▲ Singer Cha Oreum

Pro golfer Kim Sung-oh is famous for introducing ‘Wintern Swing’ in the golf circle. He is the first Asian who entered ASU, a globally famous sports university, from which he obtained a doctor’s degree. April 19th this year, he surprised the golf circle one more time by announcing to be a trot singer on releasing his first album. Kim Min-jin, who has written a number of hit songs for Tae Jin-ah, Sung Jin-woo, Cha Tae-hyun and NORAZO, wrote songs and lyrics and arranged for the album. The title song ‘Yellow Traffic Light’, among the five songs, especially is an authentic Korean trot song and the lyrics compare the yellow traffic light with a yearning heart towards a lover; love must stop at red light and run at blue light but hesitant at yellow light. The familiar melody makes us hum along and the tempo change refreshes the atmosphere. “The song is easy to sing along both the lyrics and the melody. Some say the song suits perfectly for traffic radio channels and I take it as a compliment” explains Cha Oreum (Kim’s nick name). But Cha says that he likes ‘I Love You’ more than Yellow Traffic Light because the song contains his success story as a pro golfer. Other songs like ‘Brother’ delivers friendship, ‘Buried Pain’ a sense of loss and ‘Lover’ a hopeless love. Note that Buried Pain and Lover are remakes of Tae Jin-ah’s songs. “I lived as a golfer for a long time. But now I’m challenging for a new phase of my life as a trot singer. I think pop music is a great tool to make the public touched and I feel really happy that I can take part.” It has been a month that his first album was released. But his songs are already being played at a number of radio stations and local cable channels. “I’m scheduled to sing at the K-Pop Top 10 early next month and it is my wish to be on the stages of Gayo Stage, National Singing Contest, MBC Gayo Best and KBS Open Music Concert as well as King of Mask Singer.” Meanwhile, Cha has been actively engaging in various volunteer activities with a good will to help people in need. 

<Power Korea> ‘rewrites’ Korean article in ‘plain English’ with ‘key points’ 
Jon Kim powerkorea_j@naver.com