Biography
Michelle is an R&B singer and music teacher in South Korea, and after a successful audition for Kpop Star in 2011, she finally joined YG Entertainment as part of a new all-girl group named SuPearlshowever, after two years of formation, the group suddenly disbanded before it could debut and Lee’s contract was cancelled. Her partner Lee Hi remained with YG Company, while Park Ji Min is part of the duo 15& and her other partners Lee Jung Mi and Lee Seung Joo, it is still unknown if they will debut in the artistic medium. She later signed a contract with DIMA Entertainment.
She debuted as a solo artist on March 21, 2014 with “Without You”.
Lee Michelle Facts
- Education
- Dong-ah Institute of Arts and Media (Department of Music)
- College of Arts
- Religion: Protestant
- Her father is African-American and her mother is Korean.
- She does not know her father; this is because she was separated from her mother before she was born.
- She suffered discrimination from the parents of her school friends while growing up in Korea who would often tell their children, “Don’t touch her, she’s dirty ” simply because her skin color was darker than theirs. However she has expressed that her upbeat attitude helped get through the rude comments, and now she doesn’t worry about them: “There were a lot of articles that came out about that story.But now I don’t care about that and a lot of people around me tell me to have strength.Now they know it doesn’t hurt.When I was young, it was hard for me because of my roots.Even today, there are people who can’t stand to see me sing in musicals or just sing in general because of the color of my skin.But I don’t hate those people.I just think, ‘They just don’t love me.’Not everyone can love me, so I stopped caring “.
- She was able to overcome the obstacle of nodules on her vocal cords.
- Her soul singing ability is excellent and she does it in a way that is hard to find in Korea. Yang Hyun Suk said: “She had a difficult time due to her vocal cord problems, but her ability to reach high notes and her expressiveness is the best. More than anything else, she is special because she can sing soul. Maybe it’s because she has studied music, but her range of expression is very wide and her singing creates a unique atmosphere where she mixes Korean sensibility and R&B. “.
- YG Entertainment announced in February 2013, in advance of the debut of Su★Pearlsthat Michelle’s contract was nullified along with those of her colleagues Lee Jung Mi and Lee Seung Joo the agency stated that it was decided by the singers for the benefit of all.
- Michelle was first introduced to fame after auditioning for the first season of the popular show Kpop Star in 2011 and has since further redefined racial stereotypes in Korea.
- On the April 8 episode of ‘K-Pop Star’ Lee Michelle was eliminated by Lee Seung Hoon despite being labeled as the “least talented” of the final 5 contestants. The result was a surprise as Lee Michelle’s performance won many compliments from the jury and a much higher score than Lee Seung Hoon who had shown a mediocre performance that was not very well received by the jurors, earning the lowest score of the 5 contestants. Despite the score and the evaluations as well as the audience response Lee Michelle was not able to win the love of the viewers as she continuously ranked last in all the online polls while Lee Seung Hoon became the fan favorite by completing the list of the top two or three favorites most weeks so as a result of an unbalanced audience response during the program, Lee Seung Hoon was able to overcome the audience’s unbalanced response and was able to win the love of the viewers as she continuously ranked last in all the online polls while Lee Seung Hoon became the fan favorite by completing the list of the top two or three favorites most weeks so as a result of an unbalanced audience response during the program, Lee Seung Hoon was able to overcome the audience’s unbalanced response during the program.JYP will choose Lee Seung Hoon because she is the viewers’ choice “. In the final moment JYP went on to praise Lee Michelle for overcoming racial barriers in Korea’s conservative society:”I have something to say to Lee Michelle. I kept asking her during our training why she couldn’t express her true feelings clearly. But she would simply say that she couldn’t express herself because she had grown up being hurt so many times by so many people. I strongly believe that all parents should continuously teach and educate their children not to laugh at someone, or make denigrating comments just because of that person’s skin color or race. I wonder if there is any other country like Korea that is so closed-minded and oppressive. And I would like to congratulate Lee Michelle for overcoming all barriers and showing a new possibility with her performance today. “.
- She debuted with the song and music video for ” Without You ” in 2014, reflecting how her feelings about her experiences with discrimination have changed over time, showing in the first half of the music video, a child presumably representing Michelle’s childhood is seen drawing on the wall and writing words that were used to discriminate against her, such as “dirty”, “smelly” and “blackie”. She then tries to integrate into society by using white makeup to lighten her skin tone. In the end, she shows that she is exhausted with all the discrimination and realizes that she should not change to adhere to a standardized form of beauty, and adds color to a black and white portrait of herself.
Lee Michelle Collaborations
- Maniac – Black Tear (Feat. Lee Michelle) (2017)
- Double K – Rewind (Featl. Lee Michelle) (2013)
Lee Michelle Musicals
- Nonsense 2 (2017)
Lee Michelle TV Programs
- Sing Again (jTBC, 2020)
- King of Mask Singer (2018, MBC).
- Hip Hop Nation 2 (2016, JTBC)
- Kpop Star (SBS, 2011)
Lee Michelle TV Drama’s
- Are You The Only One Breaking Up subject for Down the Flower Path (2019-2020)
- Only One Day subject for Home for Summer (2019)
- It Was All subject for A Pledge to God (2019)
- Unusually Painful Memory subject for Love to the End (2018)
- For You theme for Blow Breeze (2017)
- If You Come To Me for Make a Wish (2014)
