Sim Soo-bong

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Sim Soo-bong
Background information
Birth nameSim Min-kyung
Born (1955-07-11) July 11, 1955 (age 68)
OriginSeosan, South Chungcheong
Genrestrot
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter
Years active1978–present
Websitehttp://www.simsoobong.com
Birth name
Hangul
심민경
Hanja
Revised RomanizationSim Min-gyeong
McCune–ReischauerSim Min-gyŏng
Stage name
Hangul
심수봉
Hanja
Revised RomanizationSim Su-bong
McCune–ReischauerSim Su-bong

Sim Min-kyung[1] (born July 11, 1955) is a South Korean singer known professionally as Sim Soo-bong. When she was a senior at Myongji University, she debuted in 1978 through MBC College Song Contest (Korean: MBC 대학가요제) at which she performed her self-composed song "Geuddae Geu Saram" (그때 그사람). She was one of the witnesses of the 1979 assassination of South Korean president Park Chung Hee.

Personal life[edit]

She was born to a Korean traditional folk song collector, Sim Jae-deok, who was a Korean traditional music lecturer in Ewha Womans University. He died when Sim was 3 years old. Her uncle, Sim Sa-geon, was a Pansori singer and her aunt, Sim Hwa-yeong, was a traditional dancer, Seungmu. Her mother had been a student of her father.

Sim learned to play the piano when she was an elementary school student in Seosan, and later she came to Seoul and attended Eunro Elementary School in Heukseok-dong after her mother had been divorced from a second husband. By 13, she was adept at playing drum, piano, and guitar.[1]

At that time, she suffered from an unknown disease causing her to quit school. She retreated to a small island near Incheon, and her mother devoted herself to a new cult. She graduated from Inhwa Women's High School in Incheon.

Career as a singer[edit]

She met trot singer Nah Hoon-ah in 1975 who was a top singer at that time. Nah was impressed by her singing and introduced to Sinsegi Records but her album was not able to come out to the market because the record company did not think that it would be successful.

In 1976, Sim applied to Sookmyung Women's University as a composition major but was rejected. In the following year, she was admitted to Myongji University with a major of Business administration.

In 1978, when she was 23, she appeared with her own song she wrote in MBC College Song Contest, and immediately she got media attention. That year, she made a huge success with her first record which was a new-style trot music.

After witnessing the assassination of Park Chung-hee[edit]

She was one of the witnesses of the 1979 assassination of South Korean president Park Chung Hee. Park was a fan of Sim, and Sim had performed for the former president before the assassination.[2] For being a witness to the incident, she was banned from television until 1984.[3] She has said that she was present at his banquet three times. In an interview given during later years, she contested a misconception that he was a fan of enka. When she sang a song by Misora Hibari ("Kanashii Sake"), President Park yelled angrily, "Who brought a Japanese girl?"[4] For the first time, she discussed the incident to the Japanese press in November 2006. Her interview was published in The Asahi Shimbun.[5]

In 2012 Sim admitted that, after the assassination, she had been incarcerated in a prison and then held in a mental institution for nearly a month, before she was released. She was banned from TV and radio until 1981, and was kept under observation for many years.[6]

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b 제목: <사상가 도올이 만난 사람> '10.26현장의 그 여인' 심수봉
  2. ^ "심수봉 "김재규는 무섭게 입을 다물고 있었다"". Archived from the original on January 27, 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  3. ^ "프로필" 프로필. at SimSooBong.com (in Korean). Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2007. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  4. ^ "심수봉 "박정희 대통령, 엔카 듣고 화냈다 ("Sim Soo-bong: President Park Chung Hee was Angry Hearing Enka")". at Media Daum (in Korean). Archived from the original on November 16, 2006. Retrieved April 10, 2007. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  5. ^ "가수 심수봉씨, 일 아사히신문에 10·26 비화 공개 ("Singer Sim Soo-bong: Makes Public a Secret Story of 10/26 in Japan's Asahi Shimbun")". at Media Daum (in Korean). Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved April 10, 2007. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  6. ^ "Singer Sim admits incarceration after President Park's assassination". February 14, 2012.
  7. ^ "2009 M.net Korean Music Festival Winners list" Archived January 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. MAMA. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  8. ^ "2010 Hanteo Trot Album Award". Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
  9. ^ "2013 Hanteo Trot Album Award". Archived from the original on July 2, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2022.