Park Jae-sang (Hangul: 박재상; Hanja: 朴載相, IPA: [pɐk̚.

t͡ɕεsɐŋ]; born December 31, 1977), known

professionally as Psy(싸이; /saɪ/ SY; Korean: [s͈ai]), stylized PSY, is a South Korean singer, rapper,
songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage
performances, and internationally for his hit single "Gangnam Style". The song's refrain was entered
into The Yale Book of Quotations as one of the most famous quotations of 2012.[2]
On October 23, 2012, Psy met United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the UN
Headquarters where Ban expressed his desire to work with the singer because of his "unlimited
global reach".[3] On December 21, 2012, his music video for "Gangnam Style" exceeded one billion
views on YouTube, becoming the first video to do so in the website's history.[4][5] Psy was
subsequently recognized by the media as the "King of YouTube".[6][7][8] On May 31, 2014, the video for
Psy's Gangnam Style hit two billion views. As of December 2018, it is the sixth most viewed video on
YouTube, with over 3.2 billion views.[9]
In December 2012, MTV noted Psy's rise from being little known outside South Korea, to being
hailed as the "Viral Star of 2012".[10] On December 31, 2012, Psy performed in a globally televised
New Year's Eve celebration with American rapper MC Hammer on-stage in front of a live audience
of over a million people in Times Square, New York City.[11][12]

Contents

 1Life and career

o 1.11977–95: Early life
o 1.21996–2000: Brief study in the United States and career beginnings
o 1.32001–02: Psy from the Psycho World!, controversy, and domestic success
o 1.42003–09: Military service, Ssajib, and re-enlistment
o 1.52010–12: 5th studio album and debut performance in Japan
o 1.62012–13: "Gangnam Style" and unexpected international breakthrough
o 1.72013–14: "Gentleman", "Hangover", YouTube record
 1.7.1"Gentleman" promotions
 1.7.2Other activities
 1.7.3YouTube record
o 1.82015-2018: Chiljip PSY-da, 4X2=8, and Departure from YG Entertainment
o 1.92019-present: P Nation and First Signings
 2Artistry
o 2.1Influences
o 2.2Public image
 3Legacy
 4Personal life
o 4.1Legal issues
o 4.2Views on North Korea
 5Controversy
o 5.1Anti-American performances and subsequent apology
o 5.2Malaysian political rally
o 5.3Questionable song title and revision of lyrics
 6Reported earnings
 7Discography
 8Awards and nominations
 9Filmography
 o 9.1Television
o 9.2Film
o 9.3Music video appearances
 10See also
 11References
 12External links

Life and career

Psy with the Gangnam Style logo

1977–95: Early life

Park Jae-sang was born on December 31, 1977,[13] to an affluent family in the Gangnam
District of Seoul, South Korea.[14] His father, Park Won-Ho, is the executive chairman of DI
Corporation, a manufacturer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment listed on the Korea
Exchange.[15] His mother, Kim Young-hee, owns several restaurants in Gangnam.[16]

Park attended Banpo (반포) Elementary and Middle Schools and Sehwa (세화) High School.[17] He
disliked school and was known as the class clown. In an interview on South Korea's Seoul
Broadcasting System, a former teacher of Park said: "I remember Psy making a lot of sexual
jokes during class. He had such a big influence that he would drive the entire class to his jokes. I
disliked him at the time, but looking back, I see that he added a great energy to the class."[18]
Park told CNN's Alina Cho that when he was 15 years old, he watched a Korean TV programme that
introduced foreign pop music. One particular episode showed a concert at Wembley Stadium held
by the British rock band Queen where they performed their 1975 hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Park said it was this concert footage that sparked his love for music.[19]

1996–2000: Brief study in the United States and career beginnings

As part of preparations to take over DI Corporation from his father, Park had originally planned to
study business administrationat Boston University in 1996.[20] However, upon his arrival in the United
States, he lost interest in his studies,[21] spending his remaining tuition funds on musical instruments
and entertainment equipment, including a computer, an electric keyboard, and
a MIDI interface.[22] After attending an English-language summer course and studying for one
semester, Park dropped out of Boston University and applied to study at Berklee College of
Music instead. During his time at Berklee, Park took core curriculum lessons in ear training,
contemporary writing and music synthesis, but he soon dropped out and returned to South Korea to
pursue a career as a singer, without having attained a degree from either Boston University or
Berklee.[23][24][25]
In South Korea, Psy made his first appearance on Korean national television in 2000 after his
dancing caught the eye of a TV producer.[26]

