TV show tune restarts singer's career afresh

Thanks largely to the popularity of "We Are Married," a sort of "fake reality" skit from MBC featuring some of the country's top entertainers as couples, singer Min Sul is easily making her mark in a local pop music market littered with similar albums and like-minded artists.
Her song, "100% Romantic," is currently the ending song of the show, which is part of the major television network's flagship weekend variety called "Sunday Sunday Night." The singer, whose real name is Nam Min-sul, however, doesn't think that she is just one lucky girl.

"It was my 5-year-older brother who first introduced me to the world of legendary pop bands such as the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, during my pre-teen years," Nam told The Korea Herald, last week. "Since then my dream has always been becoming a musician."

Though she had been virtually unknown until her deep and romantically husky voice finally gained recognition through the song, Nam released her first album, "July Morning" in 2001. "The album company was financially struggling then, and had few means to promote my album," continued Nam who studied acting at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

Even bigger challenges, however, came from her family. Her late pastor father and her brother, one of the youngest faculty members at Seoul National University, didn't want her to become a pop musician. Not wanting to lose touch with the mainstream pop music industry, she chose to continue her career as a lyricist. Since one of her teen poems was found by an album producer -- and became a part of a song -- when she was a high school student, she has been writing lyrics for songs of such pop stars and bands as SG Wannabe, Fly to the Sky, Park Sang-min and People Crew. The best known song must be SG Wannabe's "Crime and Sin," the title song of the bands' second album released three years ago.

"Singing is fun, but writing words is painful work. You should squeeze ideas and feelings out of your brain and heart at the same time," said Nam, who participated in the production of the hip-hop group People Crew's first album, "Hiphop Spirit Forever," in 1999.

"Maybe that's why I feel a little calmed down when I read those lyrics."

The new song, "100% Romantic," is different, according to her, because she tried to break the old emotional mold by telling how love changes even little things.

"I think I'm a very romantic person. When I fall in love, everything belonging to him, even the empty wallet of him, looks beautiful."

Following the single album containing the song, which was released last month, Nam is currently preparing for her second regular album, which is scheduled to come out in September. "Folk music is my favorite, but I don't care much about genres as long as I can inspire and touch everyone through my songs," she said.