6 things to know about Sunmi, the K-pop queen who hasn’t been seen on TV since last September
K-pop star Sunmi turns 28 on May 2, but with South Korea’s social distancing measures extended until May 5 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the celebration will probably remain indoors. Fans are curious about what their queen has been up recently since they haven’t seen her on television since September 2019.
Sunmi debuted as a singer with Wonder Girls in 2007. After three years, she took a break from the entertainment industry for the academic world. When she returned to the industry three years later, she debuted as a solo artist with her first single, 24 Hours.
In February, Sunmi’s performance video for the song Gotta Go premiered on YouTube – it has been viewed more than five million times – followed days later with a video for the Gotta Go choreography rehearsal.
The song isn’t from any future Sunmi album, but from the official soundtrack for the web drama XX. Fans have been asking for a follow-up to the 2018 EP Warning, but Sunmi is keeping quiet about any post-pandemic project on social media.
Here are some updates on Sunmi.
She is one of the most popular female K-pop soloists ever
Sunmi is the only female K-pop soloist apart from Jennie to have a song streamed more than 100 million times on Spotify. Her Gotta Go Dance music video passed five million views on YouTube and remains the most popular video on the MuFully channel, two months after its launch.
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Fashion shoots
A confessed homebody, Sunmi seems to be spending her days doing OOTD shoots indoors: normcore outfits, shoes and bags from luxury labels, the all-important face mask. Some of the shots were taken by her younger brother, Lee Sun-dong, who was an unofficial photographer on Sunmi’s “Warning” world tour in 2019.
Puma Korea revealed Sunmi as their new ambassador at the end of February, and launched a campaign called Rider.
Puma Korea said, “Sunmi boasts a perfect image with her unique music and performances, as well as her healthy image; in addition, we were drawn to her positive image off the stage when she’s communicating with her fans.”
She has been sharing outtakes from the collaboration, including a shot with her siblings.
Sunmi will appear in Hidden Singer season 6
Hidden Singer will return from a two-year break in the second half of 2020. It is a programme where singers compete with soloists who sound like them, singing the same song. The show is widely popular in South Korea and Sunmi’s fans can’t wait to see who can match their idol’s beautiful voice.
Sunmi’s virtual school
Sunmi’s team launched Sunmi’s virtual school on their Facebook page in April. The purpose is to test fans on their knowledge of the star. The tests include questions like, “What is the concept behind Sunmi’s Siren video clip?”, asking fans to list Sunmi’s selfies with a correct timeline and a question about the sign Sunmi used to mean “I love Miya-ne” (the nickname for her fan base).
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Strange selfies
Then there are her mirror selfies. Long-time admirers have a running joke about one particular element of these posts: “OUR MİRROR SELFIE QUEEN”, “Dirty mirror selfies are back!”, “clean mirror who dis”, “your mirror is so clean i’m proud”.
Killing time in quarantine
Everyone, celebrities included, is practising some form of self-isolation during Covid-19. Sunmi is no exception. According to her Instagram, Sunmi loves two things on lockdown: building with Lego and playing The Simpsons mobile game.
She finished two sets of Lego in less than two weeks, based on her posts. She has also been posting pics of her pastel-hued quarantine snacks.
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Like any millennial, she has been playing games to pass the time.
Since there’s scant information on what they can expect from her after Gotta Go, fans are taking some of Sunmi’s more random but positive posts as teasers for the next album. Only she knows for sure – but they do brighten up the days.
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Sunmi, who turns 28 on May 2, has been keeping quiet about any post-pandemic projects on social media. Here’s what we know about her …