Amy Lee (Korean name: Lee Yejin; Hangul: 이예진; Hanja: 李藝真, born May 30, 1989), better known by her stage name Ailee (Hangul: 에일리), is a Korean American singer under YMC Entertainment, a South Korean record label. She released her first single, 'Heaven', on February 8, 2012.
Ailee was born in Denver, Colorado on May 30, 1989, but grew up in New Jersey. Although she graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, she dropped out of Pace University (where she studied criminal justice) in order to pursue a music career. She got into singing by creating a YouTube channel called "aileemusic" when her friends told her she was a good singer. She moved to South Korea to pursue her career and be closer to her roots in 2010.
Before her K-pop debut, Ailee was an artist under Muzo Entertainment, an independent agency based out of New York and New Jersey, where she collaborated with several artists under the group such as Johnnyphlo, who is also signed in Korea, as well as Philadelphia based rapper, Decipher.
During her trainee days under YMC Entertainment, she was featured in Wheesung's "They Are Coming" song released on October 9, 2011. Ailee was also featured in Decipher's song "Catch Me If You Can".
On September 13, 2011 Ailee along with Wheesung held a performance on the MBC's Chuseok special episode of "Singer and Trainee". Ailee's stage presence was immediately felt by the audience, who was amazed that she was like a professional singer, even though she had not yet officially debuted. Following her's solo performance of "Halo" by Beyoncé, singer BMK expressed, "Wherever she goes, she has the potential to be a big star. She definitely has the voice." After the judges had graded everyone, Ailee won first place.
On January 30, 2012 Ailee made her acting debut in KBS Dream High Season 2 as Ailee, one of the member of the fictional K-pop group HershE.
On February 6, the music video teaser for Ailee's debut song, Heaven, was released. Heaven was written and produced by Wheesung. On the 9th, Ailee released the song and the music video, which featured Beast's Gi Kwang. Later that day, she made her debut stage performance of "Heaven" on M.net M! Countdown, and then on SBS Inkigayo on February 11. Just one month after her debut, she dominated the Cyworld Music Awards on February where she won two awards for, “Song of the Month” and “Rookie of the Month“. The Cyworld Digital Music Awards are based on the Cyworld Music Charts and the winners are determined by the artist or group with the highest sales for the month.
On February 22, Ailee released her OST song "Superstar" for KBS's Dream High 2 together with Sistar's Hyorin & T-ARA's Jiyeon.
In March, Ailee made her first appearances on KBS's Immortal Song 2 with performing Patti Kim’s song “Light and Shadow” from 1967. On May 19th of part 2 of the ‘J.Y. Park' special, Ailee performed J.Y. Park’s debut song “Don’t Leave Me“. She beat Davichi’s Lee Haeri by 1 point, 419 to 418, for the win. Later on June 30th episode, Immortal Song 2 featured composer Yoon Il Sang. She performed "Fate" by Lee Seung Chul and won again with 402 votes. In August, it was announced that Ailee was making a temporary leave from the show in order to focus on her upcoming album, which is scheduled for an October release. However, there is a high possibility that she will return to Immortal Song 2. She performed her final stage on August 6, and the episode aired on September 1.
Ailee along with Han Seok Joon co-hosted the first ABU Radio Song Festival 2012 which was scheduled to take place at the KBS Concert Hall, in Seoul, South Korea on 11 October 2012.
On October 16, Ailee released her music video for her title track of the mini album, “I’ll Show You“, which featured MBLAQ's G.O. In addition to the music video, she also released her mini album called 'Invitation. The mini album contain 6 tracks. It was produced by producers such as Kim Do Hoon, Lee Hyun Seung, Park Guentae, Double Sidekick, Wheesung, and featured artists such as Verbal Jint, Swings and Simon D. On October 18, Ailee made her comeback with "I'll Show You"" on M! Countdown.
Single
"Heaven"
"I'll Show You"
"My Grown Up Christmas List"
TV
| 2012 | Dream High Season 2 | Ailee (fictional character) | KBS |
| 2012 | Immortal song 2 | Herself | KBS |
| 2012 | You & I | Herself | SBS |
| 2012 | ABU Radio Song Festival 2012 | Presenter | KBS |
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