Digg this!
Rain belts out Beijing, Beijing, I Love Beijing in Chinese at the closing ceremony.
Bi is pictured here with Kelly Chen.
Rain's not very well kept 'top secret' is out in the open now. He appeared at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and sang the closing theme song "Beijing, Beijing, I Love Beijing". Rain's management company and publicists tried to hide his involvement in the Olympics ceremony since April 2008.
Rain was excited to be part of the closing ceremony. He adds, "Although I have sung in Chinese (Mandarin) before,
performing LIVE in Chinese is a challenge to me."
Another top secret revealed is that Bi went to Beijing to record the song. Beijing, Beijing, I Love Beijing featuring Rain and Chinese singers (Wang Leehom, Kelly Chen, Cecelia Han) is sold in the Olympics album.
Rain made South Korea proud as he got himself invited to Beijing's impressive coming out party. A Korean entertainment article said that this seals Rain's World Star status.
Rain admits that Speed Racer was a flop:I vow to keep acting and trying to break into
the U.S. market despite my debut Hollywood
movie, "Speed Racer", crashing at the box office.
Rain is now relieved he can speak freely about his Olympics closing performance. Bi reveals that all artist had to sign an agreement of confidentiality. Here are excerpts from a recent phone interview.
Q: When did they invite you to perform at the closing ceremony?English Translation credit FollowRain@Rain-America.com
Bi: About a year ago. They invited me in a form of performing with American artists, but finally is performing with Asian artists and cooperating together. Beijing Olympic organizing committee invited me to sing on behalf of Korea. It was reported that director, Zhang Yimou recommended me for both opening and closing ceremony. Four months ago I finally decided to perform, one month ago all performing singers recorded the song together. The beginning segment everyone sing two sentences, but the main part everyone sing together.Joey and Director Zhang Yimou at the National Stadium
Q: You had also performed at this large scale stage previously, but this time you faced 90,000 audiences and several billions of audience around the World, how did you feel?
Bi: Previously, my performance in Beijing the audience at most in one time was 40,000. Before going on stage I saw the huge performances and facility, I was very nervous. On the stage, all the singers were very excited. The athletes does not matter of colors and races they were all combined into one and enjoyed this grand carnival. When I was performing, I also felt very excited. This is a honored stage.Photo taken during rehearsal
Cecilia Han, Leehom and Rain
backstage before the performance
Q: It was reported that performers and the Olympic organizing committee signed a confidential agreement, but it was disclosed to China media?
Bi: From my understanding, all performers signed an agreement about confidentiality. First is to prevent terrorist threats, second is to avoid the audiences being too excited, and third is to keep the suspense for the closing ceremony to the end.I'm sorry I couldn't tell you guys I was going
to perform. Here, I will sign on this soft toy
for you. Forgive me?China's qq.com interviewed Rain and created a special
minisite for him. Rain says, "I'm very happy to cooperate
with QQ.com, I hope everyone goes to QQ.com and
pay attention to my latest activities."
As seen on: Indulging in Rain's World
Related:
Rain at the 2008 Beijing Olympics closing
26 Comments:
I want the penguin!
Eh, Rain's eyebrows not-so girly anymore....
Yeah, the eyebrows look better. I really didn't think He'd perform just cuz why would they stick a Korean with a bunch of Chinese singers?
His butt looked HOTT onstage!
and where was Jay Chou? (i will never get over it)
Yes, Jay Chou and Leehom will be ultimate. Why was Rain there?
i want the penguin too!!!!
its not his best look, but its okay...i always know he's such a hawtie!
haish...i missed to watch rain during the closing ceremony coz i changed to another channel... hahahahaha!
No wonder I thought I saw Rain for a moment there..
Yeah.. the question can be why is he there with a bunch of chinese singers.. A lot of Korean people are also doubting his identity now..
i love his new "do". he always looks awesome!
I watched the closing ceremony partly to see Rain and Wang Lee hom- and they didn'ty show it!!
Was their performance shown only to Asian countries?
Caus' I watched from beginning to end and swear I never saw a thing :(
Jay Chou would have been awesome.
but then it would be 10x more annoying when they don't show it!! As anonymous said Jay Chou and Leehom would have been the ultimate.
I can understand why Rain was there though...
The Olympics is all about global friendship and diversity - so no surprise why they invited a Korean to perform.
Bi is a publicity whore (pls pardon my french) so he accepted the invite
fraulien, fraulien.
He is also Samsung's representative. Samsung being one of the main sponsors. If that's not one of the reasons, then your first sentence said it all.
Why are you asking his participation? Didn't you read the post? He was invited.
Just because the Olympics is in Beijing, does that mean that only Chinese can participate? That's not Olympics, then.
the whole closing ceremony was televised for US viewers. i saw rain and the rest of the gang perform and to be quite honest, it was pretty cheesy. i was watching it last night with my brother and sister and they don't know any of those asian performers but the first thing they said when i was like..."hey, that's rain!"...was..."he's soooo gay!" i tried to defend but they didn't believe me. :)
Rain being singled out and recommended by project director Zhang Yimou is very honorable. He must have deliberated about the pros and cons of performing with Chinese singers in Beijing and moreover singing "Beijing, Beijing, I LOVE BEIJING" for a bit. But finally accepted. Like fraulein said, it is good for his publicity and where else can he perform in front of a world stage with 90,000 live spectators.
Verrrryyy interesting discussin here. Bi was so awesome onstage!
I saw it here from Toronto, Canada. The announcer didn't mention Rain from South Korea, they just said Cantonese and Mandarin singers.
* LoL * little did they know there was a Korean singer in the mix.
who's Cecilia Han?
"peepoo" Don;t worry about someone thought Rain is gay because at the first time around 1 year ago I thought like that before but after knew him deeply he is not gay.
I don't think Rain is publicity whore. It's an honor to be invited in this big event. Maybe some of Korean celebrity also want to participate in the opening/closing ceremony of Beijing olympics.
@anonymous Please elaborate on "deeply".
Jas
Yes, I know he was invited. My 1st sentence was to answer anonymous question " ... Jay Chou and Leehom will be ultimate. Why was Rain there?"
It makes sense for him to perform given the circumstances (as I've mentioned, the games are about global friendship) and since he's the spokesperson for Samsung, which is also Korean.
I meant " publicity whore " in a non negative sense. Which celeb does not want more publicity. Lest anyone thinks so, i aint no anti-fan.
It's good to see celebs from different ctries coming together to put up a show, and not just invite native Chinese.
he was hot in stage... omg, he performed with flying colors, beat all!
never doubt rain`s identity, he is still a famous and a samsung commercial model of china... korean people should be proud of him,coz he is the only korean artist who performed in such a big big event. if they are not proud of Rain it means they are envious that`s all lol! great
Lee hom appeared on screen for 99seconds
RAIN 81seconds
other stars less than 50seconds
banzai rain
At least the Chinese were gracious and open by inviting foreigner(s) to sing. On the other hand, the Koreans would never invite a Chinese singer to such an event because they're so nationalistic.
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