Lol this is great. Found a retrospective on that anthem performance. Apparently he went on before Dionne Warwick???
https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports...later-1729929/
Quote:
Park was sent the music to “O Canada.” But after he and Dionne Warwick were introduced to the small crowd of 12,213 on a 104-degree July night, Park said the producer made a slashing motion with his finger: There was no music. Park would have to sing “O Canada” a capella.
“I knew I was in trouble,” he said. “I needed the music to guide me.
“I got the first note out and it (echoed) right back in my ears, and then it was ‘O Christmas Tree.’ I was winging it. Usually you forget (the melody) and eventually you get back into it. But I never got back into it. I thought I’m just gonna give a big note at the end and get out of there.”
Two days later he was headed for Los Angeles to do interviews with Canadian television. The Mea Culpa tour had begun.
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Apparently he ended up marrying a woman in Shanghai whose previous partner had recognized him in a restaurant from his anthem performance.
Quote:
Years later, after turning a gig at the Seoul Olympics into a successful career as a performer and producer in Asia, Park and a female friend went out to dinner in Shanghai, where they were joined by a Chinese couple.
“The guy kept staring at me and would avert his eyes,” Park recalled. “Finally he said, ‘Excuse me, can I ask a question? You anthem man?’”
The man said his father had worked in Toronto.
A couple of nights later, Park called the couple to ask if they would show him more of Shanghai. They weren’t a couple any longer. The woman, an executive at an advertising firm, agreed to show the American singer from Las Vegas the sights of Shanghai.
Today, affable Dennis Park and Xu Heng are husband and wife.
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