John Park returning with ‘U’

Korean-American singer John Park is returning to the spotlight with the release of his latest single, “U,” on Friday.

The 45-second music video teaser for Park’s new up-tempo, U.K. pop-style single has racked up more than 56,000 hits on YouTube in less than a week. According to an announcement by Farm Music officials on Thursday, the single was produced by the international production team Joombas Music Group, which was the team behind Justin Bieber’s popular 2009 single “One Less Lonely Girl.” 

Park, who was a semifinalist on “American Idol” Season 9 and runner-up on local singing audition program “Superstar K2,” released his first studio album, “Inner Child,” last year. The all-Korean album featured 10 tracks, as well as English-language bonus track “Sipping My Life Away,” which the singer wrote and composed himself.

“U” marks the singer’s first release since he featured on Kang Seung-won’s track “Alcohol” in April.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)