What Happened During Ailee Hiatus?
Ailee has made herself a big name in the K-Pop music industry since starting her career back in 2011. Many of you don’t know but prior to having a well-established career in South Korea, Ailee, who was born with the name Amy Lee on May 30th, 1989, was signed under an American label called Muzo Entertainment. It was just that in 2010, she moved to South Korea to begin her career where she passed an audition and eventually signed a contract with YMC Entertainment and has stayed ever since.
Now, after becoming one of the most popular South Korean divas and years of staying with YMC Entertainment, Ailee has decided to put an end to her contract and begin her hiatus in the industry after her Room Shaker comeback. So, what exactly happened? Find out by scrolling down this article below!
Ailee Comeback With Room Shaker
On July 2nd, 2019, Ailee’s second studio album, titled Butterfly, was released. Within the first 24 hours after her newest album release, both the album and the album’s lead track, “Room Shaker.” have successfully dominated the real-time music charts, showcasing Ailee’s power and title as ‘digital music monster’!
The success of her album was not only stemmed from the lead song “Room Shaker”‘s success in climbing up the No. 1 position. But, aside from the album’s lead track, her other b-side songs like “LOVE” (feat. Chen), “Midnight,” “Want It,” “Headlock,” “Nothing At All,” “You Are So Precious,” “Fire,” and “Ain’t That Pretty” also appeared on the charts, something that didn’t happen quite often! As revealed on the real-time digital music charts of Mnet, Melon, and Soribada (as of 9 a.m. KST on July 3rd, 2019). This proved that Ailee held a strong position in both her fans and the public’s heart.
In this album, Ailee’s worked together with songwriters Jonathan Gusmark and Ludvig Evers a.k.a Moonshine who both composed the music of her title track, “Room Shaker”. Then, the unique and catchy lyrics was written by With Bull$EyE’s, whose main message seems to convey a deep longing for ‘you’ and ‘me’, as showcased with this piece of lyrics: “let’s have a lot of fun and shake cheerfully anywhere.”. It seemed like a strong combination of the team worked beautifully in Ailee’s favor!
Ailee also proved her humbleness and devotion to her fans when right on the release day, she organized a fan showcase to thank her fans for their special and loyal affection. In that event, she also shared her thoughts on jumped in first hand in the production of the entire album, “Despite being under a lot of pressure, I carried out the album with a sense of responsibility. As I focused on every single thing, a very satisfying album was born and I hope you’ll enjoy it. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting too long.”
Enjoy the piece of Ailee’s new music below!
Ailee Leaves YMC Entertainment
After years of staying with YMC Entertainment, Ailee decided to end her 8-year exclusive contract with the agency in February 2019. But, even after her briefly free agent status and expired contract with her former agency, Ailee still went through the promotions of her summer album which was to-be-released in July 2019, last year.
Ailee announced that she would be releasing a full-length album sometime between the end of June and early July 2019. She would be continuing to work with YMC Entertainment on the album, and as soon as the album and its promotions are complete, Ailee planned to leave the agency and considering her future career with the new agency.
On March 23rd, 2019, Ailee shared her album plans as well as future directions, stating: “I’m […] committing myself to finally expand my work internationally, so that I may be able to meet my overseas fans, as well as my Korean fans, more often in the near future! I will share more details about this once everything is discussed and confirmed after my album is finished.”
She also shared her excitement in working with the albums, explaining both in English and Korea, “Hello world. How have you guys been? Thank you for all the love you have shown me for the past 7 years.. To return the love and patience you have shown me throughout all those beautiful years, I’m currently pouring all my energy and focus into the final stages of preparing for my album release this summer!
