Kwon Bo-ah (; 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".
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 singer Ayumi Hamasaki and Japanese-American singer 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.
Life and career 2000–2003: Debut and commercial success in South Korea and Japan 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. (Paid access required to view article) 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 Her 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), however, 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.
BoA reinvented her image for her fourth and fifth Korean albums, My Name (June 2004) and Girls on Top (June 2005), shedding the "cute" and "youthful" style that had characterized previous years and adopted a more "sexy" and "sultry" look. The sales of BoA's Korean albums began to decline: My Name sold 191,000 units and became the eleventh-best-selling South Korean album in 2004 while Girls on Top ranked fourteenth in 2005 with 113,000 units sold. 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.
Her fourth Japanese studio album, Outgrow, (February 2006) reached the number-one spot on the Oricon chart for its first week of release, making it her fourth consecutive original Japanese album to do so. With 220,000 copies sold, it became her lowest-selling first-week debut for a studio album at that point. "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 May, BoA renewed her contract with SM Entertainment until 2012. At the time it was noted that she had a shareholding in the company of 100,000 (Approximately worth $1m USD). She performed "Everlasting", the image song for Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005 film). She also voiced Heather the possum in the Korean and Japanese version of the animated film Over the Hedge. On September 21, 2006, she released her first digital single in Korea, a Korean version of "Key of Heart". In support of Outgrow, BoA launched a special Zepp tour, B0A The Live, on September 29, 2006, which lasted until October 29. She staged her first Christmas concert on December 7, 2006.
Three singles preceded BoA's fifth Japanese studio album, Made in Twenty (January 2007): the Top 3 "Nanairo no Ashita (Brand New Beat)/Your Color," the Top 10 "Key of Heart", and the No. 2 hit "Winter Love". 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 (including one compilation). Having previously compose the song "No More Make Me Sick" for Made in Twenty, BoA assumed creative control over her sixth Japanese album, The Face (February 2008). 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). 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. But due to a tight schedule, BoA was pulled back from this project. Korean jewelry brand Ramee also released "Ramee by BoA", a line of jewelry designed by the singer herself.
2008–2012: American expansion and return to Asia
On September 2, 2008, it was announced that BoA would make her American debut under a new subsidiary label, SM Entertainment USA. Hoping to become a "world-renowned entertainer" in the vein of Janet Jackson, BoA's debut American single "Eat You Up", was produced by Thomas Troelsen, and released on October 21, 2008. It charted at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. To promote the single, 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. The following year, she released "Eien/Universe/Believe in Love" and was also featured in Ravex's single "Believe in Love".
BoA's self-titled English album was released in the U.S. on March 17 and featured tracks by producers Bloodshy and Avant as well as a duet with Sean Garrett. Her second Japanese compilation album, Best & USA was released on March 18 tying together a compilation of recent hits in Japan with her English-language debut. Though she stated that "[i]t has always been my dream to debut in America," she found English tougher to learn than Japanese, and despite living in West Beverly Hills, found it difficult to make friends. BoA later headlined the San Francisco Pride Festival on June 28, 2009, alongside Solange Knowles and The Cliks, where she also performed the song "Energetic" for the first time in public, in addition to "Eat You Up" and "I Did It for Love". On August 31, SM USA released BoA Deluxe, a repackaged version of her debut English album. The album contained two new tracks and the radio edit version of "Energetic".