IU at Twenty-Three: The Nation’s Little Sister Who Wrote Every Lyric

Part 2 of 6 in The Queen Who Said She Didn't Have a Celebrity Face: IU

Featured photo: IU at the KBS Music Festival, December 2011. Photo: idol-story.com via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Previously: The 15-year-old who heard “Did you even practice?” at her debut became the Nation’s Little Sister two years and three months later with the three-step high note of “Good Day.”

“The Nation’s Little Sister” was a name other people gave her. What IU did over the next five years was walk out of it. In the fall of 2015 she wrote every lyric on a seven-track album and titled its first song with her age: “Twenty-three.” I love every era of IU, but no stretch of her career had me cheering as nervously as these five years. Watching a young woman walk, step by step, out of a name someone else had given her was a gift in itself for a fan.

2011: Kim Pil-suk of Dream High

In January 2011 IU made her acting debut on KBS’s Dream High as Kim Pil-suk, a student at the fictional Kirin Arts High School. Her classmates were Kim Soo-hyun, Ok Taec-yeon and Suzy of miss A. The show’s song “Someday” topped the weekly chart for January 30 – February 5 (Wikipedia). Suzy’s acting career started in the same classroom (Bae Suzy, Korea’s Eternal First Love).

2.25 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

6.96 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

From March that year she hosted SBS’s Inkigayo for more than two years (March 2011 – July 2013). In May she put her first self-written song, “Hold My Hand,” on the soundtrack of the drama The Greatest Love (Wikipedia). “You & I,” released in November, passed 10 million downloads in two weeks (Chosun Ilbo, Dec. 15, 2011).

49.8 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

Also read: IU, DAY6 and Squid Game All Brought Him Back. Who Was Shin Hae-chul?

2012: a concert where 71% of the crowd was male

In January 2012 IU made her Japanese debut at Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. In June her first national tour, Real Fantasy, sold out its Seoul shows in 30 minutes, and 71% of ticket buyers were men, a rare split even for girl groups (JoongAng Daily, May 3, 2012, cited by Wikipedia). The same year “Peach,” a song she wrote herself, reached No. 2.

2013: You Are the Best! and “Friday”

In 2013 she played the title role, Lee Soon-shin, in KBS’s weekend drama You Are the Best!, which peaked at 30.8% (Wikipedia). Her on-screen older sister was Yoo In-na, a friend 11 years her senior whom she met on the 2010 SBS variety show Heroes, and still her closest friend (TV Report, Wikipedia). Her love interest was Jo Jung-suk.

1.64 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

That fall “The Red Shoes,” the lead single of her third album Modern Times, hit No. 1. December’s “Friday” remains the fifth-best-selling single in South Korean history, with more than 5 million sales (Wikipedia).

58.4 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

2014: “Meaning of You” with Kim Chang-wan

In May 2014 she released A Flower Bookmark, an album of songs by older Korean artists. “Meaning of You,” sung with Kim Chang-wan of the 1970s rock band Sanullim, became her best-selling song of the year. That same month she played eight nights at Sogang University’s 450-seat Mary Hall; the tickets sold out in 10 minutes and the proceeds went to victims of the Sewol ferry disaster (Wikipedia). A 21-year-old chose to spend the money from those shows that way. This is the IU I love. That year Billboard recorded her as the all-time leader of its Korea K-pop Hot 100 in No. 1 songs.

6.26 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

2015: “Twenty-three”

In 2015’s KBS drama The Producers she played Cindy, an icy top star, alongside Kim Soo-hyun, Gong Hyo-jin and Cha Tae-hyun; the finale drew 17.7% (Wikipedia). In August, at the song festival of MBC’s Infinite Challenge, she sang “Leon” with comedian Park Myeong-su in front of 40,000 people at the Alpensia ski-jump stadium.

1.94 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

On October 23 the mini-album CHAT-SHIRE came out. IU wrote all seven sets of lyrics and directed the production herself. The opening track, “Twenty-three,” topped the chart (Wikipedia).

난 그래 확실히 지금이 좋아요 Yeah, I’m sure of it, I like where I am now — “Twenty-three” (lyrics by IU, 2015)

The song never stays put. One line she is a grown woman, the next a child; she wants to be loved and wants to be left alone, swears she’s happy and admits she’d like to quit. It is a 23-year-old trying on every face the world expects of her and refusing to pick one. The music video has passed 100 million views.

103.4 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

16.4 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

The fall the Nation’s Little Sister used her own age as a song title, her next script had already gone back to the Goryeo dynasty, a thousand years ago. In August 2016 she sat down at the press conference for SBS’s Moon Lovers.

Where to watch (checked Oct. 26, 2026, via JustWatch) – Dream High (2011): U.S. Rakuten Viki · Korea Wavve, Watcha – You Are the Best! (2013): U.S. Rakuten Viki · Korea Wavve, Watcha – The Producers (2015): U.S. Rakuten Viki · Korea Wavve, Watcha

Sources

• Wikipedia, “IU (singer)” — Dream High and “Someday,” Inkigayo, “Hold My Hand,” “You & I” (citing Chosun Ilbo, Dec. 15, 2011), Japanese debut, Real Fantasy 71% (JoongAng Daily, May 3, 2012), “Peach,” You Are the Best! 30.8%, “The Red Shoes” and “Friday,” A Flower Bookmark and the Sogang concerts, Billboard K-pop Hot 100 record, The Producers 17.7%, “Leon,” CHAT-SHIRE
• TV Report — IU and Yoo In-na met on Heroes, played sisters in You Are the Best!
• Lyrics: “Twenty-three” (스물셋), lyrics by IU, 2015