2001–02: Psy from the Psycho World!, controversy, and domestic

success
In January 2001, Psy debuted his full-length album Psy from the Psycho World!, for which he was
fined by South Korean government authorities due to his album's "inappropriate content".[27] Psy was
a rookie hip hop singer that stirred up the Korean pop music scene with very blunt lyrics, peculiar
dance moves and an unconventional appearance that earned him the nickname "The Bizarre
Singer".[28][29][30]
His second album Sa 2 also created controversy upon its release in 2002, earning complaints from
civil groups due to the potentially negative influence his album would have on children and
teenagers. Since then, Psy has been thought of as a controversial artist, and Sa 2 was banned in
2002 from being sold to the under-19 set. In September of the same year, Psy released his third
album 3 Psy. The album's title song, "Champion", saw great success partly due to the hype from
the World Cupgames held in Seoul. Despite the significant amount of controversy surrounding his
music, Psy was awarded songwriting accolades at the annual Seoul Music Awards, marking his
breakthrough in the South Korean music industry.[31]

2003–09: Military service, Ssajib, and re-enlistment

In 2003, Psy was conscripted into the South Korean military as part of mandatory military
service imposed on all South Korean men aged 18 to 35.[32][33] Psy was excused from military duty
due to working at a software development company (the South Korean government grants
exemptions to those with technical expertise work in companies that serve the national interest). He
was expected to be released from duties in 2005.[34] In 2006, Psy released his fourth album Ssajib,
which won honors at the 2006 SBS Music Awards and Hong Kong's Mnet Asian Music Awards.[31]
In 2007, state prosecutors accused Psy of "neglecting" his work, holding concerts and appearing on
local television networks during his period of prior employment.[35]On October 12, 2007, the Seoul
Administrative Court decided that Psy must be redrafted, rejecting a lawsuit filed by Psy against the
Military Manpower Administration (MMA) in August. Two months later, Psy was re-drafted into the
military where he had held the rank of Private First Class and served as a signalman in the 52nd
Army Infantry Division, before being released from duties in July 2009.[36][37]

2010–12: 5th studio album and debut performance in Japan

Owing to financial difficulties, Psy could no longer release his own songs. His wife encouraged him
to join the South Korean music label YG Entertainment, whose founder and chief executive
officer Yang Hyun-suk was an old friend of Psy's.[38] In 2010, Psy joined YG Entertainment.[39] The K-
pop singer Kim Hee-chul, from the boyband Super Junior, expressed that he had wished Psy would
have joined his group's label S.M. Entertainment instead.[40] Psy released his fifth album PsyFive in
2010, and its lead single "Right Now" was banned from under-19 audiences by South
Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family for what it deemed an "obscene" lyric, "Life is like
toxic alcohol".[41] Despite the ban, Psy received awards during the 2011 Melon Music
Awards and Mnet Asian Music Awards.[31] Psy had, up until this point, topped domestic music charts
half a dozen times throughout his twelve-year career in South Korea.[42]
On January 7, 2012, Psy performed alongside K-pop bands Bigbang and 2NE1 in front of 80,000
Japanese fans during the YG Family Concert in Osaka. His performance was broadcast
by Mezamashi TV (mezamashi meaning "wake-up alarm"), a Japanese news magazine show
produced by Fuji Television. This marked his first appearance on a foreign broadcasting
network.[43] During the concert, Psy introduced himself to his Japanese fans with a sign that read "I'm
a famous singer well known for driving the audience wild in Korea, but here, today, I'm just a little
chubby newcomer" and sang five of his hit songs while Japanese TV commentators expressed their
approval in their astonishment at his humorous incorporation of the moves of Lady
Gaga and Beyoncé.[44]

2012–13: "Gangnam Style" and unexpected international

breakthrough

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon scheduled a meeting with Psy in the belief that music has great power to
overcome intolerance.[45]

Psy performing in Cannes, France, at the January 2013 NRJ Music Awards ceremony

In July 2012, Psy released his sixth album Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 and the song "Gangnam Style"
appeared in broadcasting networks and newspapers outside Asia.[46][47][48] On August 14, "Gangnam
Style" ranked first on YouTube's 'Most Viewed Videos' monthly chart;[49] on August 21, 2012,
"Gangnam Style" officially charted No. 1 on the iTunes Music Video Charts, overtaking Justin
Bieber's "As Long as You Love Me" and Katy Perry's "Wide Awake"; this feat was the first for a
South Korean artist. After the video went viral, celebrities quickly jumped on board, with Katy
Perry, Britney Spears, and Tom Cruise taking to Twitter to share their delight.[50] The Gangnam Style
phenomenon has also popularized his older music videos, such as "Right Now".[51] On September
14, 2012, he appeared on The Today Show on NBC in New York City, performing the song live and
teaching dance moves to the anchors.[52] The following day, he also made a cameo appearance
on Saturday Night Live during a skit featuring "Gangnam Style".[53] Commenting on his popularity
among foreign celebrities, Psy said:
When I realized that some top stars like have imagined or tweeted about me, I thought, "That's
joking. That's not gonna happen" ... I never expect things like this, not because they are top stars,
but because this is the biggest market in the universe for pop music, right, so everybody's dreaming
about having appearance in the U.S. so I’m still saying, "What going on here? This is beautiful."[54]
Riding high on the success of "Gangnam Style", Psy was signed by Scooter Braun to
Braun's Schoolboy Records, a label distributed by Republic Records.[55] In early September,
the Gangnam district awarded Psy with a plaque and named him an honorary ambassador.[56] On
October 24, 2012, Psy was recognized by the United Nations as an "International
sensation".[57] According to Reuters, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon scheduled a meeting with
Psy in the belief that music has great power to overcome intolerance.[45] On October 23, 2012, they
met at the United Nations Headquarters where Ban expressed his desire to work with Psy. He
remarked that Psy has an "unlimited global reach" and said, "I hope that we can work together using
your global reach".[3]
According to Korean newspaper The Dong-a Ilbo, Psy was appointed as a goodwill ambassador of
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).[58]
On November 7, 2012, Psy held a speech in England at the Oxford Union to discuss the inspiration
behind "Gangnam Style" and his next album. He told the audience that due to the success of
"Gangnam Style" he is now living in both a dream and a nightmare, as it will be difficult for his next
song to equal "Gangnam Style"'s success. He also talked about his early life and the moment he
realized "Gangnam Style" became famous. According to The Independent, tickets for his speech
were "in such demand they had to be assigned by ballot—a method not required when former
presidential candidate John McCain spoke earlier that year, nor when Mother Teresa, the Dalai
Lama nor Michael Jackson spoke".[59]

