Psy performs in Miami, Florida.
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Jingle Ball 2012
March 19, 2013 1:55 PM ET
Psy will change the lyrics of the potential follow-up to "Gangnam Style" out of concern they might offend Arabs. The song was to be called "Assarabia," or "Assaravia" in English, The Associated Press reports.
The word is a South Korean slang term used to to express thrills and has no racial or bodily connotations, yet worries that same listeners might misinterpret the title and take offense are prompting Psy to change it.
Psy's 'Gangnam Style' Tops One Billion YouTube Views
Psy announced he would be changing the title, as well as some of the lyrics, on a South Korean social media site yesterday.
After a massive break-out 2012 that saw "Gangnam Style" become the most watched video in YouTube's history (it currently has about 1.44 billion views), Psy said he was ready to move on to his next single after performing the smash on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.
"I'm really working hard on a new single right now, and I'm not saying ['Gangnam'] is ending on Dick Clark — I still have a lot of invitations to perform it . . . I'll be in Paris, and in February I got invited to perform in China, and I've still got to do promo," Psy said at the time. "So let me say that in America I need a new single because 'Gangnam Style' got too popular, so I've got to write a new single."
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