Retro singing show honors late singers

Lyn, left, and Kang Kyun-sung from “To You Project: In Search of Sugar Man” on JTBC, Tuesday / Coutesy of JTBC

Music TV show “To You Project: In Search of Sugar Man” has made headlines for highlighting late singers Seo Ji-won and Park Yong-ha.

The JTBC show invites songwriters and singers to rewrite K-pop hits from the 1980s to the early 2000s and sing them in front of a studio audience. Tuesday’s episode had soloist Lyn sing the reinterpreted version of Seo’s

“Gather My Tears” (1996). Kang Kyun-sung and Jeon Woo-sung from four-member ballad band Noel sang Park’s

“Like the First Day” (2010).

Tears flowed from the celebrity guests and audience as they recalled the stars, while there also was laughter bursting from conversations between the guests and music producers who recreated the songs.

Seo killed himself in 1996, aged 20, allegedly due to depression caused by his management company’s demands on him.

The late singers Seo Ji-won, left, and Park Yong-ha / Korea Times file

Park debuted as an actor in 1994 and rode to stardom as a hallyu actor. He released songs in Japanese for fans in that country. Park killed himself at home in 2010. A day before his death, he reportedly expressed deep affection for his father who was suffering late-term stomach cancer.

It is part of K-pop culture that late musicians become models for current artists - mostly idol bands.

A symbolic late Korean musician is singer Yoo Jae-ha, who died in a car accident in 1987, aged 26. He is honored through the nationwide Yoo Jae-ha Music Competition that began in 1989.

Shin Hae-chul, a vocalist from rock band N.EX.T, who died in controversial circumstances in October last year after abdominal surgery,

has been commemorated with an LP album, “Welcome to the Real World,” released in October. Three thousand limited copies of the album, which includes his hits, sold out instantly.