Music / Juniel

FNC's "Princess", Juniel

Juniel, real name Choi Junhee, is the first female Korean Pop Music soloist under FNC Entertainment. Born on the September 3 1993, she studied music in Japan where she also won Niji Iro Supernova, a Japanese singing show.

She made her indie debut in Japan in 2011 followed by her major debut in 2012, before finally making her Korean debut in 2012. B-side "Babo", a duet by her and labelmate CN Blue's Jung Yonghwa (who also produced the song), was pre-released along with a music video starring the two of them, and then the music video for the official promotional track "Illa Illa" was released on June 7th along with her debut mini-album My First June. She won a Rookie award that year and a Rising Star award the next year.

Besides Yonghwa, she's also collaborated with quite a few others. One of them is CN Blue's Lee Jonghyun where they formed an official subunit called Romantic J, and they released the song "Love Falls" in December 2013.

She is best known for her acoustic/pop rock songs, always playing and seen with her guitar, her songwriting skills and her sweet voice. She is considered another impressive artist under FNC, the company known for training bands and songwriters, and unofficially known as their beloved "princess".

Discography

Korean Discography:

• My First June (2012) (EP)
• 1&1 (2012) (EP)
• Fall in L (2013) (EP)
• I Think I'm In love (2014) (single)
• Sorry (2015) (single)

Japanese Discography (singles listed under respective albums):

• Ready Go (2011) (EP)
• Dream & Hope (2011) (EP)
• JUNI (2013) (first major album)
  • Forever (2011), Sakura ~todokanu omoi~ (2012)

