BoA

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Profile Overview of BoA

Kwon Bo-ah (Korean: 권보아; born November 5, 1986), known professionally as BoA, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and actress often referred to as the "Queen of K-pop".

This profile of BoA covers 2000–2003: Debut and commercial success in South Korea and Japan, 2004–2008: New image, foray into China, and creative control, 2008–2012: American expansion and return to Asia, 2013–2015: Music production, television role, and 15th anniversary and 2016–2025: Musical projects, television production, and acting debut.

Born and raised in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, BoA was discovered by SM Entertainment talent agents when she accompanied her older brother, a music video director, to a talent search in 1998. She was trained for two years and made her debut with ID; Peace B (2000). BoA has since released twenty studio albums, including ten in Korean, nine in Japanese, and one in English. On television, she appeared as a judge on the reality competition show K-pop Star (2011–2013), as an actress on the television drama Listen to Love (2016), as a host for the second season of Produce 101 (2017), and as a coach for the third season of The Voice of Korea (2020).

With the release of her debut Japanese studio album, Listen to My Heart (2002), BoA became the first South Korean pop star to break through in Japan. Her Japanese albums Valenti (2003) and Best of Soul (2005) went on to sell over one million copies each according to Oricon; the latter of which remained the last album to do so by a non-Japanese artist for 16 years. Her self-titled English album (2009) became the first record by a K-pop artist to appear on the Billboard 200, debuting at number 127.

BoA has sold over ten million albums throughout her career, and she is one of only three female artists with six consecutive number-one studio albums on the Oricon Albums Chart since her debut, alongside Japanese singers Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada. She is the recipient of numerous awards in South Korea and Japan, including eight MAMA Awards, six SBS Music Awards, five Japan Record Awards, and five Japan Gold Disc Awards. In 2013, Mnet included her in their Legend 100 Artists list of the most influential artists in South Korea.

2000–2003: Debut and commercial success in South Korea and Japan of BoA

Kwon Bo-ah was born on November 5, 1986. At the age of eleven, BoA accompanied her older brother Kwon Soon-wook to an SM Entertainment talent search in 1998. Though Soon-wook auditioned as a break-dancer, SM talent scouts instead took notice of BoA and offered her a contract on the same night as the auditions. BoA's parents initially opposed the notion of her leaving school to enter the entertainment business but eventually consented after being persuaded by her older brothers Soon-hwon and Soon-wook. She has said that her early influence as a singer was Seo Taiji.

BoA underwent two years of training (involving vocal, dance, English, and Japanese lessons), and at the age of thirteen, she released her debut album ID; Peace B in South Korea on August 25, 2000. The album was moderately successful; it entered the Top 10 of the South Korean charts and sold around 156,000 units. Meanwhile, her Korean record label, SM Entertainment, made arrangements with Japanese label Avex Trax to launch her music career in Japan. She was forced to quit school to prepare and 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.

BoA began her Japanese music career singing at the Avex-owned club Velfarre. Her debut Japanese album, Listen to My Heart, was released on March 13, 2002. The album was a breakthrough in BoA's career, becoming an RIAJ-certified million-seller and debuting atop the Oricon, the first album by a Korean artist to do so. It was promoted with several singles: the Top 20 hit "ID; Peace B" (originally from the eponymous album), "Amazing Kiss", "Kimochi wa Tsutawaru", the Top 5 hit "Listen to My Heart", and the Top 10 "Every Heart: Minna no Kimochi". 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. From 2001 to 2007, BoA hosted Beat it BoA's World, a radio program on the Japan FM Network.

After the release of Listen to My Heart, BoA released her second Korean studio album, No. 1, a month later on April 12, 2002. The album sold around 544,853 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), was her first Japanese studio album.

BoA's second Japanese studio album, Valenti (January 2003), became her best-selling album, with over 1,249,000 copies sold. Three singles preceded its release: "Valenti", which peaked at the number-two position on the Oricon chart, "Kiseki / No.1" and "Jewel Song / Beside You: Boku o Yobu Koe", both which also peaked at the number-three position. In support of the album, BoA launched BoA 1st Live Tour Valenti, her first Japanese concert tour. Later in the same year, BoA released her third Korean-language studio album, Atlantis Princess on May 30, 2003, and then released a mini-album Shine We Are! On December 4, 2003. 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.

2004–2008: New image, foray into China, and creative control of BoA

BoA's third Japanese studio album, Love & Honesty (January 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, spanning nine performances and attracted approximately 105,000 attendants. In contrast with 1st Live Tour, which "emphasized exotic Asian design", the Love & Honesty tour had an "outer-space, sci-fi" theme; among the props were a three-storey-high space ship and the robot Asimo. Her first compilation album, Best of Soul (February 2005), but sold over a million copies, making BoA the first non-Japanese Asian singer to have two million-selling albums in Japan. It remained the last album by a foreign artist to have sold over a million copies in Japan for 16 years, until BTS in 2021.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoA), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.