Korean pop singer Psy has broken the Guinness World Record with his smash hit “Gangnam Style.”

Guinness World Records has named his music video the most  “liked” in history, earning over 2,295,231 “likes” on YouTube as of Saturday.

“Having been the ‘have you seen this?’ video of the last two months across the web, it’s great to be able to award a record for this tremendously popular video,” said Dan Barrett, community manager for Guinness World Records, in a statement.

Before “Gangnam Style,” LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” was the most liked video with 1,576,578 likes, ahead of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” with 1,328,914 likes and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” with 1,247,030 likes.

“In years past, it was unthinkable that something would be viewed a hundred million times, and now ‘Gangnam Style’ has achieved more than twice this figure in just three months on YouTube,” Barrett said. The video has 230 million YouTube views and counting.

The music video that features a horse-trotting dance was posted on July 15 and went viral all over the world, including the U.S., the world’s biggest music market.

Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, signed with Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun and made several appearances on U.S. TV channels including MTV, NBC and CNN.

Even North Korea posted a video parody of Psy’s globally popular “Gangnam Style” on its official Uriminzokkiri website.

Over the weekend, the 34-year-old singer performed on the same stage with A-list stars for iHeartRadio Music Festival 2012” held in Las Vegas. The list of global pop stars appearing at the show included Rihanna, Taylor Swift, P!nk, Bon Jovi, Lil Wayne, Green Day, No Doubt, Pitbull, Linkin Park and Usher who had a private lesson for Psy’s horse-riding dance.

As Psy continued to gain momentum in America, Korean audiences haven’t a chance to see him on stage at home recently, except for a pre-recorded episode of “Super Star K” where he serves as a judge along with Yoon Mi-rae and Lee Seung-chul.

However, the good news is that Psy is returning to Korea this week.

He will hold a news conference on Tuesday afternoon in Seoul to talk about his tremendous success in the U.S. and his future plans, his agency YG Entertainment said on Saturday.

He is also likely to appear on a few TV shows and perform for some concerts and festivals he signed on for before he became an international star.

According to a festival organizing committee for Seowon University in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Psy will perform four of his songs at the school’s annual festival on Wednesday evening.

The festival organizers booked Psy in July before he grabbed international attention and decided to go to the U.S. to test the popularity of the song himself.

“We were lucky enough to have Psy for our festival. We just contacted his agency (in July) because he had a great show two years ago at our school,” a student organizer was quoted as saying by Yonhap News agency on Sunday.

By Cho Chung-un
(christory@heraldcorp.com)

<관련 한글 기사>

'강남스타일' 돌풍 싸이, 세계기록 깼다

가수 싸이(박재상•35)의 '강남스타일' 뮤직비디오가 기네스 월드 레코드(GWR)가 인증하는 유튜브 최다 추천(좋아요•like)  기록 을 깼다.

GWR는 20일(영국 현지시간) 홈페이지를 통해 '강남스타일'이 유튜브 사상 가장 많은 사용자가 추천한 비디오로 선정됐다고 밝혔다.

지난 7월15일 공개된 '강남스타일' 뮤직비디오는 한국시간으로 22일 오전 9시 현재 유튜브에서 약 228만 명의 이용자로부터 '좋아요'를 받았다.

이는 미국 일렉트로닉 듀오 엘엠파오(LMFAO)의 히트곡 '파티 록 앤섬(Party Roc k Anthem)' 뮤직비디오(157만 건), 팝스타 저스틴 비버의 '베이비(Baby)' 뮤직비디오(132만 건) 등이 세운 종전 기록을 훌쩍 뛰어넘은 것이다.

GWR는 싸이를 "한국의 가수이자, 작곡가이자, 래퍼"라고 소개하면서  '강남스타 일'은 싸이의 최고 히트곡이자 유튜브에서 가장 많은 조회 수를 기록한 K팝 뮤직비디오라고 소개했다.

기록 담당자 댄 배랫(Dan Barraett)은 "몇 년 전까지만 해도 특정 비디오의 조 회수가 1억 건을 넘어서는 건 상상하기 어려웠지만, 싸이는 불과 3개월 만에 그 두 배가 넘는 기록을 달성했다"며 '강남스타일'의 기록을 높게 평가했다.

싸이에 대한 해외 언론의 관심도 이어졌다.

미국 유력 일간지 뉴욕타임스(NYT)는 21일자에 '전염성이 강한 동영상이 선전 도구로 활용됐다'는 제목의 기사를 실어 '강남스타일' 뮤직비디오를 상세히 소개했다.

AP 통신도 19일 밤 '강남스타일'이 유튜브 조회 수 2억2천만 건을 넘었다는 기사를 내보내면서 싸이의 이력과 '강남스타일' 속 '강남'의 의미, 노래 가사의 뜻 등 도 함께 소개했다.