Singer the late Seo Ji-won died 30 years ago.
2026 Jan. 1 marks the 30th anniversary of Seo Ji-won's death. The deceased was found dead at home on Jan. 1, 1996. She was 19.
At the time, Seo Ji-won was about to release her second full-length album. The autopsy found a large number of pills believed to be a sedative, and a handwritten suicide note was also found. Her diary contained fears about the world and obsessive feelings she had before the release of her second album.
In particular, managers who knew Seo Ji-won well said she had severe symptoms of depression and was always distressed by her parents living separately. Above all, a voice recording left on a junior colleague's pager saying "I'm going ahead, please take good care of mother" also drew sorrow.
There was much speculation about the cause of death. Among them, younger brother Park Byung-hoon said at the late Seo Ji-won avatar press conference about suspicions that settlement issues with the agency at the time were the cause, "Speculations are all speculations and you can't know what she thought. I was too young to know those details for sure," and "I wish there had been many occasions to remember my brother but there weren't. I don't think I can properly answer those parts."
Born in 1976, Seo Ji-won emigrated to the United States with her family as a child and returned to Korea with dreams of becoming a singer. She debuted in the music industry in 1994 with her first album Seo Ji Won and won great love by showing outstanding talent, including boyish looks and a beautiful tone of voice.
After her death, the posthumous second full-length album Tears was released. The title track Gather my tears achieved popular success, ranking first on the music ranking programs of the three major broadcasters immediately after its release, and in 2022 the song The days I waited and the days that will be erased was released using Seo Ji-won's voice revived by voice restoration technology. In 2023, a large-scale project was also carried out in connection with the artist's 28th anniversary.
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