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• Ascended Extra: Did some backing vocals for the chorus in FT Island's "Magic" predebut.
• Break-Up Song: Has a lot songs that focus on a break-up, including "Illa Illa" and "Bad Man".
• The Cameo: She cameo'd as a busker in an episode of A Gentleman's Dignity, the drama that used "Illa Illa" as its OST.
• Childhood Friend: Been friends with labelmate AOA's Choa since childhood, and was the one who recommended auditioning for FNC to her. The friendship lives on.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Gender-inverted in the "Pretty Boy" MV where she walks down the street, completely unaware that all these guys she's passed have fallen in love with her. A guy tries to glomp her but just goes right over her when she bends to pick up her lipstick, guys fight over the handkerchief that falls out of her bag and other guys (plus a little boy) have to be stopped from chasing her - and she notices none of it. However she is looking for love - just not with any of those guys, but with a Pretty Boy.
• The Cutie: Somewhat. She appears as this due to her petite and youthful looks, cheerful personality, sweet voice and often sporting cute dresses.... then she also proves herself to be a troll with quirks such as eating unpeeled fruit (from watermelon to kiwi), as well as being more outspoken.
• Darker and Edgier: Melancholic ballads "Illa Illa" and "Bad Man", compared to her sweeter and more cheerful previous Japanese A-sides.
• Distaff Counterpart: Her labelmates in FNC say she's the "Female Hongki" because she's also outspoken like her labelmate and not afraid to challenge the CEO.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Invoked for her image as a guitar-playing singer-songwriter, as she looks very much at home and stunning when playing her guitar which is nearly never not by her side; she even once admitted she feels very awkward without her guitar because her hands are restless.
• Face on the Cover: All her releases have her in the cover art, either her whole body or the upper half. She covers most of her face with her hands in the Fall in L cover however.
• Fangirl: Is a self-proclaimed one of The Beatles and Eric Clapton and their music.
• Friend to All Children: During her "Pretty Boy" era she got along well with child stars Lincoln and Leyna, who starred in the MV and joined her in some performances.
• Fun with Foreign Languages:
  • Lots of English thrown in some songs, especially in "Pretty Boy" ("Boy boy boy oh my pretty boy").
  • She named her acoustic guitar Panini and her first electric guitar Monami.
• Imagine Spot: She has an imagine spot in her "Pretty Boy" MV of her and the guy she likes getting married.
• Irony:
  • Her song "Cat Day" was actually written for her dog.
  • Despite her popular Korean melancholic title tracks, she has trouble writing sad lyrics because she's too much of a cheerful person.
• Let's Duet:
  • Juniel/Yonghwa sing and play their guitars together in "Babo" which Yonghwa wrote for Juniel's debut.
  • Juniel/Jonghyun sang and played their guitars for "Illa Illa" special duet and also sing together in their Romantic J song "Love Falls".
  • She's sung twice with labelmate and actor Kwak Dongyeon, once with "Babo" at a staff wedding and a "Lost Stars" cover on her official YouTube account.
  • It's common for her to sing in her radio covers with fellow guests/hosts.
• Lighter and Softer: The happier and cuter songs "Pretty Boy" and "I Think I'm In Love", in contrast to her previous angsty acoustic ballads. Especially in the former, where she often wore a tutu skirt when promoting and even had a dance and back up dancers to go with the song.
• Meaningful Name: The L in her stage name stands for "love". It was added to her original stage name Junie (same pronunciation as her real name Junhee).
• Moment Killer: She once tweeted some of the heartwarming lyrics to her song "I Think I'm In Love" and attached a photo which people would had expected to be like her usual cute selcas and they weren't wrong... except said selca was heavily distorted to make her look anything but cute.◊
• Pretty Boy: Her song with the same name is dedicated to one, and even specifically says "Rather than a handsome guy like a movie star, I like cute guys".
  Short height with a round face
  A cute guy who looks good in glasses
  Eyes that disappear when he smiles
  But a guy who has a child-like smile
• Running Gag: It's common for her to be in a group photo with AOA and hide herself amongst the members, asking fans to find the "Hidden Juniel".
• Self-Titled Album: JUNI, named after her old stage name Junie.
• Ship Tease:
  • Invoked with Yonghwa in their "Babo" duet, which is a Silly Love Song, and its MV where she hitches a ride with him and they act rather playful and chummy with each other.
  • Invoked with CN Blue's Jonghyun a few times - the two did a duet of "Illa Illa" and they're in a subunit called Romantic J - their song is called "Love Falls" and in the MV they are high school lovers.
  • Invoked a bit with FT Island's Jaejin - first when they did a wedding photoshoot together (where near-kissing was involved), and then when they sang "A Whole New World" at their FNC Kingdom concert in 2014 December as "the new Romantic J".
• Shout-Out:
  • She has written a song called "Pinocchio".
  • She has stated that One Piece was what inspired her to write the song "Summer Vacation".
  • The concept for the music video of "Sorry" was "The Little Mermaid".
• Silly Love Songs:
  • "Babo" is a duet between a couple that basically tell each other over and over again how much they love each other.
    Oh I love you love you love you, You love me love me love me
    I know your heart is for me~ (your heart)
    Oh I love you love you love you, Are you love me love me baby
    Because I love you too
  • "I Think I’m In Love" has the singer talking about her excitement over how she's fallen in love.
• Singer-Songwriter: She writes most of her songs. It just so happens the ones she doesn't are made the main promotional tracks.
• Sixth Ranger: She joked about becoming a new member for AOA when she posted a photo of her and the group together◊, with her hidden in the middle (kicking off the "Hidden Juniel" habit). A possible nod to those who thought she was going to be a member even though she had already debuted as a soloist when the group made their debut.
• Spiritual Successor: She was dubbed the next IU at debut due to both being female soloists, having similar voices and playing guitar (though IU doesn't officially promote with it). However Juniel isn't particularly fond of the title, and she respects IU whom she was even friends with her predebut.
• Stage Name: Juniel (previously Junie), in contrast to real name Choi Junhee (though Junhee sounds close to Junie).
• Title Drop: Most if not all of her promotional tracks, at the least, do this. "Illa Illa" and "Pretty Boy" for example especially repeats the title a lot.
• Training from Hell: Her CEO has said her fingers once couldn't move and got swollen from practising guitar too much.
• Translated Cover Version:
  • Some Japanese indie songs were translated into Korean for her first two Korean mini-albums, such as "Everlasting Sunset".
  • Besides "Babo", which was translated into Japanese, songs on her Japanese album JUNI otherwise avoids this trope as they are all original, as tradition of FNC artists in Japan.
• Video Full of Film Clips: "Please", a song she wrote for her I Think I'm In Love release, was used as an OST for Japanese film "Still The Water" and so an MV consisting of clips from this movie for the song was released. Oddly though, for no given reason, the MV was deleted from the official channel it was uploaded to.