His Brightest Song Hides His Saddest Line

Part 8 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 9, “Stand Up” (Ireona), is the song in which Kim Kwang-seok shouts “let’s give it one more try” harder than in anything else he wrote, and right in the middle of it sits a line that seems to foretell his early death. That’s why Koreans sing it both as a cheer and as a memorial.

Kim Kwang-seok – “Stand Up” (Super Concert, June 29, 1995) — 45,000 views

Its combined views come to about 27.4 million. Kim wrote the words and music, and it opened his fourth and last studio album in June 1994 (Melon). On hard days, I put this song on. The moment he slings his guitar and shouts “Get up,” somehow I really do get back up.

It starts as a cheer and ends as dew

The song starts at the bottom. He stands in a black night where he can’t see an inch ahead. He floats like duckweed on the river called life, and sinks so low he imagines rotting at the edge of some lake. Worn out by endless days, he comforts himself with words and gestures, and swings back and forth every day like a pendulum. Then the chorus jumps up all at once.

일어나 일어나 / 다시 한번 해보는 거야

Get up, get up, / let’s give it one more try.

But in the last verse he writes that beautiful things go quickly.

아름다운 꽃일수록 / 빨리 시들어 가고

The more beautiful the flower, / the faster it fades.

— Lyrics and music by Kim Kwang-seok (1994), excerpt

Next comes the line that when the sun comes out, even clear dew dries up in an instant. A year and a half after releasing this song, he died at 32. Since then the line has read less like a metaphor in a song and more like a sentence about him. When a documentary about his death premiered at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2016, its title was Stand Up, Kim Kwang-seok (Busan Ilbo, July 28, 2016). His brightest song became the name people use to call up his death.

Also read: A Med Student Wrote It the Night Before an Exam. Kim Kwang-seok Made It Last.

The stage on the day Sampoong fell

The video above is from KMTV’s Kim Kwang-seok Super Concert on June 29, 1995. That same day in Seoul, the Sampoong Department Store collapsed, killing 502 people in the deadliest building collapse in Korean history (Korean Wikipedia, “Kim Kwang-seok,” citing contemporary reports). He has his guitar on his shoulder and shouts “Get up.” On screen, he is still 31.

The day Hakchon almost closed, everyone sang it

The place this song rang loudest was Hakchon, the small Daehangno theater where he played 1,000 shows. Short on money, Hakchon was set to close in March 2024. On Jan. 6 that year, the 28th anniversary of his death, the Kim Kwang-seok Song Award contest held at Hakchon ended with contestants and judges all singing “Stand Up” together. The Hankyoreh called it “a cheer song for our Hakchon” (Jan. 8, 2024). Hakchon later reopened as the Arko Kkumbat Theater, and the 30th-anniversary memorial concert was held there too (Donga Ilbo/Newsis, Jan. 4, 2026).

From IU to Jang Beom-june, stages that stand up

IU sang it at a “Singing Kim Kwang-seok Again” concert in 2014. There’s no official video, but with the two songs in Part 1, that makes three Kim songs IU has sung. On TV, Jang Beom-june sang it on KBS’s Synchro U, and the most-watched performances are the hard-rock version on JTBC’s Sing Again 2 (3.36 million views) and Jeon Yu-jin’s stage on KBS’s Immortal Songs (2.92 million).

Contestant No. 17 – “Stand Up” (Sing Again 2, JTBC) — 3.36 million views

Jeon Yu-jin – “Stand Up” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2023) — 2.92 million views

Jang Beom-june – “Stand Up” (Synchro U, KBS, 2024) — 17,000 views

Idols have stood up with this song too. Kim Junsu, formerly of TVXQ, sang it with Ahn Ye-eun on Immortal Songs this August, and B1A4’s Sandeul sang it live on MBC M’s Show Champion.

Kim Junsu × Ahn Ye-eun – “Stand Up” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, Aug. 15, 2026) — 92,000 views

Sandeul (B1A4) – “Stand Up” (Show Champion, MBC M) — 44,000 views

A rare stage video of Kim, released last year by Ulsan MBC for the first time in 30 years, includes “Stand Up” sung with Kang San-ae (130,000 views).

Kim Kwang-seok with Kang San-ae – “Stand Up” (Ulsan MBC) — 130,000 views

That day in 2024, the whole Hakchon audience sang “let’s give it one more try” together. The man who wrote it never got his one more try. So those of us who love his songs get up in his place, thanks to the encouragement he left us.

Previous: Part 7 — The Song Kim Kwang-seok Was Told He Couldn’t Have

Next, No. 8: “On the Street,” with the one line the songwriter begged him to “just throw away” in the studio, and that he never changed.

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Sources: Melon (Kim Kwang-seok 4, June 25, 1994); Busan Ilbo (July 28, 2016); Korean Wikipedia, “Kim Kwang-seok” (June 29, 1995 Super Concert, same day as the Sampoong collapse); Hankyoreh (Jan. 8, 2024); Donga Ilbo/Newsis (Jan. 4, 2026). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026. IU’s 2014 performance exists only as fan-filmed video and is not embedded.