South Korean pop star PSY broke the stereotype of good look and well-choreographed dance. With such trait plus the sense of humor, PSY launched himself into an international stardom through "Gangnam Style". He was born Park Jae-Sang on December 31, 1977 in South Korea and enrolled himself at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1997. 

Despite getting the classical training, PSY did not gain much from it. "I rarely went to school. At that time, I seriously doubted that you could learn creativity in school. Music isn't something you can just learn from other people. Sometimes I regret missing classes. In hindsight, though, I became more creative because of the years of rebellion. I started out as a hip-hop musician and listened to Eminem and Tupac a lot. I love their music, especially their lyrics," he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. 

PSY stayed in the U.S. until 2000 and returned home to become a recording artist. His first full-length album titled "PSY from the PSYcho World!" was released in 2001. The album immediately stirred up controversies because of "inappropriate content", bizarre dance moves and even for his unconventional appearance. His second album, which was released ...

a year later, was also drawing criticisms mainly for its blunt lyrics. 

PSY went for two years of mandatory military service between 2003 and 2005. However, because he did not properly serve his full-term service, he was redrafted in 2007, being released in 2009. He married his girlfriend Yoo Hye Yeon in 2006 and had twins with her. 

PSY switched entertainment agencies in 2010 and later released his best-selling album to date, "PSY's Best 6th Part 1". The song "Gangnam Style" quickly became popular locally and internationally, thanks to the catchy tune as well as the "horsey" dance moves. Many artists such as Britney Spears have made comment after the video became a viral hit on YouTube. The video received over 230 million views on the video-sharing site, making it number one on YouTube's Most Viewed Video of the Month. 

"Gangnam Style" also ranked number one on iTunes Music Video charts, while the single entered Billboard Hot 200. Due to his sudden popularity, he was invited to the U.S. to appear on CNN in August 2012. From there, he kept making public appearances in such events as MTV Video Music Awards and "Saturday Night Live". Stateside, he was later signed to Schoolboy Records, which is Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun's label. 

Speaking of "Gangnam Style", PSY explained, "Gangnam means, it's like Beverly Hills of Korea. But the guy doesn't look like Beverly Hills. Dance doesn't look like Beverly Hills. ...And the situation in music video doesn't look like Beverly Hills. But he keeps saying I'm Beverly Hills style. So that's the point. It's sort of a twist." 

2010–12: 5th studio album and debut performance in Japan

Owing to financial difficulties, Psy could no longer release his own songs. His wife encouraged him to join the South Korean music label YG Entertainment, whose founder and chief executive officer Yang Hyun-suk was an old friend of Psy's. In 2010, Psy joined YG Entertainment. The K-pop singer Kim Heechul, from the boyband Super Junior, expressed that he'd wished Psy would have joined his group's label SM Entertainment instead. Psy released his fifth album PsyFive in 2010, and its lead single "Right Now" was banned from under-19 audiences by South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family for what it deemed an "obscene" lyric, "Life is like toxic alcohol".[40] Despite the ban, Psy received awards during the 2011 Melon Music Awards and Mnet Asian Music Awards. Psy had, up until this point, topped domestic music charts half a dozen times throughout his twelve-year career in South Korea.

 On January 7, 2012, Psy performed alongside K-pop bands Bigbang and 2NE1 in front of 80,000 Japanese fans during the YG Family Concert in Osaka. His performance was broadcast by Mezamashi TV (mezamashi meaning "wake-up alarm"), a Japanese news magazine show produced by Fuji Television. This marked his first appearance on a foreign broadcasting network. During the concert, Psy introduced himself to his Japanese fans with a sign that read "I’m a famous singer well-known for driving the audience wild in Korea, but here, today, I’m just a little chubby newcomer" and sang five of his hit songs while Japanese TV commentators expressed their approval in their astonishment at his humorous incorporation of the moves of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé.

2012–13: "Gangnam Style" and unexpected international breakthrough

In July 2012, Psy released his sixth album Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1 and the song "Gangnam Style" appeared in broadcasting networks and newspapers outside Asia. On August 14, "Gangnam Style" ranked first on YouTube's 'Most Viewed Videos' monthly chart; on August 21, 2012, "Gangnam Style" officially charted No. 1 on the iTunes Music Video Charts, overtaking Justin Bieber's "As Long as You Love Me" and Katy Perry's "Wide Awake"; this feat was the first for a South Korean artist. After the video went viral, celebrities quickly jumped on board, with Katy Perry, Britney Spears, and Tom Cruise taking to Twitter to share their delight. The Gangnam Style phenomenon has also popularized his older music videos, such as "Right Now." On September 14, 2012, he appeared on The Today Show on NBC in New York City, performing the song live and teaching dance moves to the anchors. The following day, he also made a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live during a skit featuring "Gangnam Style."

