Conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol surprised attendees at Wednesday’s lavish White House state dinner with a karaoke rendition of “American Pie,” a rock classic that host President Joe Biden described as Yoon’s favorite from his school years.
Yoon reportedly performed the song after the official entertainment for the night, a trio of Broadway performers, sang Don McLean’s popular hit at the behest of First Lady Jill Biden, who suggested the song for Yoon.
Biden cheered Yoon on as he sang the song’s first verse; he ended his rendition before arriving at the chorus, a video of the event online showed, but nonetheless received a standing ovation.
“I had no damn idea you could sing,” Biden told the South Korean president before joking that he would hire Yoon as the entertainment for the next state dinner.
Yoon’s performance ended with Biden gifting the South Korean president a guitar signed by Don McLean, who composed the classic song.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol holds a guitar gifted to him by U.S. President Joe Biden and signed by Don McLean, composer of “American Pie,” which Yoon sang a rendition of at a White House state dinner.
The karaoke display was far from Yoon’s first such performance, though it is certainly his most high-profile, and his first since becoming president. Yoon notably appeared in a rap music segment in 2021 on the South Korean interview program Master in the House, in which the hosts spend a day with a prominent South Korean personality and chat, play games, and perform music.
Yoon is visiting the United States for talks with Biden, an address delivered to Congress on Thursday, and several meetings with top corporate leaders in America; the timing coincides with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between America and South Korea. Yoon is only the second world leader to receive the honor of a state dinner during the Biden administration, as they are typically reserved only for America’s closest allies. French President Emmanuel Macron was the guest of honor at Biden’s first state dinner last year.
As on the last occasion, this week’s White House state dinner attracted a host of celebrities, though the guest list was heavily focused on prominent Korean Americans. Among those in attendance were Olympic athlete Chloe Kim, popular interior design celebrities Chip and Joanna Gaines, and Angelina Jolie and her son Maddox, who went to college in South Korea.
Elsewhere in the event, during the toasts, Yoon regaled Biden with a quote by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, a nod to Biden’s ethnic background; Biden toasted to “another 170 years” of partnership between the two countries.
“I’ve never been more optimistic about our nations, what we can achieve together, if we continue to work together as allies and as friends,” the Korea JoongAng Daily quoted Biden.
Yoon has prioritized South Korean entertainment—from his own karaoke performance to the multi-billion-dollar South Korean television and music industry—during his visit to America. One of the president’s first meetings in the United States this week was with the CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, to clinch a $2.5 billion investment in South Korean content by the streaming giant. South Korean media is some of Netflix’s most popular content, exemplified by the international hit television program Squid Game.
“It is incredible that the love towards Korean shows has led to a wider interest in Korea, thanks to the Korean creators’ compelling stories. Their stories are now at the heart of the global cultural zeitgeist,” Sarandos said at the meeting.
Yoon also addressed entertainment during his Thursday speech to Congress, noting that the superstar Korean boy band BTS visited the White House before he did. Biden invited the members of BTS to the White House last year to discuss combatting racism.
BTS participates in White House summit.
“BTS beat me to the White House, but I beat them to Capitol Hill,” Yoon joked on Thursday.
“BTS beat me to the White House, but I beat them to Capitol Hill.”
President Yoon Suk Yeol highlights the U.S.-South Korean cultural exchange during his address to the Joint Session of Congress. pic.twitter.com/ooSulgyRRN
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 27, 2023
Yoon, a hardline conservative who has reformulated South Korea’s policies to align more with America and less conciliatory towards communist North Korea, became president in a bitterly contested election last year and has vocally prioritized individual freedom as the core value of his government.
“Freedom is a universal value. Every citizen and every member of society must be able to enjoy freedom. If one’s freedom is infringed upon or left uncorrected, this is an assault on everyone’s freedom,” Yoon said during his inauguration last May. “Freedom is not something only for the winner to enjoy.”
Yoon’s preoccupation with keeping his country safe from communism, and particularly North Korea, has created some tensions with the Biden administration, which has not defined a coherent policy on North Korea since assuming power over two years ago. In past meetings, Yoon has pressured the Biden administration to do more to protect its allies in East Asia.
In January, a frustrated Yoon suggested he would consider launching a South Korean nuclear weapons program.
“The Republic of Korea could deploy tactical nuclear weapons or possess its own nukes,” Yoon said at the time. “It won’t take long for us to have one, given our scientific and technological capabilities.”
The comment panicked the White House; during his visit this week, Yoon assured Biden that he would not pursue nuclear weapons development.
The deal the two signed prior to the state dinner on Wednesday, the “Washington Declaration,” asserted that Yoon would not pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for Biden agreeing to deploy U.S. nuclear submarines to South Korea, a policy that America had abandoned nearly half a century ago.