Girls' Generation's Seohyun Reveals How She Came To Perform With North Korean Music Ensemble

Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun recently made a surprise appearance at the Samijiyon Band’s concert, where she joined North Korean singers for a united performance.

Samjiyon Band, a North Korean classical music ensemble, held a Winter Olympics concert on February 11 at the Haeoreum Theater in Seoul. Seohyun joined the concert finale and sang “Let’s Meet Again” and “Our Wish” together with North Korean singers. Seohyun was seen embracing the North Korean singers after their performance.

On February 12, a source representing Seohyun stated that she joined the performance at a last-minute request from the Blue House on the day of the concert.

The source explained, “It’s not something she prepared for in advance, but she joined the performance after she received the sudden request. The Blue House requested her appearance, without saying much else other than, ‘We really hope you would attend.’ They requested two songs. Seohyun learned one of the songs the day of and performed. As it was a sudden decision, Seohyun did not even have time to rehearse.”

Kwon Hyuk Ki, director of the Blue House’s Chunchugwan [the presidential press center] as well as the deputy chief of the government’s joint assistance team for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics also explained why they selected Seohyun.

He stated, “All the vocalists for the North Korean performance were females, and we didn’t have enough time to arrange the song for a male singer to perform. As the audience had many elderly guests, we looked for a singer with great popularity. While we were searching for a singer who could practice in the short amount of time, Seohyun’s side gladly accepted our request, which is how she came to perform.”

He continued, “At first, the North Korean singers opposed the joint performance due to the [short] practice period, but we were able to persuade them and put on the joint performance.”

Seohyun was also seen attending an event prior to the concert, that included South Korean president Moon Jae In and Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Seohyun’s representative explained the singer simply went to greet them as a concert participant.

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