On August 9, actress Han Ji-hye took her place in front of the mic at Intersound recording studio in Seoul.

She was there to sing the (or should I say one of many) Olympic theme song “Friends” with a guy identified merely as “Chinese star William.” (Using those details, I’ve been unable to Google anything more relevant than William Hung — and Naver gives me, alternately, Prince William or Tony Leung — and I know that’s not right. Anyone got more info on the guy? Thanks for the identification, he is Leon Jay Williams.)

Han was brought to this project via a proposal from the Chinese Olympic committee to sing “Friends” as the official swimming theme (er, is this new? Does each event get a theme song? Cuz I’d like to hear what they’d call the theme for boxing (“Hit Him”? “No Longer Friends”?) or, say, badminton). The song will mark the men’s 400m freestyle event taking place on August 10, at which 18-year-old Korean swimmer (and gold-medal hopeful) Park Tae-hwan is to compete.

Han isn’t a total rookie in the recording studio — she surprised with her singing for the OST of her recent movie Humming. She says, “Do you know that my dream as a child was to be a singer? I’ve always loved dancing and singing, so there was a time I briefly thought, ‘I should become a singer.’” She put those dreams away when she became an actress instead, but sees this as a chance to do something new.

“I’d love for this theme song to cheer on our athletes even a little. I hope that they meet with good results befitting the amount of hard work they’ve put into this,” she said.

The recording session was rushed, as Han Ji-hye is in the midst of filming East of Eden. Finally — can’t wait for that show to start airing so we can stop hearing about how it’s about to start airing.

Via My Daily