I’m also committing myself to finally expand my work internationally so that I maybe able to meet my overseas fans as well as my Korean fans more often in the near future! I will share more details about this once everything is discussed and confirmed after my album is finished. I know you guys have been waiting for a long time.. and I’m truly grateful for all your patience and commitment.. but also very sorry as well.. I miss you guys just as much or even more than you miss me!! The only thing I can do to give back all that love you have shown me is to share my music with you.. I’m constantly trying to grow as an artist to bring you guys the best album for you to listen to! SO! Prepare yourselves for this summer cuz this album is FIRE! I love you always and THANK YOU FOR YOU PATIENCE!! xoxo -Ailee”
Here’s Ailee’s original Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvUDhuHgUhc/?utm_source=ig_embed
Has Ailee Appearance Been Sabotaged By Her Former Agency?
Ailee released a comeback album, titled Butterfly, with the lead single “Room Shaker” on July 2nd, 2019. Her comeback can be considered as successful, seeing that most of the album tracks were dominating the digital music charts. But, as loyal fans, fans couldn’t help but notice that this comeback didn’t have a music show performance even though Ailee usually is active in promoting her songs.
One of the fans’ threads posted by Hadia Zafar on Quora in July 2019 wrote that the reason is that YMC Entertainment is preventing her from this promotion as a way of punishment because she didn’t choose to stay.
The original thread stated:
Fans believe Ailee’s label is preventing her from music show promotions, with her contract coming to an end soon
fans are growing concerned as rumors that YMC Entertainment is preventing the solo artist from any broadcast promotions continue to garner more and more attention on online communities.
Back on July 2nd, Ailee returned for the first time in approximately 2 years and 8 months with her 2nd full album, ‘ButterFLY’. However, after holding her comeback showcase on the day of her album release, Ailee has yet to appear on any music programs to promote her comeback title track, “Room Shaker.”
Fans of Ailee, also known as Aileeans, have gathered information floating around on various online communities, and believe that a high ranking figure affiliated with Ailee’s label YMC Entertainment is preventing her from successful promotions. The primary reason for this, fans believe, is that once Ailee completes promotions for ‘ButterFLY’, her contract with YMC will come to an end.
Quoting from Allkpop, fans have assumed that the singer was being punished by her agency due to her plans of leaving. This rumors started when the day before her comeback, Ailee made a V Live broadcasted and announced that she would not be able to perform in any music show promotions for her title track “Room Shaker.”, although she did not reveal more details nor specific reason for her decision to not perform. Well-known and active fans of Ailee’s fan club have noticed that this behavior was strange because Ailee has been known to spoil her fans by actively appearing in music shows promotion.
Some of Ailee’s loyal fans then took over SNS or online community accounts to share their conspiracy theory regarding Ailee’s decision to not promoting her music live. As quoted from Allpop, one fan posted, “There was a broadcast schedule planned before the comeback, but then it was abruptly canceled, and there was a reason…” Another fan also revealed, “I heard from a [KBS] writer that because the company is preventing it, [she] can’t go on music shows or Immortal Song or Sketchbook or anything. Do you know how many times I’ve seen her manager being ignored by the PDs.”
Following the rumors of this, Ailee then was also spotted wearing a sad expression when she appeared as a guest on KBS2’s Hello Counselor on July 6th, 2019. According to fans who showed up to see Ailee back when she attended the recording, the show took place before her comeback. These fan accounts fueled the rumors that Ailee’s Hello Counselor guest’s appearance was confirmed before her leave, and so the recording had to take place under an uncomfortable atmosphere. Additional fan accounts online also claimed that Ailee was seen holding back her tears after finishing the show’s recording. She also was seen being comforted by Hello Counselor MC Lee Young-ja.
Prior to this year, YMC Entertainment has been noted as the former management company for project groups IOI and Wanna One, who were involved in hideous scandals regarding Produce 101 rigged votes. Fans believe that a former executive of the company, known as Jo was the key figure behind these scandals, simply because he held a lot of power in the entertainment industry
Some Korean media articles, which seem to be intentionally targeting Ailee’s comeback in a negative light, such as “Despite the strong presence of female solo artists on the music charts, Ailee’s scores remain poor… Not living up to the title of ‘Chart queen’.” also raised concerns amongst the fan.
Netizens have been reacting sympathetically after seeing the post becoming widespread.
