Lee Ji-eun, known professionally as IU, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress. She signed with Kakao M in 2007 as a trainee and debuted as a singer at the age of fifteen with her first mini album Lost and Found. Although her follow-up albums, Growing Up and IU...IM, brought mainstream success, it was after the release of "Good Day", the lead single from her 2010 album Real, that she achieved national stardom. "Good Day" went on to spend five consecutive weeks at the top position of South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, and in 2019, it was ranked number one on Billboard's "100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s" list.
With the success of her 2011 albums, Real+ and Last Fantasy, IU established herself as a formidable force on the music charts of her native country and further cemented her girl next door image as Korea's "little sister". 2011 also saw her first foray into songwriting with "Hold My Hand", which was written for the television series The Greatest Love. IU's third full-length album release, Modern Times, showcased a more mature style that marked a departure from her earlier girlish image, with several tracks reaching the top 10 positions on Gaon Digital Chart.