Legendary South Korean singer Cho Yong Pil’s special Chuseok concert, ‘Cho Yong Pil, Forever This Moment’, aired on KBS on October 6, 2025, and achieved a nationwide rating of 15.7% (Nielsen Korea), making it the highest-rated holiday special.
Celebrating his 57th anniversary since debut, Cho Yong Pil performed 28 songs over 150 minutes, including hits like ‘Motchatgetda Kkwaegori’, ‘Reunion in Memories’, ‘Short Hair’, ‘Red Dragonfly’, ‘Mona Lisa’, ‘Leopard on Kilimanjaro’, ‘Bounce’, and ‘Let’s Go on a Trip’. At 75 years old, the singer showed no signs of fatigue, and audiences enthusiastically sang along throughout the concert.
During the show, Cho commented, “It’s been 28 years since I last had a solo stage on KBS. That would have been around 1997. Performing on TV makes me a bit nervous.” This marked his first solo broadcast performance on a terrestrial network since the 1997 KBS Big Show.
In an interview, he shared, “Your voice ages if you don’t sing, so I have to keep it strong. The way to do that is practice—intense practice before going on stage. Music has been my whole life.” When asked about his dream, he said, “To die on stage—that’s my true fantasy. How happy would I be if I died while singing? That’s my dream.”
Many junior artists expressed their respect via video messages. Singer Lee Seung Chul said, “Cho Yong Pil’s songs are a genre in themselves. When he released ‘Leopard on Kilimanjaro’, the entire music scene followed that trend.”
Singer IU added, “Just being at his concert made me a fan. He is truly unique in that all generations can love his music.”
The concert, held on September 6, 2025, at Gocheok Dome in Seoul, sold out over 20,000 seats within three minutes of opening. Individual performances are available on YouTube, and the full concert VOD can be streamed on Wavve. A behind-the-scenes documentary, ‘Cho Yong Pil, Forever This Moment – The Record of That Day’, will air on October 8 at 8 PM KST.
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