Koreans seem to keep some of their favourite stars well hidden from the West. Google singer Yoon Bok-hee in English, and you don’t find much. The Kpopwiki is able to provide a discography but no biography, while the occasional article in the Korea Times mention her only in passing: recently for performing the role of Mrs Higgins in the Korean version of My Fair Lady.
Today, she is in fact known best for her performance in musicals, though in the late 60s and 70s was known as a pop singer. But what she is probably most famous for, and the fact most commonly repeated about her, is that when she got off the plane at Gimpo airport in 1967 wearing a mini skirt the whole country went crazy.
Her dress nowadays is probably a bit more demure, but we can expect some enthusiastic Koreans next week down in Kingston when Yoon Bok-hee (윤복희) opens the third New Malden Arts Festival with a performance at Kingston’s Rose Theatre. 20 members of the London Korean Links Facebook Group will also be there to cheer her on, in our first get-together.
Courtesy of orienkorean, here is Yoon Bok-hee earlier in her career. It’s a ballsy style:
And a Korean version of Swing low, sweet chariot:
Thanks to Theatre4All for the organisation.
Tickets are from the organisers, rather than the Rose Theatre itself.
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