generasia:Featured article for 2010 week 15

Lee Hyori

Lee Hyori is a Korean pop singer, MC, CM model and actress. She made her debut as the leader and sub vocalist of the girl group Fin.K.L and successfully debuted as a solo artist with her album STYLISH...E hyOlee after Fin.K.L disbanded. Thanks to this album she won multiple awards at the most prestigious Korean music award festivals including three of the four most prestigious Daesangs (Artist of the Year). Her debut album sold over 150,000 copies and her popularity raised quickly; even the Korean Media nicknamed 2003 as "The Year of Hyori".

She debuted as actress in 2005 in the drama Three-Leaf Clover with the main role, however the ratings for the drama were continually low, and it ended after 16 episodes. In 2006, she released her second album Dark Angel and at the end of the year it was revealed that Lee signed a three-year contract with M-Net Entertainment for ₩2.2 billion (nearly US$2 million), becoming the highest paid female singer in South Korea.

In 2007 Lee released her digital single "Toc Toc Toc", which was the soundtrack to the drama Perhaps Love. The digital single was released two days later in a physical single limited to 30,000 copies, titled "If in Love Like Them". The single sold nearly 28,000 copies, becoming the best selling single of the month.

In June 2008, Lee become part of the cast of the television show Family Outing and her third album, It's Hyorish, was released on July 16, 2008, two years after her previous album. The song "U-Go-Girl" was used as the first lead song, which topped the charts on various online and offline charts, including music shows.

Lee Hyori's fourth album, H-Logic, was released on April 13, 2010. For this album she counts with the participation of many K-Pop/K-Hip-Hop singers like Daesung (BIGBANG), Gary (Leessang), Bekah (After School), Jiyoon (4minute) or Sangchu (Mighty Mouth).