Here are a few comments regarding Ailee’s leave as quoted from Allkpop: “I’ve been wondering why I haven’t seen her on TV, I had no idea TT,” “This is so evil,” “Heol… If this is true she must be feeling so horrible,” “Please move to a better company soon TT,” “How can they play so dirty,” “This is so sad… she is so talented and her songs are so good,” “I didn’t even know she made a comeback,” and more.
Ailee Joins A New Agency
On September 10th, 2019, months after Ailee’s YMC Entertainment leave, it was revealed that Ailee had found a new home for her music. She shared a post on her Instagram, introducing her new agency called Rocket3 Entertainment.
In said Instagram post, Ailee wrote in both Korean and English, “I wish to start fresh with an open mind and soul with my new home ‘Rocket3ENT’! Like the meaning of Rocket3, I will try my best and work my hardest to expand and rise like a rocket globally and to make you all proud through our arts, artists, and you the people who are willing to take this next step in the exciting new chapter of my life!”
Ailee also shared her excitement by saying that the agency’s official website had crashed due to excessive traffic, therefore she encouraged her fans to follow her new agency’s social media platforms.
She wrote on her caption, “I wish to start fresh with an open mind and soul with my new home ‘Rocket3ENT’! Like the meaning of Rocket3, I will try my best and work my hardest to expand and rise like a rocket globally and to make you all proud through our arts, artists, and you the people who are willing to take this next step in the exciting new Chapter of my life!! Please keep interest in Rocket3’s many different platforms in the future as well! (Even though the official website already crashed due to exceeding traffic!! 😱)” along with the various links of Rocket3 Entertainment’s social media.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2OgGOTg_Vk/?utm_source=ig_embed
Future Plans
After signing up with a new agency, Ailee was back on work with scheduled music comeback as well as some new tour dates.
On November 25th, 2019, Ailee appeared as a guest in an episode of KBS CoolFM‘s Lee Geum Hee’s Good Day To Love. She stated on the show that she would be releasing her new seasonal song “Sweater” on December 12th, 2019. According to Ailee, the song was perfect for the holiday season for it embodied the warmth feeling of winter season.
Ailee’s future plans as an artist came as one of the topics on the radio show. Ailee shared exciting news as she revealed that she was preparing for her U.S. debut with the help of her new agency, Rocket3 Entertainment. She quickly assured that she also has something in store for her loyal Korean fanbase, revealing that she would be go on tour at the end of the year.
Ailee commented on the radio show, “I am preparing for my U.S. debut and my global manager has come from Rocket3 Entertainment to take care of me. I’ve prepared a long time for this, but I will hold concerts for my Korean fans as well. I will start on December 7th.”
Ailee’s tour, I AM: RE-BORN, was held in Incheon on December 7th, and continue to 7 cities: Gwangju on December 14th, Suwon on December 24th, Daegu on December 25th, Seongnam on December 28th, Daejeon on December 31st, and Busan on January 5th.
Latest News
Recently, Ailee was going global by attending one of the prestigious music show awards in the world, the 62nd Grammy Awards. She also took that opportunity to snap a photo with American singer Chris Brown at the show. But, shortly after posting a photo, netizens were flooding her social media with criticism.
Quoting from Allkpop, Ailee was making some of her followers and other internet users upset with her photo selfie. The reason for this rage was because Chris Brown used to have a past history of violence against women, particularly referred to as his old assault case with his ex Rihanna.
after the criticism and realizing the reason for netizen’s rage, Ailee apologized and edited the caption, realizing her ignorant of Chris Brown’s violent history and clarifying that she only liked him for his music. She also claimed her stance on this issue as she stated that she did not support any kind of abuse toward women.
After the whole ordeal, Chris Brown then responded by leaving a comment “CORNBALL” on her post.
The American media outlet, The Shade Room even featured this drama between Ailee and Chris Brown.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B73xrFlhI-r/?utm_source=ig_embed
So, that is all you need to know regarding Ailee’s dispute with her agency. What do you think about the drama? Kindly share your thoughts in the comment box below!
