Meet The Beautiful Solo Artist, Lee Hae-in!
If we talk about the female version of Mnet’s survival program Produce 101, we will definitely think about the group project I.O.I that received great recognition. Even after their disbandment, some of them have successfully established their solo careers, like Chungha and Somi. What about the eliminated contestants, though? Do you know that one of them has made a successful solo career too? Yes, she is Lee Hae-in, a former contestant of Produce 101 Season 1 and also Idol School. What about her? Don’t worry, in this article, Byeol Korea will provide you with a rundown of everything about Lee Hae-in and her career from Produce 101, Idol School, to how she is now. Stay tuned!
Full Profile and Facts of Lee Hae-in
Lee Hae-in was born on July 4th, 1994, in Masan, South Korea. She is 165 cm (5’5″) tall and has a weight of 49 kg (108 lbs). She debuted in the project girl group I.B.I before continuing her solo career. She has hobbies like singing and eating. She also has a specialty, like imitating otaku‘s speech. She was known to be a former trainee of several agencies, like Jellyfish Entertainment, HYWY Entertainment (left due to her panic disorder), SS Entertainment, and lastly LOEN Entertainment. She is currently under Elephant Media. She has taken part in two Mnet survival programs but didn’t make it through the final in either of them.
Lee Hae-in’s Appearance On Mnet’s Produce 101
Lee Hae-in appeared on Mnet’s Produce 101 Season 1 as a representative of SS Entertainment, from January 22nd to April 1st, 2016. In the first episode, she made a performance which was graded C (out of F) by the judges. In the second episode, all of the contestants made a video performance of “Pick Me” and had the chance to be moved to a higher or a lower grade. Lee Hae-in managed to perform well and moved to grade A class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p___ZkDqVY
During the third and fourth episode, the contestants made a live performance from various girl groups in front of a live audience. Lee Hae-in, together with four other contestants, made a performance of Wonder Girl’s song “Irony.” She became the main vocalist but her group lost to the other group.
For the sixth and seventh episode, the contestants made performances based on which role they wanted to debut in. There were three categories: vocal, dance, and rap, and each category had several representative songs. Lee Hae-in chose a vocal category and got to perform GFriend’s “Me Gustas Tu” with four other contestants. She was ranked 11th out of 29 contestants who chose the same category.
For the eighth and ninth episode, the contestants had to choose between five types of original songs. Lee Hae-in chose a hip-hop song “Don’t Matter” from San E and became the sub-vocalist.
For the final episode, the remaining contestants were divided into two groups and performed the debut song “CRUSH” which was produced by Ryan S. Jhun. Lee Hae-in was included in team black as the 5th sub-vocalist. Unfortunately, the group didn’t get to beat the other group. Lee Hae-in was ranked 17th at the end so she didn’t get to debut with the project group I.O.I which only selected contestants ranked 1st to 11th.
Here is Lee Hae-in’s ranking progress!
| Episode | Rank | Votes |
| 1 | 19 | unknown |
| 2 | 27 | |
| 3 | 34 | |
| 5 | 40 | 52,494 |
| 6 | 19 | unknown |
| 8 | 14 | 461,050 |
| 10 | 14 | 31,059 |
| 11 | 17 | 116,566 |
Lee Hae-in’s Contract Termination
The final episode of Produce 101 was followed by Lee Hae-in’s contract termination with the agency SS Entertainment along with her fellow trainee who joined the same program, Lee Soo-hyun. On May 19th, 2016, according to Allkpop, the legal representative revealed that they filed a lawsuit against the company. It was due to the unfair length of the contract which was too long and the scope of the contract was too broad that it would affect their freedom with economic activity. Furthermore, it was revealed that the girls hadn’t been shown the contract and didn’t receive proper dance and vocal training that they failed to debut in a year as had been agreed by the agency. On May 25th, 2016, it was revealed that the contract of the two girls had been terminated by May 24th, without any terms or obligations. The lawsuit was canceled and both parties decided to part ways in friendly relations.
