WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama and his family participated in the 31st annual “Christmas in Washington” charity concert today. Featuring performances including Motown icon Diana Ross and the Naval Academy Glee Club, the event’s proceeds are donated to a leading children’s hospital. 
 
 “Tonight is a chance to get in the Christmas spirit, to spread some joy and sing along to artists who have much better voices than we do,” Obama said in remarks toward the end of the evening. “But it’s also a chance to make a real difference in the lives of some very brave young people being treated at Children’s National Medical Center. Many of these kids and their parents are going through tough times right now and your support helps give them a reason to hope.” 
 
 The president said he wished the spirit of giving lasted throughout the entire year because, “that’s really what Christmas is all about.” 
 
 Obama went on to comment that while it is a holiday of the Christian faith, many world religions espouse treating “our brothers and sisters with the same love and compassion that we want for ourselves.” 
 
 “Each of us is incredibly blessed in so many ways,” he said. “But those blessings aren’t just meant to be enjoyed, they’re meant to be used and shared with those who have less.” 
 
 Entertainment for Christmas in Washington is not chosen by the White House, but it has been tradition for presidents to attend the charity event since its inception in 1981. Tonight’s gathering was hosted by late-night comedian Conan O’Brien. 
 
 “Yes, tonight is about Conan, and Diana Ross, and Santa, all the other talented folks on this stage,” Obama continued. “But it’s also about the Americans who are spending this holiday in a hospital bed or a shelter, or protecting our freedom on the battlefield far from home.” 
 
 The president concluded by asking the audience to keep those less fortunate in their prayers. TNT network will broadcast the performance on Dec. 21. 
 
 Before his remarks the president met with the “elves” of the event, child performers dressed as Santa Claus’ helpers. As the children rang jingle bells President Obama cheered, “Ho, Ho, Ho,” adding, “You might be the best elves ever.” 
 
 The elves were once patients of the children’s hospital and were attending the performance with their families. 
 
 Tonight’s festivities weren’t without some controversy, however, over the stage appearance of South Korean rapper PSY. 
 
 PSY rose to international stardom this year when his single, “Gangnam Style” went viral, eventually setting a new record as the most watched video on YouTube. But his image was marred last week when footage surfaced of the artist singing explicit, derogatory lyrics aimed at insulting U.S. service members in 2004. In 2002 he smashed a model of an American tank on stage. 
 
 The artist, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, issued a lengthy apology on Friday for the performances. 
 
 “While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted,” it reads. “I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused anyone by those words.” 
 
 The full text and background of PSY’s apology can be found here. 
 
 Gangnam Style is a satirical work about the Gangnam-gu district of Seoul, a wealthy and influential area of the capital. The music video’s amusing choreography, imagery, and catchy track helped propel it to the top of American music charts, but as reported by the Atlantic, its subversive critique of the region’s opulence and class divide may have been lost in translation on some western listeners. 
 
 Psy has made numerous appearances on U.S. television, including “Good Morning America.” 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| He made it. Fresh off the tarmac from Minneapolis. Or was it Miami? They blur together. Definitely someplace where “Gangnam Style” is every bit as inescapable as it is everywhere else. 
 
 Psy, the 34-year-old global pop tsunami from South Korea, is here to sing at “Christmas in Washington,” Sunday’s annual televised charity concert at the National Building Museum. The first family has attended the gig for the past 30 Decembers. The president sits front and center. This requires the artists to carol with their hearts thrumming in their throats. 
 
 Psy’s heart might pound a little faster. He’s performing for President Obama just 50-odd hours after news spread across the Internet that he sang graphic, anti-American lyrics at a 2004 protest concert. 
 
 But backstage, Psy seems supremely calm. In warm, measured tones, he describes his first visit to Washington as “an honor.” He deeply regrets those words he sang all those years ago. And if this weekend’s media spasm ends up crashing his stateside stardom even faster than it was built? “I deserve it,” he says. 
 
 But first, he will perform a surreal act of contrition: He will dance across a poinsettia-dotted stage as if racing a phantom thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby. 
 
 Singer Diana Ross performs classic Christmas songs at TNT’s “Christmas in Washington” special. (The Washington Post) 
 
 Since the video for “Gangnam Style” first sprouted on YouTube on July 15, it has set records, capturing more than 917 million views. (If arithmetic isn’t your forte, that’s just 83 million shy of a cool billion.) The clip features Psy rapping in Korean over a juicy, vroom-vroom bass line, galloping in place, imaginary lasso twirling over his inky-slick do. 
 
