| Name | BoA |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Birth name | 권보아 Kwon Boa |
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| Born | November 05, 1986 |
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| Origin | Guri, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea |
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| Genre | Pop, dance, electropop, electronica, R&B; |
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| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, composer, dancer, model, Actress, voice actress, Record producer |
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| Years active | 2000–present |
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| Label | SM Entertainment (South Korea)Avex Trax (Japan)SM Entertainment USA |
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| Associated acts | SM Town, Verbal, M-Flo, Anyband |
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| Url | |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Hangul | 권보아 |
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| Hanja | |
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| Rr | Gwon Boa |
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| Mr | Kwŏn Poa |
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Boa Kwon (, Kwon Boa, born November 5, 1986 is a Korean singer, active in South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Born and raised in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, BoA was discovered by SM Entertainment talent agents when she accompanied her older brother to a talent search. In 2000, after two years of training, she released ID; Peace B, her debut Korean album, under SM Entertainment. Two years later, she released her debut Japanese album, Listen to My Heart, under the Avex label. On October 14, 2008, under SM Entertainment USA, a subdivision of SM Entertainment, BoA debuted in the United States with the single "Eat You Up" and released her debut English-language album, BoA on March 17, 2009.
Influenced by hip hop and R&B; singers such as Nelly and Janet Jackson, many of BoA's songs fall into those genres. As the singer feels she does not "have any talent for writing [songs]", the writing and composition of her songs are handled mostly by her staff; for this reason, she has drawn some criticism. have contributed to her commercial success in South Korea and Japan and her popularity throughout East Asia. She is the only non-Japanese Asian to have two million-selling albums in Japan and is one of only two artists to have six consecutive number-one studio albums on the Oricon charts since her debut. BoA is known as one of the most respected artists in Kpop today.
Career
2000–2002: Debut
At age eleven, BoA accompanied her older brother to an SM Entertainment talent search. Though her brother was the one who auditioned, SM
talent scouts instead took notice of BoA and offered her a contract. Her parents initially opposed the notion of BoA's leaving school to enter the entertainment business but eventually consented at her older brothers' persuasion. Meanwhile, her Korean record label, SM Entertainment, made arrangements with Japanese label
Avex Trax to launch her music career in Japan. In early 2001, BoA released her first
mini-album,
Don't Start Now; it sold around 90,000 units. After its release, she took a hiatus from the Korean music industry to focus on the Japanese market at which time she worked to solidify her skills in Japanese. In 2001, she released her debut Japanese single, a Japanese version of the song, "
ID; Peace B" (originally from the eponymous album). The single reached #20 on the Oricon chart and was followed by "
Amazing Kiss", "
Kimochi wa Tsutawaru", and "Listen to My Heart"; the last became the singer's first single to enter the Oricon's Top Five. After the
September 11, 2001 attacks, BoA recorded the charity single "
The Meaning of Peace" with
Kumi Koda as part of Avex's
Song Nation project to raise funds for charity. Her debut Japanese album,
Listen to My Heart, was released on March 13, 2002. The album was a breakthrough in BoA's career: it became an
RIAJ-certified million-seller and debuted atop the Oricon, making it the first album by a Korean artist to reach the top. A single, "", was released on the same day as the album. After the release of
Listen to My Heart, BoA released her second Korean studio album,
No.1, a month later. The album sold around 544,000 units and became the fourth-best-selling record of the year in South Korea.
Jumping into the World (a Japanese re-release of the mini-album
Don't Start Now) and the Japanese single "
Don't Start Now" were released a month later on the same day.
2003–2005: Commercial success
BoA then released her seventh single "
Valenti". It became a Top Five single for the artist, peaking at the number-two position on the Oricon. BoA released two more singles "
Kiseki / No.1" and "", both which also peaked at the number-three position. At the end of the year, BoA released her second Korean mini-album
Miracle.
