SOHYANG & POS

All the letters were delivered today. Thank you so much for writing.
She was happy to receive your letters. Sorry for being late, but you know she was not in Korea for a while and after she came back to Korea, she traveled far a lot for the shows, so I couldn't meet her. I met her last month, but it was not planned so I just delivered your letters today.

Today she performed 'My Heart Will Go On' and 'In The Flower Garden' at KBS hall for Open Concert.
Her resonant voice filled up the hall. She was wearing white open-shoulder long dress with a bundle of butterflies on fabric.

She was beautiful and amazing as always.

So long! Mrs. Fun Rich!

SoHyang finally took off her mask and showed herself.
I was told not to tell about the TV show(though people already knew who she was), so I have been quiet.

Yes, She is SoHyang! Yey I said that now!!!!

She appeared at the Show after 2 years long love call from the show.

When the TV show became popular, they wanted her on their show, but she didn't appear.

But they kept asking for her appearance, so she was going to appear last year, but somehow it was cancelled because of her another schedule.

but they didn't stop contacting, so finally she appeared at the show for their 2nd anniversary though her health wasn't perfect.

From the first time, she didn't long to remain as the king of the show for long time.
You know she's not like that.

But she just kept winning at the show so she became the second longest king of the show ever(1st longest one among female singers).

She knows what people expect from her, but she chose the songs that she wanted to sing, though they don't have a lot of high notes.
however, those songs became more popular.
She just focused the quality of the show, not winning.

Though she didn't care about winning, it doesn't mean that she didn't do her best.
She said though she's not care about how long she will be king, she's gonna do her best on every stage given to her.

Yey that's SoHyang.

During the appearance, her health got really bad.

She told at the show shortly but it was much worse than people know.
She got fluid therapy and she almost gave up the appearance so producers were embarrassed as well.
But she appeared again, and she made the big issue again.

She showed amazing performances but I admire her more because of her attitude.
She was humble, she was passionate in spite of her bad health.

Thank you for supporting her while she was on the show.

It's not the end. She's preparing new things to show you!!

Now she's coming to America for a concert.
Don't miss it American fans!!!!!

We had a time to celebrate SoHyang's birthday on 25th.

We met her at a cafeteria in Gangnam and we prepared many things for her.
Many fans sent me presents, letters and photos from China, USA, Vietnam, Russia, Malaysia, Spain and Korea.

She was so happy for love from her fans around the world.

Many presents and letters and photos.

This year she's so busy and I'm also busy, so it was delayed a lot.

I just could ship them to her in parcel.

but I know some people expect me some photos of her, so we met in person though it was difficult to arrange the schedule.

She opened them with joy.
Jade seal for her calligraphy, LP player, Little Mermaid figure, Fan Book, Art tools, Ball Jointed Doll, Diffuser, Book, Grapefruit Cake etc...

She wants to say thank you to all of you for great love and supports :-)

Thank you for celebrating her birthday together.

It's SoHyang's Birthday!!
Congratulations!!

There is a TV show, 'King of Masked Singers', a popular competition TV show of singers wearing masks to hide their identities.

So it's only about 'voice' and people enjoys deducing their identities.
So they check their voice, height, pose and habits on the stage to find out who they are.

They don't open their masks until they lose in competition.
So if a singer became the king for weeks, he(she) keeps wearing mask for weeks.

Anyway one female singer is appearing at this show now and

People think this female singer is SoHyang.

As her first episode was broadcast, SoHyang became #1 on keywords on Korean major sites.
People are so sure it's SoHyang and they expecting amazing performances from her.

Her stage name is 노래9단 흥부자댁.
It's like 'Singing 9th grade, Mrs. Fun Rich.'

노래 = singing, vocal, song
9단 = 9th grade

흥 = fun, excitement
부자 = Rich

댁 = Mrs, Wife

9th grand is like top grade. and 흥부자댁 is kinda difficult to translate.
흥부자 means people who has a lot of fun and excitement.
So it means she's a married woman who has a lot of excitement and has amazing vocal ability.
She's wearing like a housewife with apron and old fashioned clothes... even hair rolls..

(Last one is Mrs. Fun Rich)

They even compared her tiny moles on her neck with SoHyang's photos.

SoHyang is surely one of the best vocalists of the world now.
She is often called 'Korean Mariah Carey' and
It's not a secret that SoHyang has been a huge fan of Mariah Carey for very long time.
She has shown her respect to Mariah Carey openly many times.

Recently She talked about Mariah again during her lectures at Music house Academy.
She said she thinks Mariah Carey is the technically best singer ever.
Especially she praised Mariah's octave changing technique like singing in low range like a male singer 

then change the octave and sing in female range
saying there is no other singer who can do those wide ranges perfectly.
Mariah Carey has many songs that show her wide vocal range from very low part to whistle range.
Many singers change the key for highlight part, but Mariah changes the melody one octave higher to explode.
SoHyang praised this signature technique of Mariah.
She also said maybe there will be no other singer who can sing like her ever again.

