The Line His Daughter Gave Back to His Fans: “Don’t Look So Sad”

Part 7 of 11 in Shin Hae-chul: The Demon King K-pop Keeps Bringing Back

No. 5, “Don’t Look So Sad” (Seulpeun Pyojeong Haji Marayo), is the song that made Shin Hae-chul a teen star, and 11 years after he died his daughter handed its title back to his fans. On the stage of the MBC College Song Festival in October 2025, Shin Ha-yeon said, “Now, don’t look so sad anymore.”

Shin Hae-chul – “Don’t Look So Sad” (Gayo Top 10, KBS, 1990) — 760,000 views

Its combined views come to about 8.6 million. It was the title track of his first solo album, released May 1, 1990, with words and arrangement by Shin and music by Won Kyung (Melon). It is the only one of the 10 songs in this countdown whose music Shin didn’t write. Watching his daughter comfort his fans with the title of her father’s song, I let go of tears I’d been holding back for a long time.

The song that lost

This song lost a contest once. A few months before the 1988 College Song Festival, Shin and Won Kyung entered MBC’s Riverside Song Festival as stand-ins for a band they knew, Agi Cheonsa. The song they sang there, “Longing Is the Start of Waiting,” was later retitled “Don’t Look So Sad” (Busan Ilbo, Oct. 21, 2015). The grand prize that year went to Lee Sang-eun’s “Damdadi” (Korea Economic Daily, Oct. 11, 2026). After that, Shin set out to write a song that would “stand out from the very first note” and wrote “To You” (Part 11).

When Infinite Track broke up, he started his solo career with this song. He became a teen star with a sneaker ad and a youth radio show, but he produced and arranged the whole album himself (Busan Ilbo, Oct. 21, 2015).

Also read: "Don't Bother With Those Who Mock Your Dream": The Song PSY Sang Back to Him

I’m not giving up

The song opens with how much we miss each other even in a short life. Looking back, they have walked a long road together, and on a rainy street his heart aches at his lover’s slightly thinner face. Then the chorus comforts her.

그런 슬픈 표정 하지 말아요 / 난 포기하지 않아요

Don’t look so sad. / I’m not giving up.

(Words by Shin Hae-chul, music by Won Kyung; key lines quoted)

It ends with a promise to keep loving her even on a hard road, an honest ballad of its year. Thirty years on, that chorus sounds like something said not to a lover but to the people left behind.

His daughter’s line

On Oct. 26, 2025, at the “2025 MBC College Song Festival,” Shin’s daughter Shin Ha-yeon and son Shin Dong-won sang their father’s “To You” with the band LUCY. Shin’s voice, restored with AI, was mixed into the performance. After the song, Shin Ha-yeon said: “In my memory, Dad’s fans are mostly people crying. If you enjoyed tonight’s stage with a smile, I’d be happy. Now, don’t look so sad anymore” (JoongAng Ilbo, Oct. 27, 2025).

MBC News – Shin Hae-chul’s children sing “To You” (2025) — 3.3 million views

DAY6, Park Jae-jung, Forténa

DAY6’s unit Even of Day sang this song in a studio stage for Mnet’s M Countdown in October 2020.

Even of Day (DAY6) – “Don’t Look So Sad” (M Countdown Studio M Stage, Mnet, 2020) — 180,000 views

Park Jae-jung, who came out of Superstar K, sang it on the Shin Hae-chul episode of KBS’s Immortal Songs in 2017, and Jung Dong-ha of Boohwal sang it on the first-anniversary special.

Park Jae-jung – “Don’t Look So Sad” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2017) — 210,000 views

Jung Dong-ha – “Don’t Look So Sad” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2015) — 130,000 views

On the 10th anniversary in October 2024, the crossover group Forténa took the same stage.

Forténa – “Don’t Look So Sad” (Immortal Songs 2, KBS, 2024) — 150,000 views

The song that won nothing at the Riverside Song Festival made his name, and 35 years later its title became his daughter’s greeting to his fans. So now I try to listen to his songs with a smile instead of a sad face.

Next, No. 4: “You, Deep Inside My Heart.” BEAST, and the boy who sang at the inter-Korean summit dinner, sang it again.

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Sources: Melon (Don’t Look So Sad, May 1, 1990; credits and lyrics); Busan Ilbo (Oct. 21, 2015); Korea Economic Daily (Oct. 11, 2026); JoongAng Ilbo (Oct. 27, 2025). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.