Lee Sunmi (이선미, born Sun Mi on May 2, 1992), known mononymously as Sunmi, is a South Korean singer, debuting in 2007 as a member of the Wonder Girls. Shortly after the group's expansion in the United States, she left the group in January 2010 to pursue an academic career.
In 2013, she returned to the music scene with a Hotter and Sexier image as a soloist under her group's label, JYP Entertainment, with the single 24 Hours, that later became one of the representative sexy songs for Korean idols. Despite initial claims by the company that she would not rejoin the Wonder Girls, when the group revamped its concept in 2015, she took up the role of the group's bassist, co-writing and co-producing three tracks for the group's comeback album.
After the Wonder Girls's disbandment in 2017, Sunmi signed with Makeus Entertainment. In August of the same year, she released her single titled Gashina, produced by Teddy Park of The Black Label, which turned out to be a bigger hit than 24 Hours.
Discography
Mini Albums
- Full Moon (2014)
- Warning (2018)
- 1/6 (2021)
Singles
- 24 Hours (2013)
- Gashina (2017)
- Heroine (2018)
- Noir (2019)
- Lalalay (2019)
- Pporappippam (2020)
- Gotta Go (2020)
- Tail (2021)
- You Can't Sit With Us (2021)
- Go or Stop? (2021)
Tropes that apply to Sunmi and her music:
- Action Girl: The MV for "You Can't Sit With Us" features a sequence where Sunmi and her two female friends are trapped in the video rental store due to a horde of zombies. The three of them work together to kill all the zombies.
- Affectionate Nickname: "Mimi" and "Miya", with the latter incorporated into her fanclub name, "Miyane" (which means "Miya's home").
- Animal Motif: "Tail" is full of cat motifs — justified, as the song was inspired by
Catwoman (specifically the Batman Returns version). The choreography features parts where the backup dancers form Sunmi's tails with their hands and legs. The routine finishes with Sunmi on her hands and knees, with one leg crooked like it's a tail. - Cloudcuckoolander: Was known as this during her time with the Wonder Girls, which confuses audiences who got to know her because of her solo releases.
- Delicate and Sickly: The music video for "Full Moon" has a wan, handsome young man who is bedridden with an illness that subjects him to coughing fits. Throughout most the video, he can only blearily watch the goings-on, lacking the strength to even sit up straight; when he tries getting up, he falls to the floor. A flashback shows him in a wheelchair, looking out the window.
- Hotter and Sexier: Compare her before leaving the Wonder Girls and after debuting as a solo artist.
- Jump Scare: At the beginning of the music video for "Full Moon". A bedridden guy cracks open his eyes to see a vampire standing in his room. The camera takes his perspective, showing her just standing there for a time. Then at the 0:21 mark, she suddenly rushes at the camera, accompanied by a Scare Chord.
- Lead Bassist: Of the Wonder Girls.
- Only One Name: Unlike the other members who have two-character names (which most Koreans have), Sunmi's original name was Sun Mi (with Sun as her last name and Mi as her first name). She later changed her name to "Lee Sunmi" (Lee being her stepfather's surname), using "Sunmi" as her first name.
- Retraux: Some of her music takes cues from the 80s, with the biggest offender being Pporappippam with its city-pop influenced soundscape.
- She Is All Grown Up: The concept behind her 2013 comeback as a solo artist, as she had a childlike and innocent image as part of the Wonder Girls.
- Shout-Out: The music video for "Tail" is one to Catwoman's story in Batman Returns.
- Singer-Songwriter: Sunmi is heavily involved in the writing and production process of her songs.
- Stage Name: She's known as "Mimi" in the US.
