The National Singing Contest on KBS is a nationwide audition program that has been airing at 12:10 every Sunday since November 1980. Song Hae hosted the show for about 35 years since 1988. Living up to his nickname “oppa,” he became the icon of the program with his friendly and unpretentious attitude toward different generations. Since Song Hae’s death in 2022, his legacy was passed on to Kim Shin-young and then to Nam Hee-seok. 

The National Singing Contest is a traveling festival organized together with local residents. Participants sing and perform and audience members eagerly get involved in the show by rooting for their favorite contestants. The division between the stage and the performers and the audience blurs just like in traditional ‘madang nori’. Another distinguishing element of the show is the ‘ddaeng,’ the clang sound that indicates a contestant is eliminated. This sound provides laughter to both the contestants and audience members, and the eliminated contestants still leave the show happy, demonstrating why the show has been so popular for so many years. 

The term ‘national’ used in the show’s title refers not only to a geographical range but any place where Koreans are. The show was held in various locations overseas, such as Paraguay, Japan, the U.S., and China, and even in Pyongyang, North Korea in 2003. The National Singing Contest is more than just a competition – it has become a festival that connects different regions and generations together and has become its own stand-alone genre.