U;Nee Special Feature

SPECIAL TRIBUTE – U;NEE (May 3, 1981 – January 21, 2007)

Instead of the usual "artist of the week", we are paying a special tribute to U;Nee, who committed suicide on January 21.

U;Nee (original name: Heo Yoon) was considered a rising artist. Like many female artists these days, she was employing a sexy concept on her image, and her songs had strong dance beats. She started out as her career as a teenage actress, under the name Lee Hye-ryeon appearing in the KBS TV drama "Grown-ups Just Don’t Understand" in 1996. Two years later, she appeared in the movie "Seventeen" and later in TV dramas "Theme Game" and "Tears of the Dragon".

U;Nee launched her singing career in 2003. While her debut album "Code" did not produce any hit songs, her sexy image caught the attention of many fans. In 2005, she released her 2nd album "Passion and Pure" with the hit song "Call Call Call" making the top 20 in many charts, including here in our soompi weekly rankings. She became more and more well known. Her 3rd album was scheduled to release in early February, and fans had high expectation on this upcoming album. Then came the tragic news of her death…..which was a shocking news. Her posthumous 3rd album was released on January 27, 6 days after her death (refer to our new album introductions).

On January 21, U;Nee’s grandmother found her body in her 22nd-floor apartment Sunday afternoon, dead of an apparent suicide. Her grandmother said she had come home from a church service to find the singer hanging from a door frame.

Rumors surrounding her death said that U;Nee seemed to have been suffering from depression on the eve of her 3rd album release. There were also speculations that U;Nee was upset by online criticisms about her image and her having plastic surgery. U;Nee left no suicide note or will. The reason behind her death will remain a mystery forever.

For more information on U;Nee including her discography, please refer to her official thread on soompi’s Korean Music forum:
https://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=110148

U;Nee was 25 (26 in Korean age). May she rest in peace.