SEOUL – Song Hae, who fled North Korea at a young age during the Korean War, became a beloved television personality in South Korea and was recognized by the Guinness World Records as a “World’s Oldest TV Music Talented Host, ” Died at his home in Seoul on Wednesday. He was 95 years old.
His death was confirmed by Lee Gi-nam, producer of a 2020 documentary about Mr. Song’s life, which depicts a tumultuous process that reflects modern Korean history. Nation through war, division, poverty, and great rise. No cause of death has been given.
A jovial man known for his grin and witty actions like everyone else, Mr. Song became a household name in Korea when he took over as the host of the show. weekly “National Singing Competition”, a cross-town competition. simple musical talent, outlandish costumes, poignant life story and humorous episodes.
His talent show, which he announced with his explosive vocals being broadcast to households in South Korea every Sunday, has been going on for more than three decades. Mr. Song has traveled to every corner of Korea and the Korean diaspora in places like Japan and China, and even to Paraguay, Los Angeles and Long IslandNY He continued as host until the show’s hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic, and officially held its helm at the time of his death.
According to Jero Yun, the director of the documentary, while the show was running, his health seemed to deteriorate without the weekly store.Song Hae 1927. ”
“In a way, it was the driving force of his life, meeting people from all walks of life through the show and exchanging life stories,” said Mr. Yun. “People will always recognize him, the crowd around him and want to talk to him.” Referring to the big K-pop conglomerate, Mr. Yun added, “He could be BTS too.”
Mr. Song has been awarded the presidential medal for his contributions to Korean culture, the president’s office announced Wednesday. He was entered into the Guinness World Records in April.
Mr. Song was born Song Bok-hee on April 27, 1927, under Japanese occupation in what is now Hwanghae Province in North Korea. His father was an innkeeper. A few months after the Korean War broke out in 1950, he left home at the age of 23 to avoid enlistment to fight for the North, and set off south. He ended up boarding a UN tank landing ship with no idea where it was heading. Looking out over the water, he later said, he changed his name to Hae, because the character means sea.
He left behind his mother and a sister in North Korea, and having turned 90, anyone mentioning them brings tears to his eyes.
After the ship took him to the Korean city of Busan, on the southern coast of the peninsula, he served as a signaler in the South’s army. He has said in interviews that he was one of the soldiers who mined the Morse cipher in July 1953, spreading the message that there was a ceasefire to halt the war.
After being discharged from the army, he sold tofu in impoverished post-war Korea before joining a traveling music troupe, where he sang and performed in variety shows. He eventually became a radio host, running a traffic appeal program that caters to taxi and bus drivers. It aired an occasional segment in which drivers would dial in to join a private singing session.
In 1952, Mr. Song married Suk Ok-ee, the sister of a soldier he served in the war, and they had three children. After 63 years of marriage, Mr. Song and his wife held an unprecedented wedding ceremony, originally they were married in the poverty and turmoil of their youth. She passed away in 2018.
He is survived by two daughters, two nieces and a nephew. In 1986, his 21-year-old son died in a motorcycle accident, and Mr. Song could not continue doing his traffic radio show. Around the same time, he was invited to host a singing contest for the national broadcaster KBS.
With Mr. Song at its center, the show quickly became a national pastime, especially among the elderly and those in rural communities – groups for which the show is prominent and rare. when viewed on television.
Paternal grandmother dancing and to hit; Grandpa planted a tree sexy K-pop numbers. Countless young children charmed the presenter’s stage, some of which became stars. Once, a beekeeper covered with bees playing the harmonica while Mr. Song exclaimed in panic, “There’s one in my pants!”
Mr. Song never fulfilled his lifelong dream of revisiting his hometown in North Korea, but because of his performance, he came almost tantalizingly.
In 2003, in a period of détente between the two Koreas, the show filmed an episode in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The songs were censored by the North’s censors to include only propaganda, and the atmosphere was so tense that Mr. Song never mentioned the possibility of visiting his hometown, Chaeryong , although it is only 50 miles south of the capital. in interviews.
At one point during his trip, he recounted, he passionately talked to the North Korean, who told him he wouldn’t recognize his hometown because things had changed in the last five decades and most of the time. everyone has moved elsewhere.
In his 2015 biography of Mr. Song, Oh Min-seok, a poet and professor of English literature, wrote: “As a refugee who fled south during the Korean War, there was a sense of loneliness. tightening in his heart like a tightening. He has no problem connecting with anyone, from a 3-year-old to a 115-year-old, from a country woman to a university professor, from a store owner to a CEO. That’s because on the inside, he cares about people.”
In Korea, the show’s contestants and beloved fans have become his family. Mr. Song later recalled that women – including the show’s oldest contestant, 115 – called him “oppa”.
“Who else in the world can claim to have as many sisters as I do?” he say. “I am happy because there are people who push me, welcome me, comfort me.”
