March 29, 2014
You remember Lee Michelle from K-Pop Star Season 1, right? If not, listen up since I'm saying this one time and one time only: She was the half-black, half-Korean singing goddess who not only lost the competition but didn't even make it to the finals solely due to the fact that she was not full Korean, as stated by Park Jin Young himself. Anyway, she was supposedly supposed to join this group in YG Entertainment called SuPearls that Lee Hi and her would be the main vocals while the other two who weren't nearly as popular as them in the competition would kind of just attempt following along, however, that didn't end right and therefore, she left the company as well as was thrown into the caverns of oblivion and erased from the public's minds for a few years. However, now, she apparently has debuted with Without You about a week ago, the music video being able to be found below and it being a short tale about her life apparently in which she was faced with racism. Watch the video below.
being black is bad?
There's a difference between disliking racism and disliking the race itself and sometimes in the video it seems like, in this video, Lee Michelle simply dislikes the African-American part of her more than she dislikes the people who dislike the African-American part of her.
In fact, the lyrics of the video are filled with bipolarness of self-confidence.
Lee Michelle first exclaims that she's beautiful and has meaning without the audience she is singing about (I'm guessing this implies the people who were shitty to her), and has cried puddles but then in the next line, she's claiming that she's beautiful and has meaning even without the audience and then is saying how she's smiling and frolicking in flowers.
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| This girl is too cute, though. |
Then in this one part of the music video, the little girl who is apparently playing Lee Michelle as a child is putting on make-up. Of course, she goes for the whitest powder and puts in on, creating the illusion that she is possibly that white and then old Lee Michelle comes with a huge pancake load of the same powder as well as a wig to look well, more Korean.
Again, double meaning for me. I could see the symbolism that she, as a mixed Korean, has had thoughts of being Korean and finally, when she's white enough to be their standards, she's happy (hence why she smiles when she has it on) however, right after, she then realizes that she actually isn't full Korean then starts crying because the make-up didn't work enough however, later in her life realizes that she should be proud of who she is.
But then I can also see it meaning that she hates herself as a mixed person and put on the make-up to show her want to be Korean and never really letting it go, hence why that make-up is still visible when she transitions from younger Michelle to older Michelle in the video.
It could either mean that hey, being a colored person is amazing because of course, that life-size portrait of Michelle is literally as white as paper, and needs something to spice if up.
But it could also be like throwing tomatoes at someone you don't really like and the little girl attempting to cover up Lee Michelle since shit, half of them even made it close to Lee Michelle's face and therefore could mean anything.
There's never a clear... defining point to this video and the question still remains in my head what exactly were they trying to portray. Regardless, the song is phenomenal, the music video is meaningfully created (not like the majority of Korean music videos) and Lee Michelle has been my favorite SuPearl since SuPearls was created and even after it ended. Likewise, I hope Lee Michelle has a great career and becomes as popular as her ex-group member, Lee Hi.
If you think you have the absolute meaning to the music video, please comment below as I would love to hear the input and what you think about Lee Michelle's debut.
It's about her inner struggles growing up as a mixed child. The lyrics speaks out about how when she was little, how she had to grow up sort of hating the fact that she was mixed raced. And the ending shows how both the little Michelle and the big Michelle have come to realize that she is fine no matter what she is and that she doesn't need anyones approval for it.
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