No Gangnam Style as Psy sidesteps Israel
South Korean pop sensation says he won’t be performing here, though local promoter still insists he will
Israelis will (apparently) have to wait to get their “Gangnam Style” on, as South Korean pop sensation Psy dashed talk of performances in Tel Aviv and Eilat at the end of the month.
According to several Hebrew media reports in June, Psy was to be paid $250,000 for two July shows here.
The singer, whose hit reached over 1.7 billion views on YouTube, was widely expected to perform, and several hundred tickets had already been sold for the July 25 and 27 shows.
But Psy took to his Twitter page on Friday to warn Israeli fans not to believe the show would go on:
there are false rumors of my appearance in Israel in July. I will not be there but look forward to seeing all my fans in Israel soon. shalom
— PSY (@psy_oppa) July 11, 2013
Psy followed up with a joke (apparently) to his Jewish fans, again on Twitter:
#whatisshalom my manager told me about it. should I believe him?
— PSY (@psy_oppa) July 11, 2013
Undeterred by the artist’s (apparently) explicit brush-off, Delphin Mimoni, of Israeli promoters The Best Productions, insisted to Channel 2 on Sunday that “there will be a show, absolutely.”
We’d usually wrap up a story like this with a wittily appropriate phrase taken from the lyrics of the relevant hit single. But it’s in Korean.
So: “Na nun mol jom a nun nom.” Which we think means, “I’m a man who knows a thing or two.” But maybe it doesn’t. Or, if Ms. Mimoni is to believed, maybe he doesn’t.
The Times of Israel Community.