Psy to Perform on CCTV's Lunar New Year Gala
By wchung | 22 May, 2026

Redhot South Korean rapper Psy has been booked to perform live in CCTV’s Lunar New Year’s Gala, reports the overseas Chinese-language Duowei News.

The broadcaster is said to have agreed to pay Psy 1 million yuan ($160,000) for the appearance. That’s not bad for an evening’s work, but Psy is probably much more interested in adding to his record-setting global fan base. The Lunar New Year’s Gala on state-run China Central TV, or CCTV, is the world’s most watched annual event, with a viewership of an estimated 800 million.

Those viewers will swell Psy’s following comprising the over 650 million people who have viewed the viral music video for his hit “Gangnam Style”. That video is already the second most viewed of all time behind Justin Bieber’s “Baby”. But Psy’s video got to 650 million in about 112 days while Bieber took nearly three years to rack up his 800 million views. YouTube has predicted that Psy will take the top spot within three months at most.

“Gangnam Style” has also become a fixture at or near the top of the global pop music charts for the past two months. Its tenure there is showing no signs of ending soon, prompting Psy’s team to delay the release of his next single until early next year, possibly even the day he is slated to perform on CCTV.

Psy’s global success as a pop star is unprecedented for a Kpop artist, or for any artist originating in Asia. It’s all the more remarkable because Psy, aka Park Jae-sang, conceived his tune as a tongue-in-cheek ribbing of the smug, sexy and pretentious attitude that more serious pop idols aspire to embody.