IU chooses to lie low for now
Singer-songwriter IU will not participate in any year-end music festivals, mainly because of her nationwide concert tour schedule.
Recently, the singer did not participate in the 2015 Melon Music Awards, organized by online music portal Melon.
The 23-year-old singer’s agency also said she would not attend the Mnet Asian Music Awards, also known as MAMA, which will be held in Hong Kong on Dec. 2. IU is nominated as Best Female Artist, one of the MAMA categories, but she reportedly decided not to go to the awards ceremony.
Fans of IU won’t see her at the Golden Disk Awards, the country’s longest-running music awards, either.
“IU wanted to focus on concerts when she released an album,” Loen Tree Entertainment told local news outlets.
The singer released her fourth mini-album “Chat-Shire” in October. Upon its release, almost all the songs topped major online music charts, but the singer has been embroiled in a couple of scandals with the release of the album.
IU first came under fire for illegally using U.S. pop star Britney Spears’ singing on “Gimme More” on one of her tracks.
IU’s lyrics for a track titled “Zezé,” a song that was reportedly inspired by a 5-year-old fictional boy from the novel “My Sweet Orange Tree,” also made news after people criticized the sexualization of a boy in the lyrics.
Meanwhile, IU’s agency recently filed a lawsuit against some Internet users who posted malicious comments and spread fabricated photos of the singer online.
The agency sued an Internet user in 2013 but dropped the suit on the condition that he would do 200 hours of volunteer work.
The agency said it would not show leniency because “rumors and comments have crossed the line this time.”
By Sung So-young
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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