Damon Albarn takes daughter on family holidays to North Korea
Blur frontman Damon Albarn, 57, takes his daughter, Missy Albarn, 26, on family holidays to North Korea to educate her about global politics.
Damon Albarn takes his daughter on family holidays to North Korea.
The Blur frontman, 57, makes life "too easy" for his daughter Missy Albarn, 26, at times, but the star also confessed he has been "hard" on her when it comes to educating Missy about global politics, by giving her first-hand experience in the communist country.
Speaking on The Adam Buxton Podcast, he said: "I'm guilty of making life too easy for my children in some ways, but I've also been very hard on my daughter in terms of culture and education.
"We go on family holidays to North Korea.
"Maybe she's more politically aware than a lot of people in her generation.
"Actually, I know that, because she's always telling me how frustrated she is when no one seems to care what's happening."
Damon famously penned Blur song Pyongyang - named after the capital city of North Korea - following a trip to the state, which is ruled by ruthless dictator Kim Jong Un.
The singer previously described North Korea as "a magical kingdom", where residents "exist under this mad spell".
In 2015, he told GQ magazine: "When you go there I can best describe it as a magical kingdom in the sense that everyone is under a spell. The statues and the edifices are absolutely everywhere - everywhere you go you're reminded of the Kim family. They are truly omnipresent.
"But the only real evidence of their elite existence is when you occasionally in the corner of your eye see a couple of blacked out Range Rovers speeding through an empty street. But apart from that North Korea is full of normal people just existing under this mad spell."
Damon also believes most North Koreans wouldn't even be aware that former pro basketball player Dennis Rodman visited the country several times in the 2010s and formed a friendship with leader Jong Un.
He added: "It is extraordinary but [Rodman's] presence, to the average North Korean, they would have no idea [about him].
"I'm just fascinated to see from their perspective how he was presented.
"Him being American is the most challenging thing to the ideology. And the fact that he's black, he's tattooed and he's got piercings.
"It made him almost like the last person on earth you would imagine who would get an audience in North Korea.
"When I was there I saw in the English language paper that there had been a visit from basketball players, but there were no pictures of anything.
"I just wonder whether it was advertised there at all. Maybe they don't really know that it happened. Maybe it's a wind-up to America. In a way he's been totally used as a puppet. So it's a bit sad really."
In 2017, Rodman revealed on Good Morning Britain that he had enjoyed doing "a lot of cool things" with Jong Un, including karaoke sessions, horse riding and skiing.
