Bae Yoon Jung Reveals How Much PSY Paid Her To Use "Abracadabra" Choreo For "Gentleman"

Nov 10, 2021

Choreographer Bae Yoon Jung expressed her gratitude to PSY on the latest episode of “Radio Star”!

Bae Yoon Jung, who is famous for coming up with the iconic choreographies for hit songs like EXID‘s “Up & Down,” T-ara’s “Bo Peep Bo Peep,” KARA’s “Mister,” and the “Produce 101” theme song “Pick Me,” made a guest appearance on the November 10 episode of the MBC talk show.

As many already know, when PSY was getting ready for his first comeback after the explosive success of his 2012 hit “Gangnam Style,” the singer chose to reuse one of K-pop’s most famous choreographies for his next song. PSY’s choreography for his 2013 track “Gentleman” was originally created for Brown Eyed Girls’ smash hit “Abracadabra,” which had everyone imitating its signature dance move back in 2009.

As Bae Yoon Jung was the original choreographer for “Abracadabra,” PSY reached out to her to ask for her permission to use the famous dance move, which had earned the nickname the “arrogant dance” in Korea.

“I was so grateful to him,” recalled Bae Yoon Jung. “Brown Eyed Girls’ ‘arrogant dance’ had been a huge hit, and PSY said one day that while he was working on ‘Gentleman,’ he couldn’t think of any other dance move for the choreography. He said that no matter much he tried out other choreographies, he kept thinking that the ‘arrogant dance’ was the perfect fit. So he contacted me.”

“PSY asked me if he could use just that part of the choreography,” she went on, “and from my perspective, I was just grateful [that he asked]. For me, it was like, ‘Wow, he wants to use my choreography? Of course. Thank you.’

“I was grateful just for the fact that he was using [my choreography] at all, but then he said, ‘Since I’m using your choreography, I’ll pay you a copyright fee for it.’ I would have been thankful even if he hadn’t paid me anything, but since he said he would, I replied, ‘Oh, thank you so much!'”

Bae Yoon Jung continued, “Back then, I was getting paid 3 million to 4 million won [approximately $2,530 to $3,375] to choreograph an entire three- to four-minute song. But PSY paid me 10 million won [approximately $8,438] just for that one dance move. At that moment, he looked so cool and so handsome.”