BoA

Kwon Boah known professionally as BoA is a South Korean singer songwriter and actress often referred to as the Queen of Kpop 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 Kpop Star 20112013 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 nonJapanese artist for 16 years Her selftitled English album 2009 became the first record by a Kpop 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 numberone studio albums on the Oricon Albums Chart since her debut alongside Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki and JapaneseAmerican 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 its Legend 100 Artists list of the most influential artists in South Korea