Lee Hye-ryeon (Korean: 이혜련), later name changed to Heo Yun (Korean: 허윤), (May 3, 1981[1] – January 21, 2007) best known by her stage name as U;Nee (유니) was a South Korean singer, rapper, dancer and actress; she made her debut as a singer with her first album U;Nee Code.
U;Nee died by suicide on January 21, 2007, at age 25.[2]
Early life and acting career
U;Nee was born Lee Hye-ryeon (이혜련) in South Korea. She had a difficult childhood and was born to an unwed mother. Her father died when she was young and she was raised by her grandmother as result.[2]
As a child, she was known to be a very good student during her elementary school years, but later in high school, U;nee showed interest in acting and, in general, in show business, thus forming her dream of one day appearing on television and being a star, which her mother opposed. However, U;Nee secretly attended acting classes in academies and participated in numerous castings.
Her debut as an actress was in 1996, getting a role in the KBS teen series called "New Generation Report, Adults Don't Know", (신세대 보고 - 어른들은 몰라요) where she played a narcissistic teenager. Despite playing a villain, her performance received criticism due to the self-centered nature of the character.
After her debut, U;Nee (then Hye Ryeon), went on to appear in Korean entertainment programs such as "Super Sunday" on South Korea's KBS2, which helped her gain moderate attention. However, the roles U;Nee received were self-centered and narcissistic like the one in her debut, which formed a negative image on her by people who did not know how to separate the acting from the person.
After these criticisms and added to her role in the movie "Seventeen" which according to her mother had a great impact on her mentally, U;nee decided to take a break from acting and thus set in motion her dream of becoming a singer, taking advantage of the hiatus to take singing and dancing lessons.
Music career
2003: Debut and U;Nee Code
On June 12, 2003, U;Nee debuted as a singer with the song "Go" (가) from her first studio album 'U;nee Code'. The song was included in games such as 'Pump It Up: Exceed' and 'Pump It Up NX2'. Throughout this time U;Nee was busy promoting the song along with her other song 'Double Trick' (두번째 트릭) on music programs as well as appearing on variety programs. However, this song contrasted with U;Nee's personality, which was shy and quiet. This made her receive malicious comments calling her 'fake' and 'exaggerated'.
U;Nee participated in MBC's 'Kang Ho-Dong: Match Made in Heaven', in which the male contestants did a popularity vote in which she received 0 points, making her cry, causing a bad reaction on the internet. Rumors of plastic surgery would begin to appear on internet forums, comparing photos of when she was an actress and a child. At this time, a survey of singers who had no talent was made, in which singer Lee Hyori came in first place and U;Nee came in third place, proving that the internet hatred towards U;Nee was severe. [1]
However, U;Nee also received good comments for singing live in her performances, even if the choreography of the song was very difficult. This caused U;Nee to form a moderate fan base.
2005: Image transition, Call Call Call and Passion & Pure – EP
When U;Nee announced her second album 'Call Call Call' (also known as 'Passion&Pure' and 'U;Nee 2nd Album'), news comments were filled with hurtful remarks such as "don't come back" and comments related to her physical appearance and surgery.
In February 2005, U;Nee released the music video for her song (which has the same name as the album) 'Call Call Call', which managed to get a lot of attention for its horror concept and the sexy concept of the song. The song achieved some success in the music charts like 'Melon' but this would not be enough to boost the album and its sales due to the hate from netizens.
U;Nee's live singing skills were noticeably affected, showing nervousness compared to the early performances of her first album. This was supposedly due to the hateful comments that affected U;nee and the sexy concept that U;nee was not completely comfortable with because of her reserved and quiet personality. Due to the severe criticism, U;Nee changed the wardrobe of her performances and started promoting the club version of the song, giving a more youthful look away from the sexy image.
She then promoted her album's ballad called 'Father', which U;Nee said was a song she felt personal as she felt the lack of growing up without a father. U;nee also appeared on SBS variety program 'Happiness in ￦10,000' (만원의 행복) with her mother, where they both shed tears and talked about the hateful comments she received, where her mother asked to avoid such comments as U;Nee was a very tender and sensitive person.
