After recording sales of over 4.7 million with four albums in Japan since 2001, K-pop star BoA (19) will hit Korea with her fifth album in mid-June. BoA is in the middle of producing of her new album at the SM Entertainment studio in Apgujeong, Seoul, with three or four songs already recorded.
BoA said in an interview with a local newspaper “I won’t stop at being a star only in Korea and Japan. I will become the top in Asia, and get recognition in the U.S. and Europe to become a world-renowned Diva.” She added, “As I have tried in Japan, I want to come back to my fans as a more matured person, overcoming my old image of a girlie singer.”
Since her debut in 2000 with the album “ID : Peace B”, she has given concerts in Korea and in Japan and secured her position as a top artist in both countries. The newly released album “Best of Soul” in February topped the Oricon Charts in Japan, and BoA became the first female singer to reach a million sales this year. BoA’s subsequently released 15th single “To the Motion” ranked first in the Oricon’s Weekly Single chart in Japan, the first time an overseas singer has held the spot in 22 years.
“Her face is popping up on billboards throughout Asia. She may just be this region’s global face in the years ahead,” wrote William Peseck Jr., a leading columnist for the U.S. finance news agency Bloomberg, in a piece titled “Six influential Asians changing their part of the world” on April 21. “Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world published on April 18 misses BoA,” and notes, “The economic effects are multiplying and offering a ray of sunshine for the No. 3 economy in Asia that has grown sluggishly in recent years.”