 There was something instantly, undeniably, universally magnetic about all of that giddy-upping, but Psy didn’t materialize on YouTube out of thin air. 
 
 Born Park Jae-sang, he came to the States in 1996 to study business at Boston University, and then music at Berklee College of Music. He flew home to Seoul without a degree in either, launched a solo career in 2001 and eventually became a star of South Korea’s K-Pop explosion. 
 
 Surrounded by pop heartthrobs with more generous DNA, he stood out. “Gangnam Style” reflects that. Its lyrics poke fun at the culture of Seoul’s Gangnam District, where trendy young movers and shakers possess all the style and grace that Psy purportedly doesn’t. 
 
 After the video bloomed on YouTube, Psy was snapped up by Scooter Braun, the music-biz whiz kid who also signed a young Justin Bieber. (He brought the Biebs to “Christmas in Washington” in 2009 and 2011.) More recently, Psy dueted with Madonna at Madison Square Garden and with Hammer on the American Music Awards. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently requested a meeting. “He mentioned to the press that he feels jealous [of] me because he became the second [most] famous Korean,” Psy says backstage, his hair ungreased in a mushroomy pouf. “It was a proud moment.” 
 
 Two hours after he spoke, Psy would perform for the president, another proud moment — and in light of Friday’s news, a surprising one. (The White House emphasized it had no part in arranging the concert lineup. The president refrained from mentioning Psy’s name in his closing remarks but did shake his hand.) 
 
 In 2002, Psy punctuated a performance by smashing a model of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The gesture was a response to an accident in which a U.S. military vehicle struck and killed two teenage girls outside of Seoul. In 2004, he performed “Dear American,” a song by South Korean metal band N.E.X.T. that called for the killing of U.S. soldiers and their families. 
 
 “There was huge sorrow all over the country,” Psy says of that time, when outrage over the U.S. military presence in South Korea was hot and widespread. “Explain and express about the sorrow . . . I thought that’s kind of part of my job . . . But the specific words that I used, it was too much.” 
 
 He has more perspective today. He’s since become a husband, a father of twin girls, and has even served in the South Korean military. “After that eight, nine years, I have been changed a lot.” 
 
 With fresh controversy bubbling beneath his feet, he says he’s more concerned with forgiveness than his American pop future. 
 
 “If it’s gonna hurt my career or not, that’s not important,” Psy says. “The most important thing is that as a human being, I really, fully regret the using of [those] kinds of words.” 
 
 Seats, everyone. Various invited wonk folk. Veep Biden. The Obamas. They laugh at host Conan O’Brien’s zingers and clap politely after carols from soul great Diana Ross, pop singer Demi Lovato and “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery. 
 
 Psy strides out toward the end of the program, sporting a red sequined sweater, crooning about chestnuts and Jack Frost’s nose-nipping. 
 
 This is a wink-wink fake-out, of course. The speakers promptly erupt with the squiggly bass frequencies everyone wants to hear. Psy dutifully hops on his invisible steed and trots to a tweaked refrain: “Oppan Christmas style!” 
 
 It’s a huge room, and every nook of it fills with giddy, gushy, holly, jolly applause. Psy throws a thumbs-up and silently mouths a “Thank you.” 
 
 “Christmas in Washington” airs on TNT on Dec. 21 at 8 p.m.
– President Obama and his family attended a charity concert starring K-Pop juggernaut PSY last night despite controversy over anti-American lyrics he rapped in 2004. Other performers at the annual "Christmas in Washington" concert, which raises funds for a children's hospital and has been attended by the first family every year since its inception in 1981, included Diana Ross and the Naval Academy Glee Club, ABC reports. Conan O'Brien hosted the event, which will be broadcast on December 21. At the concert, the "Gangnam Style" superstar, who has issued an apology for his anti-US rap, crooned about chestnuts and Jack Frost before launching into his megahit, the Washington Post reports. Obama shook his hand after the show but didn't mention him in his speech to the crowd." Yes, tonight is about Conan, and Diana Ross, and Santa, all the other talented folks on this stage," Obama said. "But it’s also about the Americans who are spending this holiday in a hospital bed or a shelter, or protecting our freedom on the battlefield far from home."