BoA (born November 5, 1986 in Guri, Gyeonggi province) is a Korean pop singer. She has released albums in both Japan and Korea, and her recording company, SM Entertainment, is positioning her as a cross-cultural star for all of Asia. She speaks native-level Korean, plus conversational Japanese and English, and is learning Chinese.
BoA broke records in both Korea and Japan with her smash hits, including "No. 1," "Valenti," and "Listen to My Heart". She has made strides in music and acting with chartbreaking albums released in both Japanese and Korean as well as being a covermodel for huge companies such as Shiseido, Honda, KDDI: Au, and Calpis. BoA has also become a crosscultural icon, bridging historical tensions between the nations of Korea and Japan.
When BoA was 11 years old, BoA's brother entered a talent contest to find a new multicultural star hosted by the Korean corporation SM Entertainment. The company invited their participants to bring younger siblings, and BoA's brother brought her along. Before long, SM had settled on her as their future star. After persuading her parents that their young girl should become a singer instead of continuing to study (BoA was a very bright student nevertheless), SM began her training and she was learning the languages a cross-cultural Asian icon would need.
In 2002, her album Listen to my Heart rocketed straight to #1 on the Japanese Oricon charts, during the time of the tension surrounding the 2002 World Cup, which was hosted by Korea and Japan.
BoA was awarded "Most Influencial Asian Artist" and " Favorite Artist Korea" Prizes at MTV Asia Awards held in Singapore on February, 2004. Her songs are now popular even in Taiwan, PRC and some Southeast Asian countries. She is going to move her main theater from Japan to China.
She appears on numerous magazine covers and some commercials, including KOSE, MISSHA, Lipton, Ting, Pantech & Curitel, Elite, Lotte, Maybelline, and Wired XYZ.
BoA also appeared in the Korean Music Festival held in the Sydney Opera House on the 21st of June 2004.
With the release of her latest single, Do The Motion, she was the fifth foreigner to go to #1 Oricon's singles chart, and the first in 21 years and 5 months.
