BoA

Born November 5, 1986 · Guri, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea

Kwon Bo-ah, 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 its Legend 100 Artists list of the most influential artists in South Korea.