Many years ago, she praised Mariah as a producer for making her own styled music mixing two different genres R&B + Hip-hop.
SoHyang often said when she got 'Music Box' album, she repeated the album like one thousand times and sang along every line of songs including instrumental sounds and it helped her to learn singing naturally.
When SoHyang appeared at Star!King for the first time, she said Mariah is her teacher because she could learn music listening to Mariah's music.

She also said she prays for Mariah sometimes.


SoHyang is so humble and she always sees good things from people.
I love these two talented divas and I hope someday they will be working together :-)
Mariah used to make some music for other musicians as well.

I recorded the video on 12th January. I made English subtitle so use youtube caption button to see this.
I met her before the premiere started and gave the Moana baby doll to her.
She was holding the doll during this video recording :-)

She said she had A-type flu in the video.
After video, I asked her about that, she said her immunity got weak since she had pneumonia, 
Maybe she went to Hospital late after she felt fever. But she seemed to be doing well then.
You know how she sang 'How Far I'll Go' at the premiere. 

Moana was released officially on 12th In Korea, and they had a special premiere in COEX with SoHyang.
Before the premiere, She was very embarrassed to hear that they will show Korean version of the film at the premiere.
(Originally they would show English Version, but then they changed as they invited SoHyang and another voice actor)
She was shy because it was her first movie.
But the movie of korean version was really well-made and she said she cried while she was watching the film.

After the film they had GV(Guest Visit) with audience.
Those film staffs were surprised by how many people still remained so late for GV, because more than half people leave after the film usually,
but almost everyone remained this time and during Q&A time, they even couldn't answer to all the questions for there were too many questions)

SoHyang said it was so difficult to be Moana not SoHyang in the studio.
Disney always requires very high quality works, and she analyzed the character of Moana and tried to sing as real Moana.
She intentionally sang with younger voice on some lines.
She said she was so shy but since she watched the final work, she is very proud and she can recommend Korean version to people with confidence.

During GV, She was asked to sing the theme song a little.

They told her 'Feel free to be SoHyang now and sing it' so she sang with more bigger volume and resonance as always.

People were really surprised by her pure and powerful voice. She is superb.

I became a fan of SoHyang in 2004 after seeing a post titled like Korean Mariah Carey.

Korean Internet was so fast, but those video system wasn't as great as now.
But somehow I watched many vidoes of hers like upon This Rock, Until The Lord Comes Back and Butterfly.
I was hoping to see her in person, but she was a CCM singer and her schedules were not known to people well.

In 2006, she held her first solo concert in Olympic fencing center in Seoul.
It was Christmas Concert.
Of course I purchased the tickets and went with my friend.
I sat on 2nd row.

She came out in white cape or something and sang 'Butterfly' like an angel.
I and my friend were surprised by her beautiful voice in person.
Then she took of the cape and sang 'Wings'.

Her concert was perfect and I was amazed by how she sang live so perfectly for hours.

I was a fan of Mariah Carey, too and so happy to see her singing songs of Mariah like Hero and When You Believe.
And many Christmas songs and gospel songs like 'Upon This Rock'.
She revealed her new song '내 하나님(My God)' for the first time there.
Then the song was called 'Psalm 139'.
The arrangement was different then. 

Guest musicians were Danny Jung and Haha & Wow(Taw).
(Danny Jung performed 'I Will Always Love You' with SoHyang this year,
Taw worked on a few tracks with SoHyang like Hallelujah and My First Song To You,
Haha is now very famous with TV shows like 무한도전 and Running Man, and he also worked on a few tracks like 사랑한다 널 사랑한다)

She maintained her voice perfectly till the 2 hours and 30 minutes-long show ended.

People cried when she sang Until The Lord Comes Back.
And she knelt down when she sang O Holy Night as encore.

After the show, I was wandering nearby the stage and I met SoHyang for the first time!!
She came down from the stage and posed to my camera and shook my hand. I was so happy!!
(but the photo was so poor, you know the camera then wasn't good and it was dark place)

One man came to her(maybe her father-in-law, I didn't know then) and they said Praise the Lord!
I think they were happy that they made it for the first time.

Audiences were so happy and touched by her beautiful voice and passion.
It was first big scaled concert of Korean Christian musician ever . No other CCM singer could hold such a big concert like pop singers.
SoHyang has done so many things for the first time in Korean Christian culture.
Christian culture like that in Korea was something new so Maybe some people just didn't know how to react in gospel musician's concert.
They just couldn't scream like to idol stars. Anyway I saw so many people were crying.

I thought I'll never forget that moment.
And I also didn't think that I was going to her other shows more than 60 times....lol

I wish I had a good camera then to record the show...or the solo version of 'When You Believe'.at least..

