A chubby South Korean singer who has taken the pop world by storm, topping Apple’s iTune downloads and getting 270 million YouTube views, has vowed to perform his Gangnam Style hit topless if it reaches No. 1.
The rapper, who does the foot-stomping “horse dance” and goes by the name Psy, returned on Tuesday to the upmarket Seoul suburb that he put on the world music map.
“If it ranks No. 1 in the Billboard chart, then I will perform Gangnam Style topless in a place where everyone can watch,” Psy told a news conference on his return from the US.
Photo: Reuters
Gangnam is the most upmarket neighborhood in the South Korean capital. Known as Seoul’s “Beverly Hills,” its streets are lined with designer-brand shops and trendy bars and restaurants.
Psy, who sums up his style as “dress classy, dance cheesy,” has become a surprise hit in the US, where he was feted on chat shows and signed a deal with Island Records.
Psy, whose real name is Park Jai-sang, has always stuck out as an oddity compared with the svelte, well-scrubbed members of South Korean girl and boy bands that have swept to fame in Asia and beyond.
After gaining recognition with a 2001 debut album, he landed in hot water several times. He says he was caught smoking marijuana and later had to repeat his mandatory military service after not taking it seriously the first time.
The 34-year-old was raised in Gangnam and went to the Berklee College of Music in the US. He dropped out of a US business school, which his traditional parents hoped would prepare him for taking over the family business.
Referring to his kitschy image, he said: “Honestly, I like being ‘second class’ ... I was born ‘B’ class.”
His hit, released in mid-July, was intended to be fun, he said. Doing a bit of his horse-riding dance, Psy declared in English that his aim was to have “fun by music.”
While he has not taken over the family business, his newfound fame seems to have helped it considerably.
The value of his father’s -technology company, DI Corp, which is listed on the Seoul Stock Exchange, has doubled since July. Its market capitalization has surged to 113.5 billion won (US$101.29 million) since he shot to fame.
Psy plans to release a new record in the US in November.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not