On #HappyGRUgeousDay: Meet Nancy, the MOMOLAND maknae who unknowingly stole many Indians’ hearts!

MOMOLAND’s stunning singer Nancy has turned 21 years old today! As the maknae of the group, she has of course been pampered a lot. Out of all the members, our birthday girl is the most popular of them all. And not just in South Korea, but also in India! How? We’ll let you in on that in some time! First, let’s get into some background!

Countless videos and interviews on the Internet will show you just how cute and adorable the maknae looks and even behaves. With her gorgeous looks, chirpy voice, and a round face that perfectly compliments her - it’s difficult not to fall in love with her in the first sight - which is exactly what happened with millions of Indians too (But more on that later!). Did you know that she’s the most experienced member in the group too? It’s because she was a trainee even before joining MLD Entertainment, MOMOLAND’s agency, at a company called Nega Network. 

Born on April 13, 2000 to a South Korean mother and American father, she went on to become the lead dancer and lead vocalist of one of the most popular bands in the K-Pop industry, MOMOLAND. Her flawless skin and perfect looks are almost genetic, something one can’t really achieve. However, in an interview with Allure, Nancy opened up about how she loves experimenting and basically is scared of nothing! 

But wait, what does #HappyGRUgeousDay hashtag mean? 

To show their absolute loyalty and love, K-Pop fans come up with creative hashtags, both in English and Twitter, to trend and talk about their favourite idol on their birthday. Nancy was born as Nancy Jewel McDonie (her English name) and that’s what became her stage name too. Her Korean name was given to her in 2018, which is Lee Geu Roo. Combining her incredible looks, the fans mixed ‘gorgeous’ and ‘Gru’ to coin a HappyGRUgeousDay hashtag! 

Now, let’s talk about how she entered and stole hundreds of Indian hearts! And no, it’s not because of Indian Merries. It's something completely different!

Because of the gorgeous beauty that Nancy emanates, she started trending and became one of the rare K-Pop girls whose popularity spread in India like a wildfire. Fancams of her dancing, at a meetup, at a promotional event, or from a show - no fancam was left untouched as Indians made thousands of edits on her; from Bollywood to regional songs, her popularity soared. 

This happened back in 2019 when some fans randomly found Nancy trending on TikTok. When they searched the hashtag, it showed 64.3 million views! The talented singer had just become the crush of many, many Indians! One of the videos had her dancing to a MOMOLAND song with the edit of Neha Kakkar’s Yaad Piya Ki Aane Lagi, which garnered 3.1 million views! People couldn’t stop talking about her smile and Merries couldn’t stop showing it off to the world! Check out some tweets below.

Her personality shines through especially in her videos on YouTube. As MLD Entertainment had collaborated with ABS-CBN News, a video titled ‘Nancy plays ‘To Boyfriend or To Best Friend’ was released a year ago and has now 2.7 million views on it. 

But did you know that she was seen in music videos even before her MOMOLAND debut? As she was always interested in dancing and singing, she started training earlier and was even seen in SNUPER’s Stand By Me and MC GREE’s Dangerous as the lead love interest. She was even recruited in the group based on her talent and looks! She participated in ‘Finding Momoland’ reality show and went straight to become the lead vocalist and lead dancer! No wonder she’s often called The Maknae Queen! 

So here’s wishing the super talented, gorgeous maknae Nancy a very happy birthday!

Also read: I.O.I members will host a special broadcast to celebrate their fifth anniversary!

Have you wished her yet? Drop in wihes in the comments below and tell us your favourite Nancy moments!