SEOUL, June 14 (Korea Bizwire) – “Technique alone doesn’t make a good singer. You can be a good singer no matter how old you are and where you have come from, nor how experienced you are.”
Koreans were recently amused with a mysterious ‘grandpa’ who came out of nowhere and made a touching singing performance on the streets of Hongdae, where Korea’s talented young voices gather for ‘busking.’
The old man was nicknamed as “Hongdae Busking Grandpa” and soon became an inspiration for artistic youngsters around Hongdae. However, this man turned out to be a long-time celebrated Korean singer Lee Seung Chul in disguise.
The renowned singer in his forties dressed himself as a humble ordinary grandpa and gave a mini concert in celebration of his sixth year as a judge of ‘Superstar K,’ a mega-hit TV singing audition show. Lee said he wanted to deliver a simple message with this little surprise event.
When this ‘Busking Grandpa’ with shabby outfits made an appearance on the streets full of young talents, he was crowded with some doubting audiences obviously wondering what an old man was supposed to do on the streets dominated by young and lively students and artists.
However this old man gave an extraordinary performance of two songs and soon met the excited hurrahs from the audience. A simple message that ‘anyone can sing’ was conveyed in this event and the recorded footage of his performance went viral on the Internet recently.
“Superstar K” has been on the air since 2009 and has attracted highest viewing rates ever in the history of cable channel shows. A total of 710,000 auditioned for the show in the first season and the numbers just grew every year, recording 1,340,000 for the second season and mounting to 1,960,000 in Season 3 and 2,080,000 in Season 4.
But during the fifth season, the show was considered to be in downhill for its loss of great talents and entertaining values. However its sixth season nonetheless started this year, promising to gain its past glory. Its pre-auditions also drew notably more non-Koreans whose number is twice as much the non-Korean participants of the last season. The production crew of the show has recently rolled up conducting the global pre-auditions in seven North American cities.
It is also reported that more than 80 percent of Non-Korean participants chose K-pop songs for their auditions, showing increased interests in K-pop among overseas music fans. Now “Superstar K Season 6” is starting to gear up for its revival. Could the show once again reign as the king of audition programs? Expectations are growing hotly with the success of Lee Seung Chul’s surprise event.
Written by Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
※ Who is Lee Seung-chul?
Lee Seung-Chul is a South Korean singer. He was the main vocal of Boohwal, a South Korean rock band, until 1989 when he parted with the band and released his first solo album, Don’t Say Good-Bye. Below is a M/V titled “Malri Flower,” one of his famous songs.
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