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By Michelle (Age 17, USA)
Boa Kwon was born on November 5, 1986 in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Although her name is Boa, she is known by her stage name BoA. “People have asked me if it's an acronym for 'best of Asia’,” she says with a laugh. "Even for 'Bank of America’. No, it's just a creative styling of my real name, which, loosely translated, means 'sparkling jewel'." She began her career at the young age eleven when she accompanied her older brother to an SM Entertainment talent search. The Korean talent scouts immediately noticed BoA and offered her a contract, even though her brother was the one who had auditioned. BoA’s parents didn’t want her to give up her schooling to be a part of the entertainment industry at first, but her brother finally convinced them to let BoA leave school.
BoA trained vigorously at an intensive training academy for two years, learning how to sing, dance and speak Japanese. “I started training with singing and dance lessons at the same time,” she recalls. “Also, I was taking Japanese lessons too, when I was eleven or twelve. After school, I went to the recording studio. I made a contract with my recording company [S.M. Entertainment] when I was eleven years old. After that, I jumped into training. It took two years.” Finally, at the end of the training, thirteen-year-old BoA released her debut album on August 25, 2000. The album was titled ID; Peace B and released in BoA’s home of South Korea. Although the album was not hugely successful, it did enter the Top 10 of the South Korean charts and sold about 156,000 copies.
Simultaneously, BoA’s Korean record label SM Entertainment began to talk to the Japanese record label Avex Trax. In early 2001, BoA released her first Japanese single, a Japanese version of the song “ID; Peace B”. The song was a hit, climbing to the 20th spot on the Oricon music charts. She followed “ID; Peace B” with her other Japanese-translated singles titled “Amazing Kiss”, “Kimochi wa Tsutawaru”, and “Listen to My Heart”. Realizing the success of her Japanese-translated singles, she released her first Japanese mini-album titled Don’t Start Now. It sold less than her Korean debut album, selling around 90,000 copies.
After Don’t Start Now was released, BoA continued to work on Japanese music and in 2002 released her first “full” Japanese album titled Listen to My Heart on March 13, 2002. The album was an enormous success and became a RIAJ certified million-seller. It also debuted on the top of the Oricon charts, making it the first album by a Korean artist to reach the top of the chart. Her single “Every Heart: Minna no Kimochi” was released the same day. A
In 2003, BoA released her second Japanese album titled Valenti. It sold over 1,249,000 copies and became her best-selling album. To help promote it, BoA launched her first Japanese concert tour named “BoA 1st Live Tour Valenti”. “When I get on stage, I feel my confidence grow,” she remarks. “When I give a concert, it's so surprising I wonder where my strength comes from. The stage is really the test ground where my efforts are evaluated.” A few months later, she released another Korean album, Atlantis Princess, and a Korean mini-album, Shine We Are!. Atlantis Princess became the fifth best-selling South Korean album of the year, selling over 345,000 copies.
2004 proved to be successful for BoA as well. She released her third Japanese album titled Love & Honesty, which contained rock, dance, and R&B songs that were different than her previous music style. “While I apologize to those people who still want the “baby BoA”...what can I do?” says BoA in response to her new music style. “I just keep growing up and I can’t stop that from happening. I just wanted to make fresh, hot dance music.” The album became RIAJ certified triple-platinum and in support of the album BoA went on tour again. “I changed my hair initially after the tour,” she says. “After a hair cut, my hair became shaggy. When I turned around, it looked alive; I found it to be pretty.” After the tour, BoA released her fourth Korean album titled My Name. The album helped BoA transform her style from a “cute child” into an adult. The album also contained two Mandarin Chinese songs, which began her career in the Chinese music industry. The album was the eleventh best-selling album of the year in South Korea, and her popularity began to decline. Nevertheless, BoA released her fifth Korean album in 2005, Girls on Top. The album continued BoA’s journey into the Chinese music industry and contained more Mandarin Chinese songs. The album became the fourteenth best-selling album of the year in South Korea, continuing BoA’s increasing popularity.
