Any fan of female soloist from K-Pop is undoubtedly a fan of Sunmi too. Sunmi is called a queen for all the right reasons. But Sunmi wasn’t always this popular. In fact, had she not decided to go solo, we couldn’t have known all her varied talents. Sunmi’s journey has been an inspiring one.
She first auditioned for JYP Entertainment when she was 14. Her father was diagnosed with TB. Hence she decided to become a celebrity after those moments. In fact, her inspiration was BoA, who too debuted at the age of 13. Sunmi was able to debut in one of the most buzzworthy groups, Wonder Girls.
Wonder Girls are considered iconic and called the “South Korea’s retro queens”. The girls were able to debut on Billboard Hot 100, making them the first South Korean act to rank on this chart. The group has even toured with the Jonas Brothers on their American leg of tours. After four years of promoting with Wonder Girls, Sunmi decided to postpone her music career to pursue further studies. She made her comeback with Wonder Girls again, but eventually, Wonder Girls disbanded after the contract renewal negotiation didn’t go through.
In 2013 itself, Sunmi made her comeback as a soloist, with her debut EP achieving an all-kill on the charts. Now, let’s get to some of the iconic moments that have established Sunmi as a Queen and a genre of her own. From her visuals to her concepts, everything explains why she is a Queen ruling in her own Miya-ne (her fandom name) queendom! Not is she a pretty face, but also a pretty soul, with unbounded kindness in her. After all, we all love ourselves a strong female artist.
Moments that proved Sunmi is a queen:
Solo Comeback After Hiatus
Firstly, after she made her comeback as a soloist after taking a break for 3-4 years, her music reached new heights. Her debut single, 24 Hours, was an all-kill on the charts. Within almost a year, she released her first EP, which too peaked at number 2 on the Gaon charts. Also, not to be forgotten that the EP also ranked number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Many artists aspire to rank on the prestigious chart, and Sunmi did it with her first EP.
Since then, Sunmi hasn’t looked back and has established herself as a queen of charts too.
Sunmi’s Musical Style
We call an array of various musical genres as K-Pop. But not for Sunmi’s music. Her music is in a class of its own. Her style of music is called Sunmi-pop. This Sunmi core includes pop, rock, traditional Korean music, and her own musical identity.
As a fan of Sunmi, my first impression of hers was through the Noir music video, which came out sometime in 2019. Its unique music and Sunmi’s charm captured my attention. That song is actually based on a serious topic, but she has managed to show it through very colorful visuals. That’s the whole core of Sunmi-pop. Sunmi herself has explained no matter how bright her song sounds, there is always a hint of sadness flowing through the music.
LGBT Queen
When we are talking about Sunmi being a queen and June being the Pride month, how can we miss this event? At an event in Amsterdam in 2019, Sunmi explained to her all her characters and all her sides that fans may be unaware of. She said, as I quote, “Yea, I have many different sides of me like dorky and LGBT… LGBT queen…,”. Many fans went berserk, thinking that Sunmi had come out about her sexuality on stage. K-Pop fans have a particular genre wherein all fans of strong female artists are automatically considered “gay”. It’s just a joke that circulates among fans, with no intention to hurt anyone. Instead, it’s just a way to describe how much we love that certain artist. Probably Sunmi might have come across such posts too. However, Sunmi later clarified by tweeting that she wasn’t coming out on stage. It was just her way of showing her support to the LGBTQ+ community and her fans as a whole.
But all things aside, we do love our LGBT queen, and we love how she has never shied away from supporting the LGBTQ+ community. She even ran on stage with the pride flag. As an LGBTQ+ supporter myself, we won with our favorite artist being such a supportive individual.
If we were to tell you more about Sunmi’s queen moments, we would totally suggest you watch Sunmi’s music video for “Siren”. That entire video screams “Yass Queen Sunmi”!
Also Read: Which Group Was Sunmi In? Know About Her Life Before Becoming A Soloist
