Lee Sun-Hee

Lee Sun-Hee

Think of the 1980's of South Korea and what comes to mind may be the settlement of democracy and 88 Seoul Olympics. For me, one specific figure comes to mind, and today for the first time in the history of my blog, I'm gonna introduce a Korean celebrity. Lee Sun-Hee (이선희) has been known one of the best female pop singers in South Korea. She made her debut in 1984 with one of the most well-known songs, 'To J'. Since then, she has recorded a number of extremely popular songs throughout the pop music history in South Korea. She has continued her musical works as a singer-songwriter until now.

There is no room for doubt that her singing ability is the best in South Korea. Needless to say that she's got a powerful voice, so her voice quite well fits into rock songs. Apart from her powerful voice, well demonstrated in the song '아름다운 강산', she has been loved by people for her sweet voice. It's extremely difficult to satisfy these two qualities, but she is capable of two extremely different types of songs with her unique color, and this is why she has been so successful. '나 항상 그대를' is my favorite song, and a number of singers have tried remake this song adding in various versions, but none of them is better than her version. 

She is particularly special to people in my age because most of her best songs came out in the 1980's when South Korea was going through a 'change'. In the 1980's, Seoul held two international sports events: Seoul Asian game in 1986 and Seoul Olympics in 1988. I'm not definitely in the position where I can say that these two sports events have contributed to the development of South Korea in terms of economics, politics and overall quality of human life. But what I can definitely say is that old generation strongly believe Seoul Olympics was the turning point in the economic development of the country, and it also presented South Koreans with a great confidence in global market. Right after the Korean War (1953), all the industries as well as residential areas were devastated. And after 35 years, the country successfuly managed to hold the biggest sports event in the world. Since the Olympics, South Korea has held World Cup in 2002 and will hold Winter Olympics in 2018. But now people's interest for those events is way less compared to 88 Seoul Olympics and now it's the government or big corporations that are extremely passionate about those events. The way to make the Olympics more valuable and meaningful is providing an opportunity to a developing country to hold the event because Olympics is a great opportunity for a country to get united and promote themselves in international market. 

For these reasons, I love South Korea in the 1980's. Many people claim that now South Korea is better than ever before, and I agree. Several economic indices such as GDP show that Korea would overtake America in a few years' time. There were a couple of economic crises as European countries are undergoing now, but those were easily overcome by Korean people by working harder and sacrificing themselves. Nevertheless, my favorite view of South Korea is still the 1980's since I understand the dream and hope for the future which the people in my parent's age had at that time.

Her best songs also include 'Run Hani' and 'Fate'. 'Run Hani (달려라 하니)' is an animated cartoon which was on the air in 1988, and Lee Sun-Hee sang the theme song of the cartoon. When I was young (at around 6 - 10), I had watched this over and over again, so there is no particular reason why I like this song. I just like it and so do most of people in my age. She also sang the theme song of the film, a Korea blockbuster, 'Fate (인연)'. Her best was in the 1980's, but she has been continuing her musical work to date. This movie was released when we almost forgot the presence of Lee Sun-Hee. And when the movie became a blockbuster in South Korea, the theme song also got significant attention. Since the movie 'Fate', I think she came back on TV shows, and now it's not difficult to see her on TV.