“By the Start of 2027, Together”: IU Now

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

Featured photo: IU at an Estée Lauder event, February 2026. Photo: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Previously: Ae-sun, who left the Baeksang clapping empty-handed, paid tribute to every Ae-sun in the world on the Blue Dragon Series Awards stage 74 days later.

In July 2026, IU apologized to her fans. Her ears, she said, had ruined everyone’s second half of the year. Then she added a promise. What made people believe her promises for 18 years wasn’t only the songs. It was the people who stayed beside her for a long time, and what she does on the same days every year. As a fan, the day I read that apology, I felt gratitude before I felt worry. She is someone who says sorry first, even while she’s the one hurting.

Yoo In-na, a friend of 16 years

Her oldest friend is actress Yoo In-na, 11 years her senior. They met in 2010 on the SBS variety show Heroes and played sisters in 2013’s You Are the Best! (TV Report). IU has written several songs with Yoo In-na in mind (Wikipedia). In April 2026 she appeared on Yoo In-na’s YouTube channel, Yoo In Radio, with Byeon Woo-seok, her co-star in Perfect Crown.

1.3 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

In September 2026 she released a song for Yoo In-na. In the description of “Dear my crazy soulmate,” for which she wrote the lyrics, she left a single line: “To Yoo In-na.” On September 15 she posted a photo of herself wearing a gift from Yoo In-na, captioned “Sure YOO IN NA we best soulmate” (Ilgan Sports, Sept. 15, 2026).

61.11 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

Other names stand beside her too: Suzy, her classmate from Dream High; Lee Hyori and Lee Sang-soon, who sent a coffee truck to her set; and Park Bo-gum, born the same year, who finished When Life Gives You Tangerines with her.

Also read: IU, the Queen of K-pop and K-drama

The same days every year: IUAENA

On her birthday (May 16), on her debut anniversary (September 18) and at the end of every year, she donates under the name “IUAENA,” her own name joined to that of her fan club, UAENA (GQ Korea). On her 2026 birthday she split 300 million won (about $210,000) among Asan Medical Center in Seoul and groups that support single mothers, children and seniors living alone, and ten days earlier, on Children’s Day, she gave 100 million won (about $70,000) (Sports Kyunghyang, May 5 and May 16, 2026). Her officially tallied donations since her debut exceed 8 billion won (about $5.6 million) (Wikitree, May 2026).

Spring 2026: Perfect Crown

MBC’s Perfect Crown premiered in April 2026. In a fictional Korea where a constitutional monarchy survives into the 21st century, she played Seong Hee-ju, a commoner-born chaebol heiress who runs a cosmetics company and marries Grand Prince Ian (Byeon Woo-seok), a royal who can never be king (Sports Kyunghyang, Apr. 7, 2026). The May 16 finale drew 13.8% nationwide, the show’s best (Money Today, May 17, 2026), and on Disney+ it made the top 10 in 47 countries (Media Watch).

1.09 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

May 2026: the lead who bowed first

As the ratings climbed toward the end, the drama was caught in a historical-accuracy controversy. In Episode 11, which aired May 15, the coronation scene put the prince in a nine-strand myeonryugwan, the crown of a vassal ruling under an emperor, and had the court shout cheonse (“a thousand years,” the cheer reserved for a vassal king) instead of manse (“ten thousand years”) (Sports Kyunghyang, May 18, 2026). She hadn’t written the script and she hadn’t directed it, but the first person to bow her head was the lead, IU.

On May 16, the night of the finale and her own birthday, she stood before fans at a group screening, said through tears, “Showing you something this lacking really is my fault,” and bowed 90 degrees (Seoul Shinmun, May 18, 2026). Two days later she issued an apology in her own words: “I reflect on and apologize, with no room for excuses, for acting without thinking more deeply about the many historical-accuracy problems you pointed out in the drama. As an actor I should have read the script more carefully and studied, and I’m ashamed that I didn’t” (Sports Kyunghyang, May 18, 2026). The writer’s and director’s apologies came the day after that (Herald Business, May 19, 2026). In a controversy with plenty of places to point the finger, she chose “my fault” over excuses, and once video of the screening spread, support poured in (Seoul Shinmun).

