WATCH: South Korean leader breaks into ‘American Pie’ at state dinner

A state dinner in honor of the president of South Korea took a surprising turn Wednesday when Yoon Suk Yeol apparently remembered how the music used to make him smile and treated guests to a few bars of a classic American song.

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During the dinner, in honor of Yoon’s visit to the U.S., stage stars Norm Lewis, Lea Salonga and Jessica Vosk serenaded guests with a collection of Broadway tunes. The trio then offered an encore of Don McLean’s “American Pie,” which they said they heard was one of Yoon’s favorites.

When the stars finished the song, first lady Jill Biden took Yoon by the arm and pulled him onstage, The New York Times reported.

“We know this is one of your favorite songs, ‘American Pie,’” President Joe Biden said to Yoon.

“Yes, that’s true,” Yoon said through a Korean translator. “When I was going to school, it was one of my favorite songs.”

“We want to hear you sing it,” Biden said.

“It’s been a while but …” Yoon replied.

Yoon, who had not spoken any English during his arrival or during the joint press conference he held with Biden, began to sing the opening lines of the song that McLean wrote about the state of America in the 1960s.

As Yoon crooned, “A long, long time ago,” the opening stanza of the song, guests broke into applause and shouts of delight at the South Korean leader’s vocal skills.

“American Pie,” McLean has explained, is his interpretation of what was happening in the country during the turbulent decade after the end of the “happy 1950s,” which happened, according to McLean, when singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JD “the Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in a plane crash in February of 1959.

When Yoon finished, he received a standing ovation.

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