North Korean propaganda song showing Kim Jong Un as hero is being dubbed a pop banger by Gen Z TikTok users. The song, titled “Friendly Father”, praised the dictator with the lyrics describing Kim as “warm-hearted like your mother” and “benevolent like your father”.
In one scene, Kim can be seen hugging a child before kissing her on the cheek. In another, Kim is mobbed by a group of women. Other moments in the video show smiling military troops and bus riders of all ages singing along to the lyrics.
The song has garnered millions of views, including from many Gen-Z users who don’t really know the meaning to the song’s lyrics that shower admiration on the leader who this earlier year vowed to “thoroughly annihilate” the United States and rival South Korea if provoked.
Kim Jong-Un’s propaganda song gets Taylor Swift comparison
Users on internet described the song as “ABBA-coded”, BBC reported. This has helped the track reach levels of virality typically expected from a hit by somebody like Taylor Swift and not a propaganda machinery.
“Taylor Swift was not expecting to get blown out of the water right after dropping her new album,” one online user said, while another joked the song “needs a Grammy”.
Alexandra Leonzini, a Cambridge University scholar focusing on North Korean music told BBC such tracks also rarely feature any actual emotions.
“The idea is they want to motivate, to strive towards a common goal for the benefit of the nation… they don’t tend to produce songs like ballads,” she told the outlet.
The song also points to a direction the isolated country is shifting, such as with lyrics referring to Kim as “father” and “the Great.”
The terms previously had been used solely for North Korea’s first leader, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather Kim Il Sung.