BoA's second Japanese studio album, Valenti (2003), became her best-selling album, with over 1,249,000 copies sold. In support of the album, BoA launched BoA 1st Live Tour Valenti, her first Japanese concert tour. Later that year, she released two Korean albums, Atlantis Princess and the mini-album Shine We Are!. The former was the fifth-best-selling South Korean record of the year with around 345,000 units sold; the latter sold around 58,000 units and was the fifty-second-best-selling record. Her third Japanese studio album, Love & Honesty (2004) was a musical "change in direction": it contained a rock-dance song ("Rock with You") and "harder" R&B.; Though the album failed to match Valenti in sales, it topped the Oricon chart for two weeks and became RIAJ-certified triple-platinum. In support of the album, BoA held a tour, Live Concert Tour 2004: Love & Honesty. The tour, which started in Saitama and ended in Yokohama, spanned nine performances and attracted approximately 105,000 attendants. Her first compilation album, Best of Soul (2005), however, sold over a million copies, making BoA the first non-Japanese Asian singer to have two million-selling albums in Japan. The album was the beginning of a foray into the Chinese market and contained two songs sung in Mandarin Chinese. Her fifth Korean album, Girls on Top, continued her image change. The album portrayed the singer as more "mature and self-confident" and was a "declaration of war on male chauvinism"; the "bohemian" look of the cover photograph represented "freedom and depth", while music videos and album photographs that portrayed BoA in traditional Korean dress brought the "idea of Korean womanhood" into her music. The album also continued BoA's foray into the Chinese market and, like the previous album, contained Mandarin Chinese songs. The album sold less than the previous album; it was the fourteenth-best-selling record of the year in South Korea with 113,000 units sold.
2006–2008: Next Stage
In 2006, BoA was mostly inactive in South Korea as she focused her attention on Japan; however, on September 21, 2006, she released her first digital single in Korea, a Korean version of "
Key of Heart". Her fourth Japanese studio album,
Outgrow, was released on February 15, 2006. The limited CD+DVD edition of the album contained music videos of the album's singles and a password to access a special version of the official website. The album reached the number-one spot on the Oricon chart for its first week of release, making it her fourth consecutive Japanese album to do so. It had low debut sales, however; with 220,000 copies sold, it became her lowest-selling first-week debut for a studio album at that point. those of
Valenti 615,000, and those of
Love and Honesty 296,000.|group=note}} "
Do the Motion", the first single from the album, reached the top spot, making her the fourth non-Japanese Asian to have a number-one single on the Oricon charts. "
Merry Christmas from BoA" (2005), the album's last single, was the singer's first digital single. In support of
Outgrow, BoA launched a special
Zepp tour,
B0A The Live, on September 29, 2006. The tour, which lasted until October 29, started from
Nagoya and contained twelve shows, two in each of the following cities: Nagoya,
Fukuoka,
Osaka, Tokyo,
Sendai, and
Sapporo. She staged her first Christmas concert on December 7, 2006.
BoA's fifth Japanese studio album, Made in Twenty (20) (2007), continued her transition from a "teenage girl" image to a more mature image. The album, which contained R&B; and dance songs as well as ballads, debuted at the top of the weekly Oricon charts, making the album her sixth in a row to do so. She began using a personal computer for composing one of the songs ("No More Make Me Sick"). On March 31, 2007, she launched a nationwide tour of Japan in support of the album. The tour, which sold about 70,000 tickets, was, according to BoA, "the biggest concert" she had ever given. Two tracks from the singles of Made in Twenty (20) were used as theme songs; "Your Color", from the single "" (2006), was used as the ending theme song for the Japanese release of the Xbox 360 game Ninety-Nine Nights. "Key of Heart", from the single "Key of Heart / Dotch" (2006), was the ending theme for the Japanese release of the movie Over the Hedge. She also released an English version of "Key of Heart", which was only available on the first press edition of the single. Later in 2007, Anycall (a Samsung brand) signed BoA, Xiah (of TVXQ), Tablo (of Epik High), and jazz pianist Jin Bora onto "Anyband", a band created specifically to promote Anycall. The band released only one single, "AnyBand".
