By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
American R&B diva Amerie expressed her special feeling for her mother's home country during a press conference at a Seoul hotel on Wednesday to promote her third album ``Because I Love It."
Amerie, who is of Korean descent, showed up wearing a pastel-hued stylized hanbok (Korean traditional costume) at the conference. She appeared together with her mother, Mi-suk Rogers, who also wore a traditional pink hanbok.
``I didn't know what to expect since it has been a few years since I've been here but I'm excited to be here with my family. I'm very honored to be here," Amerie said. Amerie was born to an African-American father who was a military serviceman, and a Korean mother.
Although she has been to Seoul several times, this was Amerie's first visit since her music career skyrocketed with the hit songs ``1 Thing" and ``Touch'' which were nominated for best song awards in the 48th Grammy Awards.
Unlike the difficult experience of football star Hines Ward growing up as half-Korean, half African-American in the United States, Amerie said she did not have any bad experiences.
``I definitely feel the world is becoming more multi-cultural. I didn't encounter too many difficulties growing up. Of course, there was teasing occasionally, but I didn't attribute that to being biracial. They were just teasing because I was different, and its part of the normal process of growing up. It made me a lot stronger and made me who I am," she said.
Amerie admitted she could only speak a few words of Korean. ``It (Korean) was my first language but my mother was worried because teachers were telling her I would never learn English if she didn't talk to me in English at home. So we didn't speak in Korean. Interestingly I can read and write fluently," she said.
For her third album, Amerie wrote, arranged and produced all of the songs. "I put my heart and soul into it. It has a lot of different elements to it, '80s New Wave, '70s funk, go-go soul, R&B and hip-hop," she said.
The 27-year-old also collaborated with K-pop singer Se7en on the remix version of ``Take Control." ``Se7en is very talented as an artist and performer. I was very excited to collaborate with a Korean artist. It was very easygoing. He danced a lot while he was recording, which was cute," she said.
Amerie expressed disappointment at the cancellation of her concert in Seoul, which was scheduled this weekend. The concert was supposed to be organized by the Pearl S. Buck International (PSBI), a charity foundation that works for mixed-race children.