Psy enthralls fans in ‘Seoul Style’ concert

Psy performs at Seowon University in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on Sept. 26 for the school’s annual festival. (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)

“Gangnam Style” fans must wait another week if they wish to see Psy at the top of the Billboard chart.

Despite not yet being able to say he has the No. 1 song in the U.S., Psy still held a free public concert, dubbed “Seoul Style,” at Seoul Plaza on Thursday to show gratitude for his locals fans for their support.

The excitement and the expectations for this concert were high, as though the city were welcoming home a national hero. The city government not only closed off traffic in the surrounding areas, but also gave the concert priority over a number of performances that had been scheduled as part of the on-going Hi Seoul Festival.

Road blocks were set four hours prior to the start of the concert and the city pushed the city buses and subway running times to 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., respectively, in order to accommodate the large number of fans. The city government expected a crowd of some 50,000 to gather in front of Seoul City Hall. The concert was streamed live on Youtube at Psy’s official channel.

Maroon 5 are still at number one on the U.S. chart, with Psy remaining at the number two slot. The results were extremely close with “Gangnam Style” trailing less than 500 chart points behind “One More Night.” This is a tremendous leap considering last week there was a 3,000-point margin between the two.

“This week’s points difference between Nos. 1 and 2 is the thinnest, in fact, since the Feb. 18 chart,” said an article published by Billboard.

The article also went on to speculate that the key reason behind Maroon 5’s success over Psy is radio airplay, claiming that the radio play of Psy’s hit is still in its early stages.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)