With her sixth Japanese album, The Face (2008), BoA took more creative control over her music. At this time, BoA was influenced by electro-pop. Lyrically, BoA focused mainly on love, though "Be with You." (2008) was about a person's relationship with his dog. The album debuted at the top of the weekly Oricon charts, making BoA one of only two artists in Japan to have six consecutive studio albums top the Oricon weekly charts (the other is Ayumi Hamasaki, who has eight consecutive number-one albums).
2008–2010: Foray into America and Return to Japanese Market
On September 2, 2008, SM Entertainment announced that BoA would make her American debut under a new subsidiary label, SM Entertainment USA. BoA's debut American single "Eat You Up," produced by
Thomas Troelsen, was released online on October 21, 2008; The physical single was to be released in stores on November 11, 2008, but SM instead released a
promotional CD containing dance remixes of "Eat You Up". "Eat You Up" became a number-one Breakout on the
Hot Dance Club Play chart. The remix of "Eat You Up" featuring rapper
Flo Rida and was slated for release in late November and leaked onto the internet in December. BoA performed "Eat You Up" as well as other songs at
YouTube's Tokyo Live concert, and performed in New York City on December 3, 2008, as well as the
Jingle Ball at the
Anaheim Honda Center on December 6, 2008. She also performed the song "Look Who's Talking" at the event.
BoA released a triple-A-side single on February 18, 2009, "Eien/Universe/Believe in Love". On the same day, the Ravex single "Believe in Love" was released, featuring vocals by BoA. Her second compilation album, Best & USA was released on March 18. The album will be released in a two-disc or one-disc edition. The former will contain one disc with Japanese songs and one with her debut American album; the latter contains fourteen Japanese songs and two songs from her American debut album. BoA's self-titled English album was released on March 17. BoA headlined as a performer for the San Francisco Pride Festival on June 28, 2009 alongside Solange Knowles and The Cliks. She debuted her next single "Energetic", performing it for the first time in public. She also performed "Eat You Up" and "I Did It for Love."
On August 31, SM USA released BoA Deluxe, the repackaged version of her debut English album. The album contained two new tracks and the radio edit version of "Energetic". After the release of BoA Deluxe, BoA went back to the Japanese market releasing a new single entitled "Bump Bump!" (October 2009), which features label-mate Verbal from M-Flo. Following the release of "Bump Bump!", BoA released "" (December 2009) and she held a Christmas concert in December. Her seventh Japanese album, Identity was released on February 10, 2010.
2010-present: 10 year Korean debut anniversary and current activities
On March 1, 2010,
SM Entertainment announced that BoA will make a comeback in South Korea for her 10th debut anniversary and is going to release a full-length Korean album five years after her
Girls on Top album in 2005.
On July 21, 2010, Avex released "Woo Weekend" single, whose lead song that was used to promote Disney on Ice's 25th Anniversary in Japan
BoA's official Korean website was updated July 23, 2010 announcing that her comeback sixth Korean album entitled Hurricane Venus. Hurricane Venus was released on August 5, 2010 and promoted with two official videos of the songs "Game" and "Hurricane Venus", which were also released as the albums singles. Hurricane Venus was released on August 5, 2010 and debuted at No.1, where it stayed for 2 weeks. The two singles, "Game" and "Hurricane Venus" charted at No.6 and No.1 respectively.
It was recently announced that Hurricane Venus would be repackaged with two new songs and a completely redesigned physical copy, under the name of Copy & Paste. The repackaged version was released on September 27, 2010.
Prior to the October 22, 2010 article on BoAjjang, the report of an upcomming BoA dance film, centered in NYC, surfaced on a BoA fanpage. It detailed the same info as the October 22nd report. BoAjjang was also member of this fanpage.
