Psy performs ‘Gangnam Style’ in event attended by Obama

Korea’s Psy performed at a charity event attended by U.S. President Barack Obama as scheduled on Sunday, despite a controversy over the anti-American lyrics of his song several years ago.

Psy, who has gained popularity worldwide, was among the “artist performers” in the “Christmas in Washington” concert, according to a pool report of the White House correspondents.

Obama and his family participated in the evening concert held at the National Building Museum.

No Korean reporter was allowed to cover the event hosted by U.S. TV network TNT.

Clad in a red suit with a sparkling top, Psy appeared on the stage with dancers wearing reindeer antlers and performed his trademark “Gangnam Style” dance highlighted by horse-riding motions.

Obama briefly talked with Psy after the performance, but he did not demonstrate the dance, a pool reporter said.

After months of galloping to popularity in the U.S. like in many other nations, Psy, whose birth name is Park Jae-sang, has come under fire after revelations that he joined a performance in 2004 of a song with sharply-worded criticism against the U.S. presence in Iraq such as “Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives.”

Psy offered an apology, saying his “inflammatory and inappropriate language” at that time were made in a “deeply emotional reaction” to the war in Iraq following the beheading of a South Korean citizen there by insurgents and the 2002 deaths of two South Korean schoolgirls who were crushed by a U.S. tank on a rural road.

In his brief speech at the Washington event, Obama said, “Tonight is a chance to get in the Christmas spirit, to spread some joy and sing along with artists who have much better voices than we do.”

Meanwhile, a key lyric of Psy’s mega-hit song “Gangnam Style” ranked ninth in an annual list of the most notable quotations of the year released by Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School.

Shaprio included “Oppan Gangnam style” in the list topped by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s comments about 47 percent of the people dependent on government spending and “binders full of women” who were qualified to take top positions when he was governor of Massachusetts. <The Korea Times/Yonhap>