Jeon Somi Just Explained Why IOI Is Reuniting 10 Years Later

Jeon Somi sat down with MBC's Radio Star on April 29 with the kind of news K-pop fans have been waiting a decade to hear: I.O.I is coming back. The beloved 11-member group formed through the first season of Produce 101 is reuniting for their 10th anniversary — and Somi, who finished in first place during the original broadcast and served as the group's center and youngest member, brought confirmation: album photoshoot completed, recordings done, and daily practice sessions running four to six hours.

The episode, titled "다시 뭉친 사람 나야 나, 나야 나! 뭉쳐야 뜬다!" (Reunited and it feels so good), saw Somi appear alongside actor Lee Jong-hyuk, actress Yoo Sun, and former WANNA ONE member Lee Daehwi. But the conversation that lit up fan communities was Somi's unfiltered account of what it has taken to pull off a decade-in-the-making reunion — and the name at the center of the story is one nobody quite expected.

Chungha Made the Call Nobody Else Would

When asked which I.O.I member had pushed hardest for the reunion, Somi's answer was immediate: Chungha. The confirmation that the group's comeback was largely initiated by one of K-pop's most successful female soloists of the past decade sent fans into a frenzy — because Chungha, who has spent ten years building a formidable solo catalog, apparently never let go of what I.O.I meant.

Somi also confirmed what many fans had long hoped: the members' group chat has remained active throughout the intervening decade. "The group chat is still there," she said, describing the thread that has connected eleven women who, for roughly one year in 2016, were each other's constant company. That detail alone — a group chat surviving ten years of divergent careers, competing schedules, and different life chapters — says something about the bonds formed during I.O.I's original run.

I.O.I debuted in May 2016, assembled through the historic first season of Mnet's Produce 101, a survival show that drew national viewing audiences and generated an unusually intense emotional investment from the public. The group was always designed to be temporary: its eleven members came from different entertainment agencies and were contracted to promote together for approximately one year before returning to their home companies. In the years since, virtually all of them went on to remarkable individual careers. Chungha became one of the defining female solo acts of the late 2010s. Kim Sejeong built parallel careers in music and acting. Somi herself left JYP Entertainment and rebuilt her career under YG, releasing a string of singles that cemented her global following. The reunion, then, is not a reunion of careers that stalled — it is a reunion of careers that thrived, choosing to come back together voluntarily.

The I.O.I Behind-the-Scenes Stories That Fans Have Never Heard

The Radio Star clip that surfaced ahead of the full April 29 broadcast captures Somi in her most candid form, relaying the kind of behind-the-scenes detail that goes directly to a fan's heart. During I.O.I's original promotional period, she explained, the group was operating at a pace that left almost no margin for anything — so they instituted a monthly ritual: a full-group meeting, held in the largest room available, designed to clear the air and keep the team functioning.

The format was simple: anyone could bring up anything that had been bothering them. Grievances from the month, small tensions, logistics frustrations — all of it was on the table. The goal was to prevent friction from accumulating silently until it became something harder to address.

Somi, who had finished first in the Produce 101 rankings and therefore had the most packed schedule of all eleven members, arrived at one particular late-night meeting with a problem: she was exhausted. She lay down in the middle of the session. Kim Sejeong, one of the group's older members, addressed this directly: "Somi-ya, the unnies are working through the meeting — lying down like that isn't quite right." Somi's response, by her own account, was to keep her eyes half-open, participate technically, and remain horizontal for the duration. "I was literally falling asleep during the meeting," she admitted on the show, to considerable laughter from the hosts.

Car seat arrangements were a separate political enterprise. With eleven members sharing vehicles, the question of who occupied the front seat and the seat nearest the door was a recurring point of low-level tension — until the group formalized a rule: whoever came downstairs first claimed the desirable seats. Simple, fair, and effective at eliminating a surprisingly common source of friction.

The most endearing detail may be what Somi called the "laughing strategy." When the group's internal atmosphere grew tense — as it sometimes did during a schedule that left everyone perpetually at the edge of their reserves — one member would simply say "웃어요" (laugh). On cue, everyone would laugh. Out loud, genuinely, no exceptions. "You can't just walk up and talk to someone when things are that intense," Somi explained. "But the atmosphere gets cold. So we'd just call it — 'laugh' — and everyone would laugh for real, out loud." The mood shifted. The tension broke. The group kept going. "It was the best thing we had," she said.

Ten Years Later — Same Group, Different Stamina

The reunion has not been without its physical challenges. Somi, who has spent the past decade maintaining the discipline of a solo artist rather than a group member, was candid about what it feels like to return to intensive group practice at 26 — compared to 16. "I can really feel the difference in stamina," she said, describing the reality of running four to six hours of daily practice sessions alongside women she has known for a decade but hasn't trained alongside in years.

The preparation is already in its advanced stages. Album jacket photography is complete. Recording sessions are done. What remains is the performance preparation — getting ten years of separate movement vocabularies back into choreographic sync. The album cover has been shot; the music exists; the group is drilling daily. What Somi is describing, in other words, is not a reunion that is still being assembled. It is a reunion that is already ready.

Somi also revealed in the episode that reunion rehearsals have surfaced some of the same dynamics from the original era — including, presumably, moments where someone might be tempted to lie down during a meeting. "We had a lot of stories," she said, summarizing what it has been like to spend time with the members again after years of individual paths. "There's just so much that happened."

A Hollywood Lead Role — and What It Says About Where Somi Is Now

As if confirming an I.O.I reunion wasn't enough for one Radio Star appearance, Somi added a second piece of news: she has been cast as the lead in a Hollywood film, which she has already finished shooting — in Thailand. She received the opportunity during the middle of her music show promotional activities, went directly to an audition, and was cast. Details on the production remain limited for now, but the significance is not lost on K-pop observers: Somi, who started as a 15-year-old on a survival show in 2016, is now carrying a Hollywood production as its lead a decade later.

She also revealed that she appeared as a reenactment actor on the documentary program Surprise — a deliberately unusual promotional choice for a pop single, and one that suggests Somi continues to approach her career with the kind of creative unpredictability that has defined her since leaving JYP.

Why the I.O.I Reunion Matters

In 2016, I.O.I wasn't simply a girl group — they were a national event. Their debut was the culmination of months of public voting, eliminations, and storylines that had gripped Korean audiences in a way few entertainment formats have before or since. Songs like "Whatta Man (Good Man)" and "Very Very Very" remain embedded in the cultural memory of a generation of K-pop fans, and the group's brief but intense promotional run is remembered with a warmth that manufactured pop projects rarely achieve.

A 10th anniversary reunion carries a different weight than an ordinary comeback. It is an acknowledgment — from the members themselves, not their agencies — that what they built in that year was worth returning to. That Chungha made the first call. That the group chat persisted. That Somi still remembers who scolded her for lying down at a meeting, and tells the story with genuine affection a decade later.

For fans who were teenagers when they voted in Produce 101 and are adults now, the I.O.I reunion is not just about music. It is about a specific kind of memory — the kind formed during an unusually intense shared experience — being honored rather than left behind. The "laugh" strategy and the car seat rules and the late-night meetings in the biggest room: those stories are now part of the record. They are what made I.O.I work, and apparently, they are what brought eleven people back together ten years later.