Rumors started to circulate that celebrities in the industry preferred to avoid U;Nee because of her bad image, so U;Nee was invited to SBS program 'Image Survival' (이미지 서바이벌) where it was a program that helped save celebrities' image, far from helping, U;Nee suffered humiliation from the participants, forming an uncomfortable environment for U;Nee. Then, Lee Kyung Kyu made a list of 'celebrities that I would not like my daughter Yerim to become', putting U;nee first, saying that he would not like her daughter to wear revealing clothes and act like that, then U;Nee was focused and her uncomfortable face was really noticeable. [2]
2006: U;Nee in Japan
In 2006, U;Nee was marketed abroad in Asia. Her debut single, One, taken from 'Call Call Call', was released in Japan in February 2006. The single also included an alternate version of Sun Cruise from her debut album, U;Nee Code, and Follow Me, a song that would later appear on her 3rd and final album, Habit. She held a showcase performing a variety of her songs from her 'Call Call Call' album with great reviews, but with no more success she decided to come back and work in her third album.
She also appeared in the Goofy's music video called 'Mr DJ'
Death and impact
At 10 a.m, January 21, 2007, she sat down in front of the TV and said, "Goodbye," to her maternal grandmother, mother, and uncle as they left the house for church. When her grandmother returned from church, intending to prepare lunch for her granddaughter, she discovered U;Nee hanging in her room. She immediately called for an ambulance, but U;Nee had already died.
The police later confirmed that the cause of death was suicide due to depression and that no suicide note had been found.
The news came as a shock to all of Asia, especially since a day later U;Nee was to shoot the music video for her third album. Her agency due to this, decided to cancel the release of the album that was scheduled for February 1 of that year, but then by request of the family, it was released on January 26.
The funeral occurred the day after, only a few of her fellow celebrities attended, as U;Nee did not have many friends in the industry [3], among them were, singer Maya[4], the girl-group 'Diva' (디바) members Mingyeong and Zinnie, Kil Gun, singer Mina and her best friend Lee Hwa Sun, who was there until the end.
Kim Jin-Pyo, criticized the South Korean singers' association saying "The singer's association did not make any contact with fellow singers even after the singer's death. I also didn't receive any messages and had to ask for the address myself to offer my condolences. However, when I finally arrived, there were hardly any singers present. Aren't these so-called respectful juniors from the singer's association even able to spare time for condolences at a time like this?!" [5]. Choi Baek-Ho, the vice-president of the association back then replied to Kim's statement saying ""Because of your words, the hardworking singers at the Korean Singers Association, who sacrifice a lot of time and money for the rights and status of singers, feel angry"[6], this caused a debate with most people empathizing with Jin-Pyo and calling Baek-Ho irresponsible and unempathetic to the situation. During this time, several singers and entertainment figures had their pages filled with insults and questions as to why they did not attend U;Nee's funeral.
This had such an impact that people in the entertainment industry began to attend celebrities funerals, even if they were not close to the deceased.
South Korean actor and singer Ryu Si-Won paid tribute to U;Nee at one of his concerts in Japan, they were friends and were known to have a 10-year friendship. [7]
Lee Hyori expressed herself about U;Nee's death in an interview on "취중토크" saying, "If U;Nee and Jung Dabin were friends with me, I would have tried to help them in any way possible. It was very heartbreaking."[8]
A month after the tragedy, SBS investigation show 'I Want To Know That' (hangul: 그것이 알고싶다), in episode 416, they interviewed U;Nee's mother at her home, where she confessed that during the first album U;Nee suffered from stress, taking medication but had days of sleeping a whole day and being awake a whole day. After her second album her mother noticed that U;Nee became very reserved to the point of speaking only a few words even at home. She also said that U;Nee was affected by the hate comments and that she was not very happy about her company's decisions at the time. [9]
They also interviewed U;Nee's manager and some staff members, they said that U;Nee seemed calm and somehow excited about the promotions of her album. They even showed footage from January 19 where U;Nee is seen smiling and practicing.
U;Nee was also known for being the first South Korean singer to commit suicide due to hateful comments by netizens.
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