Yoon’s ‘American Pie’ stuns Biden

STATE DINNER KARAOKE:
The South Korean president’s rendition of Don Mclean’s 1971 song raised the bar for future state dinner entertainment, the US president said

• AFP, WASHINGTON

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From discussing nuclear war to belting out a beloved hit, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s White House visit ended on a high note when he sang US singer Don McLean’s American Pie to great applause.

Yoon was on a six-day state visit to Washington, where he on Wednesday discussed with US President Joe Biden “the end” of any North Korean regime that used nuclear weapons against the allies.

However, the two leaders had more cheerful topics on the agenda at the White House state dinner in Yoon’s honor later that day, with the South Korean president — who is known at home to be something of a karaoke buff — sharing his love of US pop music.

US President Joe Biden, left, presents a guitar signed by singer Don McLean to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol during a state dinner at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.

Photo: REUTERS

“We know this is one of your favorite songs, American Pie,” Biden told Yoon, having pulled him up onto the stage at the end of the evening to listen to singers perform the classic.

“Yes, that’s true,” 62-year-old Yoon said, adding that he has loved the Don McLean song, released in 1971, since he was at school.

“We want to hear you sing it,” Biden said.

US President Joe Biden, center left, and US first lady Jill Biden, center right, prepare to receive South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol for a state dinner at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.

Photo: AFP

“It’s been a while, but,” Yoon responded, offering only token resistance as he took the microphone.

Yoon belted out the first few lines of the song a cappella, triggering rapturous applause from the crowd, and delighting Biden and his wife.

“The next state dinner we’re going to have, you’re looking at the entertainment,” Biden told the crowd, referring to Yoon.

Then he turned to the South Korean president and said: “I had no damn idea you could sing.”

Biden told Yoon that McLean could not be at the White House to join them, but had sent a signed guitar, which the US president gifted to his South Korean counterpart.

“Yoon literally tore up the stage and White House,” one Twitter user wrote in Korean in reply to a video of Yoon singing.

“Yoon has revealed his hidden singing talent,” another user wrote, also in Korean, resharing the video.

It is not Yoon’s first time singing in public. On the campaign trail in 2021, he appeared on the famous South Korean TV show All the Butlers, wowing its celebrity hosts with a sparkling rendition of the K-pop ballad No One Else by Lee Seung-chul.