Leeseo, whose real name is Lee Hyun Seo, was born in 2007, is the youngest brother of the g.irl group IVE under Starship Entertainment. She possesses b.ig round eyes, a pretty and charismatic face, so she is loved by fans.
With a passion for standing on stage, she applied to be a c.hild model trained and managed by SM Entertainment.
In 2016, SM held the first generation of c.hild models for the agency. To qualify, contestants must demonstrate many skills such as catwalking, singing, acting or playing.
Notably, Leeseo surpassed thousands of other potential contestants to become one of the fifteen faces selected by SM. Here, she was trained in a professional environment, which is a premise for future job development.
Until 2019, when she went to Shinsegae department store to buy a drink, she was invited by Starship staff to participate in the company’s audition. After that, she started the process of being a trainee here for about two years to debut with the new generation g.irl group IVE.
“During the final audition, Starship took a close look at trainees with unique charm, knowledge, and skills needed in the music industry. IVE is a group where each member has their own personality, charisma and qualities to work together… Leeseo is a g.irl whose seriousness and passion caught our attention.” – Vice President Seo Hyun Joo expressed his thoughts on IVE and his youngest brother Leeseo in an interview with Korea JoongAng Daily
At the beginning of his debut with IVE, Leeseo attracted the media thanks to his “youngest brother” as well as possessing sweet beauty, impressive height despite his young age.
In his debut MV, Leeseo surprised with his sweet voice, confident charisma and flexible choreography. The public then heaped praise on the performance of the youngest IVE brother.
During his promotion, Leeseo received praise for his better-than-expected performances and his ability to handle incidents on stage professionally.
The girls’ debut work quickly recorded many great achievements in album sales and rankings on the digital music chart. Leveraging the traction of ELEVEN, Leeseo and IVE returned to the K-pop circuit with Love Dive in April 2022.
On stages, Leeseo always brings youthful energy and diverse expressions, helping her attract all eyes. The singer thereby proved herself, gradually removing the initial doubts of the public
However, only after a while, her energy was considered somewhat “unclean” with excessive expressions, making viewers feel tired. Not only the youngest, but most of the IVE members received this criticism when they first debuted.
Besides his support and affection, Leeseo also faced harsh criticism. Most of the mixed opinions come from the singing ability or attitude towards other artists of the youngest group IVE.
At the end of 2022, youngest brother Leeseo and Jang Wonyoung from IVE had a rendition of IU’s song Strawberry Moon on stage 2022 MBC Gayo Daejun. However, the two were later accused of lip-syncing and belittling the audience.
This isn’t the first time IVE has lip-synced. However, on previous occasions, they both performed and performed choreography, so they were sympathetic to the public. With this time, the two female singers just sat still without performing the choreography. Therefore, the fact that they lip-sync makes the audience unhappy. The two allegedly used the recording in a cover video posted earlier. Their laziness caused public outrage. Increasingly, Leeseo and Wonyoung are underrated in terms of talent. Not only are the two worst singing and dancing members in the group, Leeseo and Jang Wonyoung are considered too weak in skills compared to their peers.
In addition to the stage with Wonyoung, Leeseo’s other live performances also angered the audience. Weak vocal technique, easy shortness of breath and unclear lyrics continue to be at the center of controversy.
In addition to the controversial vocals, Leeseo and the IVE members have also been repeatedly criticized for allegedly disrespectful actions such as not bowing to seniors or ignoring colleagues.
The constant turbulence caused Leeseo to face pressure from public opinion. However, many people defended the youngest IVE sister, saying that she is still young and needs time to improve herself.
In 2022, Leeseo officially enrolled at Hanlim School of Art. However, last year, the Korean media was given the opportunity to make waves with a clip of Leeseo being bullied by classmates at school. Specifically, in the video, the youngest IVE is forced by his friends to sign all the pages of the thick notebook, and is not even allowed to sit down. It is known that the short clip quickly became viral on Korean and international social networks, bringing in up to 2 million views in just a few hours.
The source added that classmates recorded the clip to mock Leeseo, then posted it on a forum dedicated to harassing and insulting women in order to damage the honor of IVE members. Not stopping there, they also spread rumors that Leeseo was lazy, went to class and slept during the whole class.
At that time, netizens were very upset by the reprehensible behavior of their classmate Leeseo, and expressed hope that Starship Entertainment would soon take necessary steps to protect “domestic chickens” and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
Fans believe that, because of the group, Leeseo is the least popular member, he is not given enough attention by the company. That’s why a few days after the event broke out, the group’s management company remained silent.
