Jeong Mi-jo on her 37-year hiatus: "I started without desire for money or fame"

A 1987 trophy, then silence

Jeong Mi-jo debuted in 1972 with Gaeyeoul. Her hits included Hwiparam-eul Buseyo, Bulkkot, and Geuriun Saenggak. On September 12, she sat down on MBN's Kim Ju-ha's Day and Night with Song Chang-sik to tell a story she'd kept mostly to herself.

She always meant to leave. "I started without desire for money or fame, only because I loved singing," she said on air. Three years was the plan. Schedules piled up. Five years went by instead. By 1977 she was already mentally out—studying French for about two years, plotting a move to Paris to study art.

Then came 1987. She won the Excellence in Singing Award at the Tokyo International Song Festival with Ah! Sarang-a. That trophy was the finish line.

Choi Baek-ho at an art opening

Thirty-seven years later, the comeback started at a painting exhibition. Jeong Mi-jo ran into Choi Baek-ho (최백호) at his show opening. He invited her onto his radio program. When she sang, he asked the question nobody else had: why did you stop? That lunch led to an introduction with an album producer.

37 Years (37년) came out in 2016. The title does the math.

Jeong Mi-jo is also a Western painter and former university professor, so the gap wasn't wasted. What lingers, though, is how quiet the whole thing was. No press release. No comeback announcement. Just an old friend at an art show asking what seemed obvious.

Kim Ju-ha's Day and Night airs Saturdays at 9:40 PM on MBN.