Korean song for a Rainy Day: A Duet
BTS’ RM and Yuiko sing Umbrella.
This song is called UMBRELLA 우산 originally by hip hop band Epic High (featuring Younha 윤하) from their 2008 album Breakdown.
You can listen to Epic High and Younha singing Umbrella here. Younha’s rise to fame is pretty interesting. In this interview with the Joongang Daily she explains that when she was 16 she went to Japan to start her career as a singer songwriter. This was after having been turned down at auditions too many times in Korea for ‘not being pretty enough‘. (oooh, said with irritation) But she became a top star in Japan and then came back to become famous in Korea too.
The duet version below is a more recent version of the song with BTS’ Rap Monster and Yuiko. BTS is probably the most internationally famous band from Korea right now. (Even I have heard of them). Yuiko is a student (and non-professional singer) from Japan who won a competition on the Korean TV show Duet Song Festival to sing this with him. How exciting for her! And she has a great voice. Apparently she was the first foreign contestant on the show. See clips from that episode of Duet Song Festival on Soompi.com.
The lyrics are about how You were my umbrella when the cold rain fell on my shoulders… and I can’t be without you, alone in the rain. So sweet. A lot of K-pop songs seem to mix English and Korean lyrics and that happens here too.
The other Korean rainy day songs in this series are That Person Back Then by famous trot singer Sim Soo Bong, A Rainy Day’s Watercolour (pop song from the 80s), and a hip hop song by DJ DOC.
It hasn’t rained here since you left so there are cobwebs on the umbrellas.
It’s rained in Seoul almost every single day!