On October 22, 2010, it was reported by BoA fansite, BoAjjang, that BoA is currently preparing for a currently unnamed U.S. dance film directed by Save the Last Dance screenwriter Duane Adler. The article also went on to state that she would release a new Japanese single before the years end, with a plan to return to the American market in 2011.
On November 24, 2010, Avex Entertainment, as well as SM Entertainment Japan, released a statement about the renewal of contracts of SM artists signed to Avex.
On December 8, 2010, Avex also released a digital single, "I See Me", for a commercial that promotes new Audio Technica headphones in Japan.
Image and artistry
BoA lists hip hop as her main musical influence, though she also enjoys R&B.; Her favorite musicians are Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Nelly, Britney Spears, Brian McKnight, Justin Timberlake, Pink, and Jay-Z; as a result, much of BoA's music is either dance pop or R&B.; Because she also sings ballads, she is often compared to fellow Japanese singers Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada. Her debut album, ID; Peace B, contained urban pop, "slickly produced" ballads, and "upbeat dance tunes". As her career went on, she began experimenting with different styles: Valenti contained mostly ballads; Love and Honesty was an experiment with "harder" R&B; and rock music.
Because the composition and writing of BoA's songs is handled mostly by her staff, BoA has been criticized as being a "manufactured pop star". In response to such criticism, BoA said that "if one person were to force their own will on something, then things that should have gone right could easily go wrong" and that she is "not all that unhappy with the expression that [she is] a manufactured star. In a way, that is true. Because SM Entertainment created the environment and all the surrounding conditions, [she is] able to be successful in the way [she is] now." Other artists she has collaborated with are Soul'd Out, Dabo, Verbal (of M-Flo), Rah-D, Seamo, TVXQ, Yutaka Furakawa (of the band Doping Panda), and Crystal Kay (for her single ). American rock band Weezer covered "Meri Kuri" on the Japanese version of their album Weezer (The Red Album).
BoA is a "top artist" in South Korea and Japan; her popularity in the latter is attributed to her linguistic skills (she speaks and records in Japanese, Korean, and English) and a Japanese interest in Korean pop culture started in the early 2000s when the two countries began promoting cultural exchanges. BoA's popularity extends throughout East Asia; she has fans in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. She has expressed plans to enter a global market; she stated in an interview, "I will [...] get recognition in the U.S. and Europe to become a world-renowned Diva." In June 2006, the music video of her Korean song "My Name" became the first music video ever shown on MTV K, an MTV music channel directed at Korean Americans.
Because of her wide appeal, BoA has appeared in advertisements for many brands. Among the brands she has promoted are Olympus, Nike, L'Oréal, Japanese cosmetic company Kosé, Skechers, Audio-Technica, and GM Daewoo. Four of her songs have been used as themes. "Every Heart: Minna no Kimochi" was used as the ending theme for the anime InuYasha; "Beside You: Boku o Yobu Koe" was used as the opening theme for the anime Monkey Typhoon; "Key of Heart" was the theme song for the Japanese release of Over the Hedge; and "Your Color" was the theme song of the video game Ninety-Nine Nights. Her widespread popularity has also made her a "cultural ambassador"; she has represented South Korea in inter-Asian musical events and has appeared in an Oxford University Press-published English-language textbook.
Other work
From 2001 to 2007, BoA hosted
Beat it BoA's World, a radio program on the
Japan FM Network. In September 2004, BoA instigated controversy in Japan when she donated
₩50 million to a memorial project for
Korean independence activist and
nationalist An Jung-geun. BoA voiced Heather the opossum in the Korean and Japanese version of
Over the Hedge. In 2008, Korean jewelry brand Ramee released Ramee by BoA, a line of jewelry designed by the singer herself. On June 9, 2008, BoA and nine other artists from around the world recorded an English cover of
Wei Wei's "Dedication of Love". Produced by
Roald Hoffmann and Brian Alan, the single was used to raise funds for victims of the
Sichuan Earthquake.
