In this article, Channel-Korea will take up the issue of Sungmin’s chances to come back in Super Junior and his future career plans, so stay tuned!
Becoming an Inactive Member of Super Junior
Lee Sungmin is the first of the Super Junior members to get married. He married Kim Sa-eun on Decemmber 13, 2014. It turned out that his decision to marry made his fans feel disappointed and cheated by him, because Sungmin had previously said that he wouldn’t get married, as a result, he was boycotted by fans who had previously supported him. The other reason besides of his marriage is that some fans think that Sungmin had a bad attitude and was selfish, and he treated the other members of his group badly. The boycott was done by starting a petition or hashtag, #SungminOut, and it became a trending topic. This certainly had an affect on Super Junior activities, and, at that time, the group wanted to have a comeback after all the members finished carring out their military service. Regarding the boycott, Sungmin apologized to his fans for making them disappointed, and admitted that he was actually really excited to participate in Super Junior’s comeback in 2017. But, way things played out, the situation forced him to go on hiatus because the problems he had meant that he wasn’t included to do the show at the “SM Town 2017” concert with all the other artists from SM Entertainment. Sungmin decided to go on hiatus from Super Junior and to stop all of his activities.
K-ELF VS I-ELF Support
ELF, which stands for EverLasting Friend, is a term for Super Junior fans. Their fans aren’t only from Korea, but also come from the International scene. K-ELF are fans from Korea, and I-ELF are International fans from outside the country. We usually think that fans will always be in agreement, and help to give support for what the idol doing or encourage their idol when disaster strikes. But that’s not what happened for ELF. As we know from the news about his dating and eventual marriage with Kim Sa-eun, Sungmin got a lot of blasphemy and insults. The criticism wasn’t just from haters, but it came from a certain number of their fans. He has also been bombarded by fans domestic fans boycotting him, but International ELF fans didn’t do that. K-ELF (Korean ELF) then released a petition to issue, and threatened to boycott all Super Junior activities. The petitions was “We ask that Sungmin be expelled from Super Junior. Please note all the fans participating in this petition want him to be expelled”. In the petition, they also threatened the agency; if Sungmin wasn’t out, then they would boycott all matters related to Super Junior, including watching or sharing their content on social media, streaming songs, buying merchandise, watching the programs that they starred in, etc. Unlike K-ELF, I-ELF instead gave support to Sungmin by writing 1,500 English comments on Naver Korea. He received a lot of support from I-ELF on Naver and Sungmin’s instagram account. Some of support that was offered by I-ELF are: “Fighting! International ELF will always with you” “ELF always support you no mater what, International ELF (I-ELF) will always with you” “ELF support you Sungmin, we believe in you” “Sungmin, you should speak more and defend youself! You’re not wrong, International ELF always support you!” “Sungmin stay strong! I-ELF we are with you!” Such were the words of support from I-ELF to him, but Sungmin decided to not participate in Super Junior’s comeback in 2017. He had already apologized to fans regarding his decision.
Comeback Schedule
After rarely appearing on TV, he finally brought good news to ELF. Sungmin made his first solo comeback in 2019. He released a solo album and a music video for the track “Orgel” on November 22, 2019. Before this, he had released the solo song entitled “Day Dream” in March 2018, which was part of the SM Station project. But it will feel different from the comeback this time. His comeback in 2018 can be said to be the worst comeback he’s ever had, because the fans still remember the day when they almost boycotted him because he was thinking about his personal affairs ahead of the group and his career. In fact, many ELF critics say that Sungmin worked to hard to develop a solo career rather than promoting with Super Junior. ELF, or Korean K-pop fans, think that they already have enough good ballad singers out there. Sungmin made his comeback stage on November 22 by appearing on every music show program, such as “Music Band” and “Music Core”. Here’s the video!
Future of Sungmin’s Status in SUPER JUNIOR
After he finished his military service in 2016, he had problems with some ELF until he decided to go on hiatus. Sungmin didn’t participate in Super Junior’s comebacks from 2017 to 2019, instead he debuted as a solo singer by releasing a single album last November. So many people have been asking about his status with Super Junior, whether he’s still a member, or has left the group. For Super Junior’s comeback last October, SJ label (SM Entertainment’s sub-label) said that Sungmin wouldn’t be in it because he would be focusing on his future career as a solo performer. Although SJ label has given their official approval, there’s no certainly about Sungmin’s status in Super Junior. This all made fans (ELF) mad, and demand that the agency remove him from the group because he was seen as damaging to Super Junior’s image. Even now, Super Junior only consists of nine members without him.
Latest News
Sungmin released his solo album “Orgel” in November. Even though it was his first time releasing a solo album, the mini album finally succeeded. This is evidenced by “Orgel”, which topped the iTunes charts as a preferred album in various countries. His mini album got the highest place in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Mexico, Bolivia, Singapore, and Ecuador he was ranked at the second place. Not only that, the song”Orgel” also entered the top 100 songs on iTunes in several countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Indonesia, Peru, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. In addition to his new song “Orgel”, his song “Daydream”, a song which was once deemed unfit by his fans, has now also gotten to the top 50 songs on iTunes in Singapore. As you can see from his current achievements, it seems his fans have started to accept him for his career. This is all information about Sungmin’s future career. Don’t forget to leave a trace in the comment section to give support to Sungmin!.
