, ‘Dancing Queen’, and ‘Duke’.

Major Works

In 2010, 7 out of 14 songs from her 4th album, H-Logic, were accused of plagiarism. Later, she admitted the accusation, saying that she had been deceived. She stopped all musical activities and television appearances for some time then. However, during this time, she started writing newspaper columns describing her thoughts on life and career. Her writing was known for simplicity, humor, and intelligence.

In 2012, she published ‘Closer’, a photo-essay book that featured her everyday life with her dog Soonshim Whom Lee adopted from an animal shelter.

Hyori released two charity songs on animal welfare. They were ‘Please Stay Behind’ and ‘Remember’.

She had tweeted that she wanted to see SsangYong Motors’ car Tivoli to be successful as she wanted the workers who were fired by SsangYong to get hired again. She even tweeted that, if something like this happens, she would dance in a bikini in front of the car.

Awards & Achievements

Her first solo album, Stylish’, lead single, ‘10 Minutes’, won seven Daesangs (The most prestigious South Korean Awards for Music), out of which four were the most prestigious of the Daesangs.

The year 2003 was called as ‘The Year Of Hyori’ by the South Korean industry as she was rarely out of the spotlight throughout the year. The first single of her second album was ‘Get Ya!’ It got caught up in controversies for its lyrics as the songwriters of Britney Spears’ ‘Do Somethin’ accused it of plagiarism.

Her first single in the third album, hit #1 in the offline as well as online lists. It was called ‘U Go Girl’. Tickets for her first solo concert, ‘Lee Hyori the Invincible’ were sold out in less than five minutes. She won the Mutizen song Award for her lead single ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’.

Eight of her sixteen songs from her 5th album ‘Monochrome’ topped the Top 10 list of Bugs, Olley and Naver Music. She has won the Golden Disk, SBS, Seoel and KBS Music Awards. She won the KMTV Music Award as the ’Best Artist of the Year’ in 2003. Along with that, she has also won the Mnet Asian Music Award for numerous categories in years 2003, 2008 and 2013.

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Hyori has several other style icon awards, Hot Multitainer awards, Hot Body awards and Voice awards. Mnet ran a documentary series on Lee’s life called ‘Off the Record: Lee Hyori’.

Personal Life & Legacy

On September 1, 2013, she married Lee Sang Soon, guitarist of rock band, Roller Coaster. The wedding took place at their vacation home on Mt. Halla on Jeju Island.

She is known to be a cheerful girl who laughs very often, but her short temper is also well-known. She is fond of her long straight hair and considers it the most precious part of her body.

According to her, the most important thing for her in life is her family.

Trivia

She co-hosted the Korean Music Festival for two successive years in 2004 and 2005.

She was rescued by ‘If In Love… Like Them’ co-star Lee Dong Gun while she was about to take a fatal fall of a broken part of a roof while filming for the drama.

She was a part of a Korean cosmetics commercial along with Jessica Alba.

Her favorite color is white and her favorite song genre is R&B and ballads.

Mariah Carey and Brandy inspire her as an artist. According to her, doing the best we can in every little way of life is the key to living in satisfaction and happiness.

Her nickname is Chori.

Lee Hyori Biography