SEOUL, S. Korea (WCMH) — An OSU grad is winning over the hearts of audiences in South Korea.
Joseph Butso won a television singing competition, while living in Seoul. His performance online has already been viewed over half of a million times. There’s over a thousand comments on YouTube, many of them praising his flawless pronunciation of the Korean language and incredible talent.
“God blessed me with a nice voice, I guess,” says Butso.
NBC4 interviewed him online through Skype. He graduated from OSU last year, with a degree in Korean Studies.
“After I graduated, I moved to Korea to actually pursue a singing career,” he says.
He then became a missionary, singing and posting videos to YouTube often showing his Buckeye pride by wearing an OSU hat or t-shirt.
“I started to do street performing on the street through Gospel music,” he says. “Then, that got popular, so then that’s how how I was able to get on the show.”
The show translated in English is called “I Can See Your Voice.”
“The celebrity has to guess who’s a good singer and who’s faking,” say Butso. “He eliminated everybody else and he was like, ‘I want to sing with him’ and until I opened my mouth and actually sang, he really didn’t know if I could sing or not.”
Butso ended up winning the show and the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people. As for his professional singing career, he says for now he’s taking it one step at a time.
“Using my talents and using the gifts god gave me to just give people peace and happiness,” he says.
Butso says his love for Korean culture began in high school when his friend introduced him to K-Pop. He’s been speaking Korean now for five years.