Psy

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.

Park Jae-sang (, ; born December 31, 1977), known professionally as Psy (stylized in all caps), is a South Korean singer and rapper.

Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage performances, and internationally for his hit single "Gangnam Style".

Park Jae-sang was born on December 31, 1977, to an affluent family in the Gangnam District of Seoul, South Korea.

He was born into the Milyang Park clan.

His father, Park Won-Ho, is the executive chairman of DI Corporation, a manufacturer of semiconductor manufacturing equipment listed on the Korea Exchange.

His mother, Kim Young-hee, owns several restaurants in Gangnam.

Park attended Banpo (반포) Elementary and Middle Schools and Sehwa (세화) High School.

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."

Park told CNN's Alina Cho that when he was 15 years old, he watched a Korean TV programme that introduced foreign pop music.

As part of preparations to take over DI Corporation from his father, Park had originally planned to study business administration at Boston University in 1996.

However, upon his arrival in the United States, he lost interest in his studies, spending his remaining tuition funds on musical instruments and entertainment equipment, including a computer, an electric keyboard, and a MIDI interface.

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.

Psy was found by South Korean rapper zoPD and featured in the song "카사노바" from his second album In Stardom Version 2.0 in 1999.

In South Korea, Psy made his first appearance on Korean national television in 2000 after his dancing caught the eye of a TV producer.

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".

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(엽기가수)".

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 Cup games 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.

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.

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.

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.

In 2007, state prosecutors accused Psy of "neglecting" his work, holding concerts and appearing on local television networks during his period of prior employment.

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.

Owing to financial difficulties, Psy could no longer release his own songs.

Psy performed under YG Entertainment from 2010 until 2018 to found his own company, P Nation, the next year.

The song's refrain was entered into The Yale Book of Quotations as one of the most famous quotations of 2012.

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.

Psy was subsequently recognized by the media as the King of YouTube.

As of February 2024, it is the eleventh most viewed video on YouTube, with over 5 billion views.

In December 2012, MTV noted Psy's rise from being little known outside South Korea, to being hailed as the "Viral Star of 2012".

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.