Heechul talks about his royalty income for composing Orange Caramel's 'Shanghai Romance'

JTBC's 'Ssul Jeon' discussed songwriters on November 7, which naturally brought up Heechul's very own debut composition for Orange Caramel.

Heo Ji Woong said, "I really like Orange Caramel.  I heard that Heechul composed a song for Orange Caramel," referring to the song "Shanghai Romance."

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Heechul revealed, "I'm close with the chief of Orange Caramel's agency.  While we were drinking together, he made an offer.  I have a knack for this, as well."

He continued, "The royalties were quite good.  While in the army and when the song was doing well, I would receive over 3 million won (~ $2,800 USD) a month."

After reciting the lyrics of the song, Kim Gu Ra suggested they were immature: "You should have written something with depth--what is this?  You sure a kid just learning to write for the first time didn't write this?" 

Heechul said, "In the second verse, I wrote parts like that.  After the chief read 'I can only meet you if I rode a plane there, but as I have no money, I can neither go nor see you,' he said, 'It's a different way of thinking.  I can sympathize,' so I received the okay."

However, Heo Ji Woong said in surprise, "That's worth 3 million won (~ $2,800 USD) in a month?"

Heechul replied, "This is worth 30 billion won (~ $28 million USD).  This is not a joke--after writing this song, I got a few offers, but I couldn't do them out of public interest," making everyone laugh.