“I will sing an arirang for the comrades-in-arms laid to rest at the United Nations Memorial Park in Busan.” An arirang sung by Colin Thackeray, 93, a veteran of the Korean War who won Britain’s flagship talent show “Britain’s Got Talent,” rings out at the 70th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement in Busan.
According to the Ministry of Veterans Affairs on Thursday, Mr. Thackeray will visit South Korea from Sept. 24 to 29 as part of the ministry’s United Nations Veterans Reunion. During his visit, Mr. Thackery will perform the Korean national anthem “Arirang” on stage at the 70th anniversary of the Armistice in Busan. Mr. Thackery sang “Arirang” with his comrades-in-arms on the battlefield during the Korean War.
In February, Mr. Thackeray performed “Arirang” in front of Veterans Affairs Minister Park Min-sik when he visited the Chelsea Royal Veterans Hospital in London to pay his respects to British veterans. Minister Park was so surprised and moved by the performance that he requested, “I will invite you to Korea to sing ‘Arirang’ at this year’s 70th anniversary of the Armistice,” which Mr. Thackeray readily accepted.
Mr. Thackery will be performing at the ‘UN Veterans Appreciation Dinner’ at the Signiel Busan Hotel on the 26th, the ‘70th Anniversary of the Armistice Agreement and UN Armed Forces Day Ceremony’ at the Haeundae Cinema Center in Busan on the 27th, and the ‘Veterans Invitation Reception’ hosted by the British Embassy on the 28th. They will sing “Arirang” in a choral style.
“I sang Arirang with my comrades-in-arms without knowing what it meant, but now whenever I think of Korea, I think of Arirang,” said Mr. Thackeray. “It was a country with so many painful memories, but I am happy to be back in Korea where they still remember us and show their gratitude.”
Mr. Thackeray joined the British Army at the age of 15, and in September 1950, at the age of 19, he left his newly married wife to fight in the Tet Offensive as an artilleryman with the 45th Field Artillery Regiment. He fought fiercely against the Chinese Communists in the Battle of the 327th Highlands, losing four of his six comrades-in-arms, and returned home in 1952, two years after the war. The four fallen comrades are now buried at the United Nations Memorial Park in Busan.
In 2019, at the age of 89, he became the oldest contestant ever to take part in Britain’s Got Talent, winning £250,000 ($414,000) after performing three songs without a single mistake. With a 40 percent viewership rating for the final, Mr. Thackeray became a national star in the U.K., with some crediting him with revitalizing the declining Britain’s Got Talent.
