South Korean pop singer Kim Jang-hoon will sing the famous Korean folk song “Arirang” during one of Italy’s largest cultural festivals to celebrate the March 1 anniversary of the Korean Independence Movement, his management agency said Tuesday.

Kim will sing the song together with a traditional Korean percussion ensemble at the main stage in San Marco Plaza, Venice, on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28 as a lead performer in the Carnival of Venice, the agency said.

He was previously scheduled to sing only on Feb. 27, the highlight of the carnival.

The festival’s organizing committee, however, allocated one more day after he appealed for a chance to celebrate the Korean national holiday by singing “Arirang” in public, it said. The holiday marks the people’s uprising in 1919 to secure independence from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.

The second-day performance is set to begin at 4 p.m. Feb. 28, which is midnight Korean time, due to an eight-hour time gap.

“Arirang,” often considered the unofficial national anthem of Korea, was inscribed on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity, in 2012.

“I’m both thrilled and feel burdened because I should meet the expectation of the carnival’s organizing committee,” Kim said through his agency. “I’ll do my best in preparing for the event as music is a common language of all countries.”

The 46-year-old star is well known for his love of Dokdo, a set of South Korean islets on the East Sea also claimed by Japan, and for donations to charity groups. (Yonhap)