She was accused of sexualizing a child in her song.
Koreaboo
51 minutes ago
The aftermath of Perfect Crown‘s controversy involving a major historical blunder appears to be snowballing into a nightmare scenario for singer-actress IU. Despite her tearful apology, the idol continues to face targeted backlash, with her past controversies resurfacing in the public eye.
IU | @dlwlrma/Instagram
The internet is currently abuzz with IU’s alleged pedophilia controversy from a decade ago. At the center of the controversy was “Zeze,” a song from IU’s first album, Chat-shire, which was released in October 2015. The song was based on the character Zeze from the novel My Sweet Orange Tree, by Brazilian author José Mauro de Vasconcélos. In the novel, Zeze is a five-year-old boy who is physically abused by his family and eventually befriends an orange tree.
IU wrote the song “Zeze” from the perspective of the orange tree, and included lyrics like “Zeze, climb up the tree/ Kiss the leaves/Don’t fool around/Don’t hurt the tree, bad, bad” and “Look at those blushing cheeks/ Likе bloomed flowers/You’re innocеnt, but so clever/ So naive like a child/ But so dirty.” These lyrics were perceived to be sexually aggressive by many, even at the time of the release. The album art, depicting Zeze in fishnet stockings and posing suggestively, also triggered outrage.
IU, who was 22 at the time, explained that she found Zeze’s character’s paradoxes interesting, noting that he was both innocent and cruel in certain respects. However, she used the word “sexy” to describe the character, which fueled further scrutiny.
The controversy escalated when Dongyok Publishing Co., the publisher of the Korean translation of My Sweet Orange Tree, publicly called out IU’s interpretation of the child character and expressed concern about Zeze being sexualized in the track. IU eventually ended up officially apologizing through social media, emphasizing that her intent was not to sexualize a five-year-old child. She also apologized for using the word “sexy” in the context of a child character. As the songwriter, she took full responsibility for the public backlash and urged listeners to view “Zeze” as inspired by but independent of the character in the novel.
At the time of the controversy, many public figures, including literary critics, defended IU’s freedom of expression despite the public outrage. Eventually, Dongyok Publishing also issued an apology for disrespecting IU’s subjective interpretation of the character.
With Perfect Crown‘s historical controversy exploding in Korea, many netizens are now revisiting this damning moment of IU’s career, which has invited yet another wave of backlash for the powerhouse artist.
| theqoo
- “I was so incredibly disappointed at that moment. Since then, I haven’t listened to her music. Mot even once.”
- “Wow… I didn’t know the publisher had apologized.”
- “Disgusting.”
| theqoo
- “Didn’t that album cause a huge uproar back then? She appeared in the music video sucking on a baby bottle—it was a Lolita concept.”
- “Yeah, I haven’t consumed any of IU’s content since back then.”
- “She thought he was sexy??? This is my first time hearing something like this. That’s a child being subjected to abuse!”
However, many fans have also come to her defense, arguing that the song “Zeze” was representing IU’s personal experience of being both sexualized as a minor and infantilized as an adult in the entertainment industry. It was not a literal portrayal of the character but a metaphorical representation of the singer’s lived reality.
One other thing for how IU could’ve interpret that story in that way was her own experience of being preyed upon when she was young. She entered that industry when she was 15(?) and many older men were after her. Her own experience would be ‘unfamiliar’ to strangers. https://t.co/XVefH2VICP
— Ellee 🍊🍬 (@pluiedefeuilles) May 19, 2026
The only thing she’s guilty of was being a little too deep that it just didn’t translate well. I always viewed Chatshire as an album where she’s going through a life crisis of figuring out her identity and where she would go next in her life. https://t.co/d3JrsMOzOw
— bri (@CHATSHlRE) May 19, 2026
Everyone who spread misinformation on IU and being fine with calling her names when she did explain in fact that the song was about her own experience with pedophilia when she first debuted as minor,but ofc your are not going to believe the woman who is talking about her trauma .
— Jadine🍊 (@JadineStyles) May 19, 2026
I’m not even going to quote that ev*l account dragging #IU over a song she wrote to speak out about the abuse she experienced. And to the women laughing at it… shame on all of you!!!
What exactly did she do? Act in a drama? dragging someone over something so deeply personal…
— Omo-adony💕✂️ (@GracyOlohitare) May 19, 2026
Fans have also expressed concern about how quickly a bad K-Drama script has turned into a supposed witch hunt against IU, with many fearing for her well-being.
and now they’re sending death threats and telling iu to take her own life over something that never justified this level of hatred 😭 it’s obvious they never actually cared about the issue and just wanted an excuse to dehumanize her.
— 🌺 (@friummel) May 19, 2026
People on this app are so gullible. I’d double-check everything before buying into any narrative pushed by these blue-tick accounts. It’s one thing to dislike a drama, but now they’re straight-up resorting to character assassination of the leads.
— Harry✨️ (@harrywithdreams) May 19, 2026
IU