Why Joss Stone is in North Korea
British singer-songwriter performs in Pyongyang bar as part of her Total World Tour
British singer-songwriter Joss Stone has staged an impromptu gig in North Korea as part of an ambitious project to perform in every country on Earth.
The 31-year-old was pictured singing in front of a small crowd of tourists and guides in a bar in the capital Pyongyang on Wednesday night - her latest show in her Total World Tour.
Stone launched the tour in 2014 and has performed in more than 175 countries, including Syria, Pakistan and Iraq, reports India-based news site NDTV.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Devon-born star announced her trip to Pyongyang in an Instagram video on Tuesday, shortly before boarding a plane to the hermit kingdom.
“It’s a fine day to go to North Korea,” she said in the video. “We'll be getting on a plane very soon to go to Pyongyang. A place in North Korea, anyway. It’s gonna be fun.”She also wrote that she was “learning a song called arrirang” [sic] to sing to the crowd - a reference to Arirang, a folk song that has become an unofficial anthem of both North and South Korea.
The BBC reports that the visit was arranged by Simon Cockerell, who runs Koryo Tours, a company specialising in trips to the isolated country.
Cockerell described the performance as an unofficial gig and posted photos of Stone singing for around 40 tourists and guides at a bar in what he identified as the Yanggakdo cinema complex.
“Let’s do it again with a full band and thousands of local fans not too far in the future!!” he wrote in a message on Instagram.
The show comes two weeks after Stone “performed in a small hall in Derik, in the north-eastern corner of war-torn Syria”, in front of an audience of about 70 people, the Daily Mail reports.
“As bemused Syrians and soldiers looked on, Stone performed such songs as Burt Bacharach’s The Look of Love before proclaiming: ‘We are made stronger by our mistakes’ and launching into her hit Right to Be Wrong,” the newspaper adds.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What are the rules of a no-buy vs. low-buy year?
The Explainer These two revised approaches to purchasing could help you save big
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
80 dead in Colombia amid uptick in guerrilla fighting
Speed Read This was the country's deadliest wave of violence since the peace accords set by President Gustavo Petro in 2016
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump starts term with spate of executive orders
Speed Read The president is rolling back many of Joe Biden's climate and immigration policies
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Ukraine captures first North Korean soldiers
Speed Read Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted videos of the men captured in Russia's Kursk region
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Is South Korea's young democracy under threat?
Today's Big Question Attempts to arrest the impeached President Yoon have shown the 'erosion of the rule of law'
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Russia's shadow war in Europe
Talking Point Steering clear of open conflict, Moscow is slowly ratcheting up the pressure on Nato rivals to see what it can get away with.
By The Week UK Published
-
Cutting cables: the war being waged under the sea
In the Spotlight Two undersea cables were cut in the Baltic sea, sparking concern for the global network
By The Week UK Published
-
The nuclear threat: is Vladimir Putin bluffing?
Talking Point Kremlin's newest ballistic missile has some worried for Nato nations
By The Week UK Published
-
Russia vows retaliation for Ukrainian missile strikes
Speed Read Ukraine's forces have been using U.S.-supplied, long-range ATCMS missiles to hit Russia
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published