In 2006, BoA released her fourth Japanese album titled Outgrow. The album reached the number one spot on the Oricon chart in its first week of release, but it had low debut sales with only 220,000 copies sold. But the first single on the album, “Do the Motion”, reached the number one spot on the Oricon chart and made her the fourth non-Japanese Asian to have a number one single on the charts. In support of the album, BoA went on tour again, performing in Japanese cities Nagoya, Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo, Sendai, and Sapporo. BoA also released her first Korean digital single, a Korean version of her song “Key of Heart”.
2007 saw the release of BoA’s fifth Japanese album, Made in Twenty. The album continued her music style change and debuted at the top of the Orion charts, making it her sixth album to do so, and BoA went on tour again to promote the album. She also released an English version of the song “Key of Heart”. In 2008, BoA released her sixth Japanese album titled The Face. On this album, she included electro-pop dance songs and ballads. The album debuted at the top of the Oricon chart and made BoA one of only two artists to have six consecutive studio albums on the top of the Oricon charts.
Finally, BoA decided to make her mark in the USA. In September 2008, it was announced that BoA would start recording for the United States branch of SM Entertainment. “[The] plan was to introduce me to America,” says BoA. “I'm a really new artist [there]. I would say that my style is an artist who can dance and sing. That's why my album is really upbeat. Maybe we will try slowly to do ballads or middle tempo songs. For now, this is my introduction album, so I want to try something that I really can do. I want to try my best. I just felt like it was the right time [to record in English].”
“I [had] the chance to work with Sean Garrett, Brian Kennedy, Bloodshy and Avant, really big producers here in America,” she continues. “They helped me out a lot. It's amazing that I can make a record with Sean Garrett or Brian Kennedy. Sean Garrett produced a lot of hit records. I used to listen to Usher's ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Run It‘ by Chris Brown. I was really shocked that I could make a record with him.” BoA’s debut American single “Eat You Up” was released in October 2008 and was very popular on the online music charts in the United States. It was scheduled to be physically released in November 2008, but instead BoA’s record label chose to release a promotional CD containing remixes of the song, with one featuring the rapper Flo Rida. “Eat You Up” became the number one breakout song on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.
On March 17, 2009, BoA’s long anticipated self-titled English album was released. A deluxe version of the album was also released with two new songs, “Control” and “Crazy”, as well as remixes of previous songs. “Everything was so new to me; I needed to learn most of all about American culture,” she says. “You know, most people say that Asian or female artists should be sexy in America, but I don't think that I have to be like that. I have a tomboy style. My choreography is not that way. So, I want to focus on my music style to match the choreography, which is really cool. I really hope I can share my music with as many new fans as possible. Touring around America sounds like a lot of fun too!”
At the end of 2009, BoA released her twenty-ninth Japanese single titled “White Wishes” on December 9. The song reached #3 on the Oricon Daily charts and was composed and produced by BoA herself. As 2010 begins, it is rumored that BoA will be releasing her 7th Japanese album titled “Identity” on February 10. She will also be going on tour in Japan in February. BoA will also be featured on a new version of rapper Akon’s song “Beautiful” for his Japanese release of his album Freedom.
“I feel very blessed to have had the success that I’ve had until now,” BoA says. “And I really want to thank my fans for all the support they’ve given me throughout the years. My fans have been a huge motivation for me. I always try to give them a great performance! I honestly believe that you need to have a passion for music. You need to be focused and know that it is not as easy as it looks…I believe the Asian market will grow much larger, and when and if I become the top star in Asia, I think people in various other nations will recognize me. I am Asian, and I first need to succeed in Asia. Popularity rises and falls quickly. I often think the toughest thing is staying on top. So I'm working hard on trying not to worry about popularity, because if I worry about it, my heart might break. People say popularity is like a bubble. I don’t want to be the bubble but the water underneath it.”
Fun Facts
- BoA was featured on Crystal Kay’s single “After Love: First Boyfriend/Girlfriend”, which was used on the Japanese dubbed version of the movie He’s Just Not That Into You |