Riding high on the success of Gangnam Style, Psy was signed by Scooter Braun to Braun's Schoolboy Records, a label distributed by Republic Records. In early September, the Gangnam district awarded Psy with a plaque and named him an honorary ambassador. On October 24, 2012, Psy was recognized by the United Nations as an "International sensation." According to Reuters, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon scheduled a meeting with Psy in the belief that music has great power to overcome intolerance. On October 23, 2012, they met at the United Nations Headquarters where Ban expressed his desire to work with Psy. He remarked that Psy has an "unlimited global reach" and said, "I hope that we can work together using your global reach." According to Korean newspaper The Dong-a Ilbo, Psy was appointed as a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). On November 7, 2012, Psy held a speech in England at the Oxford Union to discuss the inspiration behind Gangnam Style and his next album. He told the audience that due to the success of Gangnam Style he is now living in both a dream and a nightmare, as it will be difficult for his next song to equal Gangnam Style's success. He also talked about his early life and the moment he realized Gangnam Style became famous. According to The Independent, tickets for his speech were "in such demand they had to be assigned by ballot – a method not required when former presidential candidate John McCain spoke earlier that year, nor when Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama nor Michael Jackson spoke."

On November 12, 2012, Psy became the second South Korean music artist to appear at the MTV Europe Music Awards where he performed Gangnam Style and held off competition from Rihanna, Katy Perry and Lady Gagato win the "Best Video" award. The event was broadcast worldwide and hosted by the German model and actress Heidi Klum, who introduced Psy to the audience as the "undisputed King of Pop". A few days later, American singer-songwriter Madonna performed a mashup of "Gangnam Style" and "Give It 2 Me" alongside Psy and her backup dancers during a concert in New York City at Madison Square Garden during her MDNA Tour. Psy later told reporters that his gig with Madonna had "topped his list of accomplishments."

On November 24, 2012, "Gangnam Style" became the most viewed video in YouTube history, surpassing the previous most watched video, Justin Bieber's "Baby". The number of views were achieved about eleven times faster than Bieber's. Psy later won four awards at the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong. He met actor and stunt performer Jackie Chan, who called him a role model that proved that "dreams do come true". On December 21, "Gangnam Style" reached 1 billion views on YouTube, becoming the first video to do so. In 2013, Psy made his debut on South American television by giving an interview on the Brazilian news program Fantástico. It was announced on January 27, 2013, that Psy would perform at South Korea's presidential inauguration ceremony on February 25, 2013.

2013–present: "Gentleman" and future endeavors

On April 12, 2013, the audio of Psy's follow-up single "Gentleman" was leaked onto the internet, a day before its official international release. On the following day, the music video for 'Gentleman' premiered at Psy's 'Happening' Concert, which was attended by 50,000 people and live streamed on YouTube to an audience of 150,000. Guest performers of the concert included Lee Hi, 2NE1 and G-Dragon. He had reportedly invested US$2.7 million into the production of the concert. Psy is slated to star in a South Korean remake of the Hindi film ABCD: Any Body Can Dance, taking over the role of Vishnu (Prabhu Deva) in the original film. On April 29, 2013, he became the tourism ambassador of South Korea.

On May 6, 2013, PSY appeared on Live! with Kelly and Michael and taught Kelly Ripa & Michael Strahan how to do the Gentleman Dance. He appeared on the show again on May 21, 2013 and performed his recent song, "Gentleman".

On May 9, 2013, Psy gave a special lecture at Harvard University. In this lecture, he spoke about his passion and other reasons for his popularity. In the finale of American Idol season 12 on May 16, 2013, Psy performed "Gentleman".

On May 17, 2013, according to YG Entertainment, Psy will sing as part of the pre-match entertainment at Stadio Olimpico on May 26. On May 21, 2013, Psy and his troupe performed his song "Gentleman" on the Finale of Dancing With the Stars, Season 16. On May 24, 2013, people began voting daily, at www.psygobibigo.com, for one of the Top Three Chefs, based on more than one hundred ninety video entries, in Psy's "Psy Needs a Chef" video contest. The Top Three Chefs in this contest were Aaron Contreras, Dj Park and Ricardo Caput. Voting ended June 10, 2013 at midnight Greenwich Mean Time. Aaron Contreras received 2,005 votes. Ricardo received 22,384 votes. Dj Park, won the popular vote with 22,533 votes. Winners were to be announced June 14, 2013. However, Psy postponed his decision until June 18, 2013, and chose Ricardo to be his chef, in spite of the popular vote.

On May 26, 2013, Psy and his troupe performed his two last singles opening the final match of the 2012–13 Coppa Italia. On June 8, 2013, Psy and his troupe performed "Gentleman" on the Finale of Britain's Got Talent, Series 7.

On June 16, 2013, Psy co-hosted the Canadian MuchMusic Video Awards, where he also opened the show with his world-wide hit Gangnam Style and ended the show with Gentlemen.