U.S. President Barack Obama cited Psy's "Gangnam Style" as an example of how people around the world are
being "swept up by Korean culture—the Korean Wave".[60]

On November 12, 2012, Psy became the second South Korean music artist to appear at the MTV
Europe Music Awards[61]where he performed "Gangnam Style" and held off competition
from Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga to win the "Best Video" award.[62] The event was
broadcast worldwide and hosted by the German model and actress Heidi Klum, who introduced Psy
to the audience as the "undisputed King of Pop".[63] A few days later, American singer-
songwriter Madonnaperformed a mashup of "Gangnam Style" and "Give It 2 Me" alongside Psy and
her backup dancers during a concert in New York City at Madison Square Garden during The MDNA
Tour. Psy later told reporters that his gig with Madonna had "topped his list of accomplishments".[64]
On November 24, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the most viewed video in YouTube history,
surpassing the previous most watched video, Justin Bieber's "Baby". The number of views were
achieved about eleven times faster than Bieber's.[65] Psy later won four awards at the 2012 Mnet
Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong on November 30, 2012. On December 21, 2012, "Gangnam
Style" reached 1 billion views on YouTube, becoming the first video to do so in the website's
history.[4] He met actor and stunt performer Jackie Chan, who called him a role model that proved
that "dreams do come true".[66]
In 2013, Psy made his debut on South American television by giving an interview on the Brazilian
news program Fantástico.[67] It was announced on January 27, 2013, that Psy would perform at
South Korea's presidential inauguration ceremony on February 25, 2013.[68]
2013–14: "Gentleman", "Hangover", YouTube record
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"Gentleman" promotions
On April 12, 2013, the audio of Psy's follow-up single "Gentleman" was leaked onto the internet, a
day before its official international release.[69] On the following day, the music video for 'Gentleman'
premiered at Psy's 'Happening' Concert, which was attended by 50,000 people and live streamed on
YouTube to an audience of 150,000.[70][71] Guest performers of the concert included Lee
Hi, 2NE1 and G-Dragon.[71] He reportedly invested US$2.7 million into the production of the
concert.[72]Psy continued to promote Gentlemen throughout 2013. In May 2013, PSY appeared twice
on Live! with Kelly and Michael and taught Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahanhow to do the Gentleman
Dance.[73][74] Psy also appeared in the finale of American Idol season 12 and sang
"Gentleman".[75] Psy also performed his song "Gentleman" on the Finale of Dancing With the Stars,
Season 16.[76] Five days later, Psy also performed at the final match of the 2012–13 Coppa
Italia.[77] On June 8, 2013, Psy and his troupe performed "Gentleman" on the Finale of Britain's Got
Talent, Series 7. Later that month, on June 8, Psy co-hosted the Canadian MuchMusic Video
Awards, where he also opened the show with his worldwide hit "Gangnam Style" and ended the
show with his "official last performance of 'Gentleman' on TV." [78]
Other activities
Psy was slated to star in a South Korean remake of the Hindi film ABCD: Any Body Can Dance,
taking over the role of Vishnu (Prabhu Deva) in the original film.[79]
In April he became the tourism ambassador of South Korea for 2013.[80]
On May 9, Psy gave a special lecture at Harvard University. In this lecture, he spoke about his
passion and other reasons for his popularity.[81]
On May 24, 2013, people began voting daily, at www.psygobibigo.com, for one of the Top Three
Chefs, based on more than one hundred ninety video entries, in Psy's "Psy Needs a Chef" video
contest.[82][83][84][85] The Top Three Chefs in this contest were Aaron Contreras,[86][87] Dj Park [88] and
Ricardo Caput.[89] Voting ended June 10, 2013 at midnight Greenwich Mean Time. Aaron Contreras
received 2,005 votes. Ricardo received 22,384 vo