Psy brings 'Gangnam style' to St. Paul

Posted at 10:35 AM on December 4, 2012 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

Tonight's "Jingle Ball" at the Xcel Energy Center brings together some of the hottest acts in the pop music scene, including the South Korean phenomenon Psy(his real name is Park Jae-sang).

Psy is the man behind "Gangnam Style," a video that has gone viral over its funny dance moves, catchy tune and campy humor. The video is a send-up of the posh Gangnam neighborhood in Seoul.

Gangnam Style has inspired numerous parodies, including this one from the Oregon Duck:

Psy was even invited on to the Ellen Degeneres show to teach Brittney Spears his horse-back riding dance moves; unfortunately she was wearing a rather move-limiting tight skirt.

It's interesting that despite Psy's amazing popularity, American media doesn't seem interested in learning much else about him.

Diane Brady of Bloomberg Businessweek writes that while Psy is represented by one of the biggest agents in the business- LA talent manager Scooter Braun- he's not getting the same star treatment as Braun's other clients.

Ellen DeGeneres was one of the first to secure the man behind Gangnam Style, yet she barely spoke to the artist when he came to her show on Sept. 11 to teach Britney Spears his signature dance. (The pop-star had previously tweeted that she wanted to learn the moves.) Britney's first words to Park were "show me" while Ellen immediately assumed a dancing stance. (Meanwhile, Simon Cowell, also on hand, couldn't bring himself to get off the couch.) Psy gamely responded by saying, "By the way, can I introduce myself, not just dance? I'm Psy from Korea. How are you?"

It turns out Psy is a graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music and speaks English quite well. You can find out more about him and his music here.

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Comments (1)

He was totally charming. Asked to turn up the house lights so he could take his picture with the audience because he'd never performed for a crowd so big. Said the song would only take 4 minutes but he would do his very best. And what do you do for an encore when the crowd knows and loves you for one song? You do it again. I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Posted by Sasha Aslanian | December 5, 2012 10:01 AM

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