military vehicle struck and killed two teenage girls outside of Seoul. The gesture was a response to an accident in which a U.S. In 2002, Psy punctuated a performance by smashing a model of a U.S. The president refrained from mentioning Psy’s name in his closing remarks but did shake his hand.)
(The White House emphasized it had no part in arranging the concert lineup.
Two hours after he spoke, Psy would perform for the president, another proud moment - and in light of Friday’s news, a surprising one. “He mentioned to the press that he feels jealous me because he became the second famous Korean,” Psy says backstage, his hair ungreased in a mushroomy pouf. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently requested a meeting. (He brought the Biebs to “Christmas in Washington” in 20.) More recently, Psy dueted with Madonna at Madison Square Garden and with Hammer on the American Music Awards. Its lyrics poke fun at the culture of Seoul’s Gangnam District, where trendy young movers and shakers possess all the style and grace that Psy purportedly doesn’t.Īfter the video bloomed on YouTube, Psy was snapped up by Scooter Braun, the music-biz whiz kid who also signed a young Justin Bieber. Surrounded by pop heartthrobs with more generous DNA, he stood out. He flew home to Seoul without a degree in either, launched a solo career in 2001 and eventually became a star of South Korea’s K-Pop explosion. There was something instantly, undeniably, universally magnetic about all of that giddy-upping, but Psy didn’t materialize on YouTube out of thin air.īorn Park Jae-sang, he came to the States in 1996 to study business at Boston University, and then music at Berklee College of Music. (If arithmetic isn’t your forte, that’s just 83 million shy of a cool billion.) The clip features Psy rapping in Korean over a juicy, vroom-vroom bass line, galloping in place, imaginary lasso twirling over his inky-slick do. Since the video for “Gangnam Style” first sprouted on YouTube on July 15, it has set records, capturing more than 917 million views. Singer Diana Ross performs classic Christmas songs at TNT’s “Christmas in Washington” special. And if this weekend’s media spasm ends up crashing his stateside stardom even faster than it was built? “I deserve it,” he says.īut first, he will perform a surreal act of contrition: He will dance across a poinsettia-dotted stage as if racing a phantom thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby. In warm, measured tones, he describes his first visit to Washington as “an honor.” He deeply regrets those words he sang all those years ago. He’s performing for President Obama just 50-odd hours after news spread across the Internet that he sang graphic, anti-American lyrics at a 2004 protest concert.īut backstage, Psy seems supremely calm. This requires the artists to carol with their hearts thrumming in their throats. The first family has attended the gig for the past 30 Decembers. Psy, the 34-year-old global pop tsunami from South Korea, is here to sing at “Christmas in Washington,” Sunday’s annual televised charity concert at the National Building Museum. Definitely someplace where “Gangnam Style” is every bit as inescapable as it is everywhere else.