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Eric Clapton performs Monday evening during the first of their three concerts with Steve Winwood at New York's Madison Square Garden. /AP
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British blues legend Eric Clapton could be the next Western musician to play in Pyongyang, following the New York Philharmonic's performance in the North Korean capital this week.
The Financial Times newspaper reported Tuesday that North Korea has invited the "guitar god" to perform in the worldĄŻs most isolated country next year.
Clapton is one of the world's most famous musicians, whose many Grammy awards include one for best pop instrumental album in 2001. His many hits include "Wonderful Tonight" and "Tears in Heaven."
Pyongyang has invited Clapton as a "reciprocal visit" for a North Korean orchestra tour planned for England this summer, the FT wrote. "The invitation will boost hopes that North Korea is growing more interested in building cultural bridges to the outside world, even as diplomatic negotiations over its nuclear program stall."
The North Korean State Symphony Orchestra plans to give three performances in London and Middlesbrough from Sept. 2 through 14. This will mark the first time that an orchestra from the communist country has ever performed in a Western nation.
"We want our music to be understood by the Western world and we want our people to understand Western music," the FT quoted a North Korean official as saying. The official said that Clapton "had agreed 'in principle' to the idea, suggesting 2009 for the concert," but Clapton's agent has not officially confirmed it, according to the newspaper.
If the concert materializes, the English guitarist will be the first pop music star to give a solo performance in North Korea.
A few South Korean singers including now-disbanded pop groups Fin.KL and Sechs Kies and American rock singer Roger Clinton performed in Pyongyang at the 2000 Peace and Friendship Concert in December 1999, but no big names like Clapton have ever given a solo concert there.
"A performance by Mr. Clapton would be notable because, while classical music is well known in North Korea, rock and pop are banned because of their strong Western influences," the FT wrote.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's second son, Kim Jong-chul, is reportedly such a huge fan of Clapton that he traveled to Germany in 2006 to see the guitarist perform in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Berlin. This has prompted the speculation that the younger Kim may be behind the country's invitation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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