The trust came back in numbers. Two months later the Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre named her a global ambassador (Wikipedia), and the same month advertising professionals named her Korea’s No. 1 female ad model for the third straight year (MAD STARS, July 7, 2026). The music video for the single she released in September passed 90 million views in a month and a half.

July 20, 2026: an apology and a promise

On July 20 her agency canceled her September stadium concerts in Goyang and postponed her sixth studio album. A long-standing ear condition, patulous Eustachian tube, had gotten worse, and her doctors advised against performing (Money Today, July 20, 2026). She wrote at length on her fan platform: “I’m so sorry. I feel like my condition has ruined the second half of 2026 for all of us, when it could have been a happy one.” To worried fans, she made sure to say first that “it’s not an illness that causes pain or makes daily life impossible” (Herald Business, July 20, 2026).

The concerts stopped; the songs didn’t. On September 10 she surprise-released the digital single “Unknown Planet,” bringing out early, along with “Dear my crazy soulmate,” a song meant for her sixth album (Seoul Shinmun, Sept. 8, 2026; Ilgan Sports, Sept. 15, 2026). On September 17 she appeared at a Jaeger-LeCoultre exhibition in Shanghai.

92.02 million views as of Oct. 26, 2026.

In September 2008, the 15-year-old who heard “Did you even practice?” after her first line said she had believed that if she sang, the audience would at least listen. Eighteen years later, this is the sentence she left for that audience: “I’ll give it everything I have so that, by the start of 2027 at the latest, I can welcome it together with my fans.” I believe that promise. So until then, please don’t be in pain, and take your time coming back to us.

Where to watch: IU’s dramas and films at a glance (checked Oct. 26, 2026, via JustWatch)

Title	U.S.	Korea
Dream High (2011)	Viki	Wavve, Watcha
You Are the Best! (2013)	Viki	Wavve, Watcha
The Producers (2015)	Viki	Wavve, Watcha
Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo (2016)	Viki	Netflix, Watcha
Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast (2017)	—	TVING, Watcha
My Mister (2018)	Netflix	Netflix, TVING
Hotel del Luna (2019)	Netflix	Netflix, TVING
Broker (2022)	Kanopy, Tubi	Netflix, Watcha
Dream (2023)	Netflix	Netflix
When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)	Netflix	Netflix
Perfect Crown (2026)	Disney+, Hulu	Disney+, Wavve

Sources

• TV Report — IU and Yoo In-na met on Heroes, Ilgan Sports, Sept. 15, 2026 — IU’s song for Yoo In-na
• Wikipedia, “IU (singer)” — songs inspired by Yoo In-na, Jaeger-LeCoultre ambassadorship (July 2026)
• GQ Korea — IU’s donations, Sports Kyunghyang, May 16, 2026 — 300 million won birthday donation, Sports Kyunghyang, May 5, 2026 — 100 million won on Children’s Day, Wikitree, May 2026 — cumulative 8 billion won
• Money Today, May 17, 2026 — Perfect Crown ends at 13.8%, Media Watch — top 10 in 47 countries
• Financial News via Daum, July 7, 2026 — Korea’s top ad models
• Sports Kyunghyang, May 18, 2026 — Byeon Woo-seok and IU apologize: “ashamed”, Seoul Shinmun, May 18, 2026 — IU in tears: “it’s all my fault”, Herald Business, May 19, 2026 — the writer’s statement
• Money Today, July 20, 2026 — IU postpones concerts and comeback over ear condition, Herald Business, July 20, 2026
• Seoul Shinmun, Sept. 8, 2026 — IU single on the 10th, ahead of her sixth album
• Sports Kyunghyang, Apr. 7, 2026 — Perfect Crown preview
• Exchange rate: $1 ≈ 1,430 won (2026 approximate annual average)