Election fever: Kim (centre) dancing with her team during a rally for Nam (not pictured), who is running for her fourth term in office in Seoul’s outer Songpa district, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. — AFP
Thanks to quirks of South Korean election law and history, almost every candidate on the campaign trail has a theme song, a dance routine, and politically-tweaked lyrics to make their message hit home.
From K-pop chart toppers to Baby Shark, still the world’s most-watched song on YouTube, seemingly no music is safe from a South Korean political makeover.
At a rally for Democratic Party lawmaker Nam In-soon, running for a fourth term in office in Seoul’s Songpa district, campaign speeches were interspersed with ear-splitting blasts of music, as uniformed campaign staff performed choreographed moves.
Under South Korean election law, all candidates are allowed to hold campaign events in the constituency’s streets during a set two-week period before the vote, on the condition they don’t violate a 127-decibel noise limit -- a level similar to a rock concert.
“This kind of campaigning helps raise voters’ interest,” said Nam before next week’s parliamentary election.
“I can convey my message and policy promises through the campaign songs,” she said, adding that the tunes were carefully selected, and the lyrics thoughtfully re-worked, to help her engage with constituents.
This election cycle, Nam had chosen a hit K-pop song called Jilpoonggado – which means “Stormy Road” in English – for her campaign.
The original lyrics, which speak of giving people courage against a storm, were tweaked to request “storming courage” for the candidate, and end with: “ballot number 1 Nam In-soon! The right person to lead Songpa”.
But the campaign also used Baby Shark and a few “trott” hits – a kind of slower K-pop, popular with older South Korean listeners – to cover their bases.
“We chose songs that can appeal to a wide range of age groups,” Nam said.
K-pop campaigning is not only gruelling work for the candidates: campaign choreographer Kim Mi-ran performs an elaborate dance routine three times a day, every day for around two weeks before the vote, everywhere Nam goes.
“The party headquarters gave us some guidelines, but the candidate’s staff have a lot of decision-making power,” over song selection and dance routines, said Kim, who is not a full-time dancer but works as a civil activist outside election time.
“I talked to her staff to decide on a set of songs that go well with the candidate and choreographed accordingly,” she said.
One of the songs, by a K-pop girl duo called Davichi, which is called Yeoseong Shidae or “Women’s Era”, was chosen as a means of hammering home the fact Nam is a rare female candidate in a sea of male politicians.
Only 14% of candidates running for the April 10 vote are women, and just 19% of sitting MPs are female from 300 seats.
“Politics can come across as boring and not interesting,” Kim said.
“I think this cultural approach to the election campaigning can be a positive thing for the voters. I can feel people are really excited when they see us – and they join in dancing!” — AFP
