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Rain's Global Ambition Alerts New York Times

The K-pop star Rain's ambitions attracted the attention of arguably the world's weightiest newspaper, the New York Times, in its doorstop Sunday edition ahead of Thursday's concert by the heartthrob at Madison Square Garden. Under the heading "The Ambassador", the paper said the man dubbed, in a two-edged compliment, Korea's Justin Timberlake "wants nothing less than to break down barriers, build cultural bridges and become the first Asian pop star to succeed in America".

The paper said Rain "had been dreaming about Madison Square Garden since he was a child imitating Michael Jackson's moves". It also relayed the moving tale of his acceptance by management firm JYP Entertainment run by singer J.Y. Park when his mother was already very ill and had to miss her son's debut. Park, portrayed as Rain's Pygmalion in the article, told the daily the singer was motivated by a sense of obligation to his late mother. "He promised his mom that he was going to be the no. 1 singer in the whole world", it quoted Park as saying. "That's why he never parties, never drinks, never goes out and practices hours every day".

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