Discography
;Korean studio albums
2000: ID; Peace B
2001: Jumping into the World (mini-album; titled Don't Start Now in Korea)
2002: No.1
2002: Miracle (mini-album)
2003: Atlantis Princess
2003: Shine We Are! (mini-album)
2004: My Name
2005: Girls on Top
2010: Hurricane Venus
;English studio albums
2009: BoA
;Japanese studio albums
2002: Listen to My Heart
2003: Valenti
2004: Love & Honesty
2006: Outgrow
2007: Made in Twenty (20)
2008: The Face
2010: Identity
;Compilation albums
2004: K-pop Selection
2005: Best of Soul
2009: Best & USA
;Remix albums
2002: Peace B. Remixes
2003: Next World
Tours
2003: Live Tour 2003: Valenti
2004: BoA Live Tour 2004: Love & Honesty
2005: Arena Tour 2005: Best of Soul
2006: BoA the Live "Ura BoA... Kikase Kei" (The Other Side of BoA... Listen)
2007: Arena Tour 2007: Made in Twenty (20)
2007: BoA the Live 2007 "X'mas"
2008: Live Tour 2008: The Face
2009: BoA THE LIVE 2009 "X'mas"
2010: Live Tour 2010: Identity
2010: BoA the Live 2010 "X'mas"
Awards
List of awards received by BoA
See also
Contemporary culture of South Korea
Korean wave
Footnotes
References
External links
Category:1986 births
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:Avex Trax artists
Category:Child singers
Category:English-language singers
Category:Japanese-language singers
Category:K-pop singers
Category:Living people
Category:Korean Mandopop singers
Category:People from Gyeonggi-do
Category:SM Town
Category:South Korean dancers
Category:South Korean female singers
Category:South Korean pop singers
Category:South Korean Roman Catholics
Category:South Korean singer-songwriters
Category:World Music Awards winners
![[MP3] Crystal Kay's](http://web.archive.org./web/20110628105459im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fsZmW3RK5g0/0.jpg "[MP3] Crystal Kay's")
![The Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the Boinae family found in Central America, South America and some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive. Ten subspecies are currently recognized, although some of these are controversial.[2] This article focuses on the species Boa constrictor as a whole, but also specifically on the nominate subspecies Bo](http://web.archive.org./web/20110628105459im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/32/87/ab31827fa0f92e08e753151ca105_grande.jpg "The Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the Boinae family found in Central America, South America and some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive. Ten subspecies are currently recognized, although some of these are controversial.[2] This article focuses on the species Boa constrictor as a whole, but also specifically on the nominate subspecies Bo")
![Boa madagascariensis is a species of the Boidae (boa) family that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. A common name is Madagascar (or Malagasy[2]) ground boa.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110628105459im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/a1/81/69bd42d7baf95fd698bf114854b8_grande.jpg "Boa madagascariensis is a species of the Boidae (boa) family that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. A common name is Madagascar (or Malagasy[2]) ground boa.")
![The Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the Boinae family found in Central America, South America and some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive. Ten subspecies are currently recognized, although some of these are controversial.[2] This article focuses on the species Boa constrictor as a whole, but also specifically on the nominate subspecies Bo](http://web.archive.org./web/20110628105459im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/32/87/ab31827fa0f92e08e753151ca105_thumb.jpg "The Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the Boinae family found in Central America, South America and some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive. Ten subspecies are currently recognized, although some of these are controversial.[2] This article focuses on the species Boa constrictor as a whole, but also specifically on the nominate subspecies Bo")
![Boa madagascariensis is a species of the Boidae (boa) family that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. A common name is Madagascar (or Malagasy[2]) ground boa.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110628105459im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/a1/81/69bd42d7baf95fd698bf114854b8_thumb.jpg "Boa madagascariensis is a species of the Boidae (boa) family that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. A common name is Madagascar (or Malagasy[2]) ground boa.")