Hours ago, SoHyang appeared at Park Jong Jin's Live Show, one TV interview show of TV Chosun.
And it broadcast live.

This show is usually about politics and current social events, but sometimes entertainers are invited too.
She appeared and sang 'Arirang Alone' and had an interview for a while.
They talked about things like her CCM singer era and her fantasy novel 'Anaxion'.
She said that she's a huge fan of fantasy genre and want to make fantasy films by her novel.
She also said she is going to release a new single soon.

Today she will appear at '내가 매일 기쁘게', a christian talk show of CTS.
I don't know when it will broadcast yet.

Singer SoHyang "I want to create fantasy films like 'The Chronicles of Narnia'"

She became a fantasy novel writer.

SoHyang, who became a novel writer, described herself as a daydreamer.
When she says "How can I live my life with joy if I don't have dreams.", her eyes are extraordinarily shining.

Wrote 'Anaxion' in her busy scheduels.
Revealed 5 books of 10 as digital book.
"Never imagined that I would write novels, but dreaming is happy, I'm a daydreamer."

"Writing novels is so fun. I feel this is fun of writing."
The singer, SoHyang's eyes are so shining. She seemed happier when she talked about novels than music, her original job.
She repeated "This is so fun.". It was like she's about to bring out her notebook computer and write right away.
"The story is getting bigger and bigger. it started from a high teen romance then went to whodunit then to conspiracy theory..."

'Anaxion' is the title of SoHyang's fantasy novel. In 2013, she published first 2 books of 'Crystal Castle', originally planned to be total 10 books, but she couldn't finish this, so virtually, Anaxion is her debut novel.
You can read it in only digital book format and 5 books were revealed so far, and she finished 6th book.
She is planning 10 books in total. Recently, in a cafeteria in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam, Seoul, she said "I already decide how I will finish the story, but the story got longer than I expect it would be."

She made a word 'Anaxion' which sounds like a Greek word 'Anastasis' which means 'Resurrection'. 
It means 'The only place of Resurrection'. 
She described the story 'A korean american girl get 'the book of Anaxion', which was written by a girl receiving a revelation from one angel in Chosun period, and she fights with enemies to stop the disasters that the book warns about.'
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'Anaxion' came out as she was editing and rewriting 'Crystal Castle'.
"At first, I was going to edit 'Crystal Castle' and republish it, but the publishing company read it and suggested me to write another one, So I gave up manuscripts of 4 books and rewrote it from the start again. I kept modifying it with my mentors, famous web novel writers Jang Yeong-Hoon and Kim Kang-Hyeon. Once I started to learn, It was so fun though my story was turned down several times. and I also got ambition, too. I wanted to release a fun novel that anybody can enjoy, though the writing may be shabby yet."

Her schedules were not free to be into writing only. She has been doing a lot of performances in Korea and abroad after she became popular as appeared 'MBC I Am A Singer' and 'KBS Immortal Songs' that talented singers competed in. She performed in Japan last month. She said "I write in the car and in my waiting rooms before performances" and "I always carry around my laptop and write novels whenever I can".

"It's not that I'm always happy and excited. I often cried because I was too tired when I was writing when I have to do so many performances. Sometimes I was like why do I do this when I can be a singer only, but I think it's special experience that I can learn many things."

SoHyang is a maniac of C.S Lewis who is famous for 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and she is a TV drama mania and watches almost TV dramas. When she was asked about her famous one, she chose '뿌리깊은 나무'(Tree with deep roots -*Historical drama about the great king Sejong who invented Korean letters, and he is considered the greatest king of Korea.) and she said 'I repeated it about 10 times". She was satisfied by reading novels and watching dramas but she started to write when she received a present laptop about 6~7 years ago. She laughed saying "I usually love writing things down but never thought I would write a novel".

SoHyang made her debut as a Contemporary Christian Music(CCM) singer in 1996, she was so popular in CCM field and then she became not only a christian star but also a national star as she appeared at 'Immortal Songs', 'I Am A Singer'.
After then, she released a lot songs including TV drama sound tracks, but she didn't release her album yet.
"As I appeared in TV shows, the expectation about me got too high and it makes me to want to make a perfect album and naturally I t gets delayed again and again. What I learned while I was writing novels is music should be fun, too. I felt I should make a fun music than putting serious meanings in it or checking how I sing well."

One of SoHyang's longtime big dream is create fantasy films like 'The Chronicles of Narnia', 'Harry Porter', and 'The Lord Of The Rings'. "It's too big dream. but dreams come true when I'm not giving up like writing novels. Won't it be possible sometime? To dream is fun. I'm a big daydreamer. How can I live my life with joy if I don't have dreams?" (She laughs)

Article source: Korea Times http://www.hankookilbo.com/v/4241b6fe67494af3bda775f6dea67741
I did some free translation.