Fate
It sings of the belief that even a brief meeting can remain meaningful across an entire life.
Listen for
Listen to how the range opens in the refrain and to the breath Lee gives the repeated word for fate.
What else to know
Its emotional frame is broad enough to hold romance, family, friendship and remembrance, which is why it travels easily across generations.
Behind the song
Lee Sun-hee wrote and composed the song herself, giving its themes of fate and reunion a distinctly personal authorship.
WHY KOREA LOVES THEM
Koreans do not love Lee simply because she can sing high. Even at full power, the words remain clear, and she can build a song from restraint to an explosive refrain without losing the emotional line. Decades after her debut, she has continued to appear in surveys of Koreans’ favorite singers and younger vocalists repeatedly return to her repertoire—evidence of how strongly her melodies and voice travel across generations.