I’m not really sure why, but Asian Week evidently *just* posted a reference to The New York Times story on Rain being voted Time‘s “Most Influential Person” (over our own Stephen Colbert).
Korean Singer Rain More Popular Than Obama
The most influential person on the planet by far is South Korean singer Rain, according to a Time online poll.
Rain, a 24-year-old whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, is phenomenally popular in Asia, where he made his film debut last year in a Korean movie with the English title I’m a Cyborg, but That’s O.K.
With 470,174 votes, Rain beat not only runner-up Stephen Colbert (278,381 votes) and the third-ranking Sanjaya Malakar, recently of American Idol, but also J. K. Rowling, Steven P. Jobs and Barack Obama.
Okay, it’s odd that this counts as news now, but the reason I’m blogging about it is that just last night, I saw this post at ShenYue!, in which we get an actual quote from Rain as to how he felt about Stephen’s parody video (my emphasis added).
Rain Pays Tribute to Outgoing Manager
May 25th, 2007 by KwfongThe K-pop superstar Rain has paid tribute to the role of his manager Park Jin-young in his stellar rise. Park “taught me to fish instead of how to eat fish. He taught me many things, including how to sing, but he always stressed the importance of standing on my own feet,” Rain told reporters.
Dressed in pink dress shirt and black suit, Rain was discussing the end of his contract with Park’s management agency JYP at a press conference before a concert at Japan’s Tokyo Dome. Park “has taken care of me with great sincerity over the last few years. I thought I’d better give him some space,” Rain said. The singer will decide where to turn next once his world tour ends in June.
. . . Rain’s world tour started last October and is nearing the end. “The world tour was a great opportunity for me to test my shortcomings and transcend my limitations before entering the U.S. market,” he added.
Asked about the recent parody of his music video on the popular U.S. satirical show “The Colbert Report,” Rain said it was an honor. “I’ve watched the program. I was surprised when I saw the show host imitating my music video. He chooses only world-class celebrities as his topic.” Rain was in good company: Madonna, Michael Jackson and Lindsay Lohan were also parodied on the show.
Again, I’m not sure why this is a story now (and I’m also not sure about that Madonna, Michael Jackson and Lindsay Lohan bit), but it’s nice to finally see the quote from Rain himself. It’s all the better for Rain’s sounding like an “it-getter”.
And, because I’ll use any excuse to post this hilarious video again: He’s singin’ in Korean!
Good for Rain! Maybe I’ll buy one of his CDs or something. :D
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