Sim Min-kyung (; born July 11, 1955), known professionally as Sim Soo-bong (), is a South Korean singer. When she was a senior at

Myongji University Myongji University () is a Private university, private, Christianity in Korea, Christian university founded in 1948 in South Korea. It provides higher education in the fields of engineering, sciences and humanities. It has two campuses: the Socia ...

, she debuted in 1978 through MBC College Song Contest () at which she performed her self-composed song "Geuddae Geu Saram" (). She was one of the witnesses of the 1979 assassination of South Korean president

Park Chung Hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

Early life and education

She was born to a Korean traditional folk song collector, Sim Jae-deok, who was a

Korean traditional music Korea has produced music () for thousands of years, into the modern day. After the division of Korea in 1945, both North and South Korea have produced their own styles of music. Traditional music () produced by Korea includes court music, folk ...

lecturer in

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest f ...

. He died when Sim was 3 years old. Her uncle, Sim Sa-geon, was a ''

Pansori ' () is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer. The term ' is a compounds of the Korean words and , the latter of which means "sound." However, ''pan'' has multiple meanings, and scholars disagree on which ...

'' singer and her aunt, Sim Hwa-yeong, was a

traditional dancer A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

, ''Seungmu''. Her mother had been a student of her father. Sim learned to play the piano when she was an elementary school student in

Seosan Seosan (; ) is a city in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, with a population of roughly 175,000 according to the 2017 census. Located at the northwestern end of South Chungcheong Province, it is bounded by Dangjin, Naepo New Town, Yesan- ...

, and later she came to

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

and attended Eunro Elementary School in Heukseok-dong after her mother had been divorced from a second husband. By 13, she was adept at playing drum, piano, and guitar. At that time, she suffered from an unknown disease causing her to quit school. She retreated to a small island near

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

, and her mother devoted herself to a new

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

. She graduated from Inhwa Women's High School in Inchon.

Career

She met

trot The trot is a two-beat diagonal horse gait where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time with a moment of suspension between each beat. It has a wide variation in possible speeds, but averages about . A very slow trot is som ...

singer Nah Hoon-ah in 1975 who was a top singer at that time. Nah was impressed by her singing and introduced to Sinsegi Records but her album was not able to come out to the market because the record company did not think that it would be successful. In 1976, Sim applied to

Sookmyung Women's University Sookmyung Women's University () is a private women's research university in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1906, Sookmyung is Korea’s first royal private educational institution for women. Sookmyung is one of the world's largest ...

as a

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

major but was rejected. In the following year, she was admitted to

with a major of

Business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

. In 1978, when she was 23, she appeared with her own song she wrote in MBC College Song Contest, and immediately she got media attention. That year, she made a huge success with her first record which was a new-style trot music.

After witnessing the assassination of Park Chung-hee

She was one of the witnesses of the 1979 assassination of South Korean president

. Park was a fan of Sim, and Sim had performed for the former president before the assassination. For being a witness to the incident, she was banned from television until 1981. She has said that she was present at his banquet three times. In an interview given during later years, she contested a misconception that he was a fan of

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, pop ...

. When she sang a song by Misora Hibari ("Kanashii Sake"), President Park yelled angrily, "Who brought a Japanese girl?" For the first time, she discussed the incident to the Japanese press in November 2006. Her interview was published in ''

The Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

''. In 2012 Sim admitted that, after the assassination, she had been incarcerated in a prison and then held in a mental institution for nearly a month, before she was released. She was banned from TV and radio until 1981, and was kept under observation for many years.

Awards

* KBS: Rookie of the year, 1979 * MBC: Top 10 singers of the year, 1979 * 11th Mnet Asian Music Awards: Hall of Fame Award, 2009 * Hanteo Awards: Album Award (Trot), 2010 and 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sim, Soo Bong Trot singers South Korean women singers Soo-bong 1955 births Living people People from Seosan