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Category Archives: BoA

LKL celeb of the month#2: BoA

11-May-08

I had been planning on giving Lee Dong-wook the honour of being LKL’s second celeb of the month. But Chinese netizens had other ideas. A massive spike in interest in BoA during the month resulted in certain posts about her getting ten times as many visits as any other page on this blog. So, BoA it is.

BoA

Full name: Kwon BoA (권보아), born 5 November 1986.

BoA is an artist that has LKL’s quiet respect. While popstrels such as Lee Hyolee never seem to be out of the gossip blogs, BoA seems to be more focused on work than PR. That’s not to say that she hasn’t an eye to a bit of brand-building. She’s just launched a range of jewelry. And her huge success in Japan shows that you don’t have to show off to the Korean media in order to rake in the cash.

In fact, she seems to be more popular across the East Sea than she is back in Korea, and her more recent album releases have been geared at the Japanese market, where she regularly tops the charts. And, with her 2006 Japanese album “Outgrow” she got to #2 in the worldwide charts, beaten to the #1 spot by British bleater James Blunt.

Her first album launch, from SM Entertainment, was in 2000, when BoA was just thirteen years old. She had huge success in Korea and Japan as a teenager, and now she is coming of age. More recently she was seen promoting Hite beer.

Her most recent album launch in Japan, The Face, hit the number one spot in early March. There are plans of a US debut later in the Spring.

If you speak Japanese, check out her blog. Shenuepop occasionally translates a page or two of it here.

So now, the pictures.

boa-011.jpgBoABoABoABoA Hite cfBoAboa-003.jpgBoA

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Welcome down my local any day

18-Jan-08

Boa advertises Hite

BoA advertises Hite

A still to go with this current TV commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk5zB8lmcHM

The rather unrefined drinking mannerism brings to mind the classic Boddingtons commercial from the 1990s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbbGTm05Mw

and while we’re on the subject, the one featuring Melanie Sykes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMhVcSEMMNQ

Of course, it’s the spokesmodel rather than the product that would be welcome in the local boozer. The general consensus is that Hite is rather watery. I’m quite content with the Young’s Ordinary.

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BoA’s aching feet and other celebrity updates

04-May-07

I’m conscious that I haven’t posted any celebrity pics for a while, so here’s an update.

The relentless rise of Kim Yun-jin

MSN’s recognition of Kim Yun-jin isn’t quite the kiss of death that I thought it was going to be. She’s now made it into the Stuff’s top 100 babes. A peculiar computer-enhanced photo of her accompanies the Chosun piece:

Chosun Kim Yun-jin photo

The Chosun also reports on her new Korean film project, Seven Days, focusing on the coverage in the international media. Rain, meanwhile, not to be outdone, has made it on to a list of the world’s most beautiful people.

BoABoA’s tired feet and blind dates

You have to admire the dedication and hard work of BoA. Sacrificing her feet and love life to her career. Fortunately, now she’s made it to the top, she feels able to wear comfortable shoes once in a while, and seems to be happy to allow Hyolee to arrange dates for her. Here’s hoping her inexorable rise continues, and she becomes better known outside of the far east.

Super Junior’s woes

Losing your temper with your fans at an airport is a fairly regular occurrence with jetsetting stars. SuJu’s Dong Hae is the latest to be caught out, but he had the nous to apologise afterwards. More seriously though, SuJu’s Lee Teuk reportedly had 170 stitches while Kyu Hyun was in intensive care after a car crash. Popseoul, as ever, was following the story closely and has an interesting account of life at the bottom of the food chain of celebrity minders.

JJHSassy Girl rebranded

Jang Dong-gunI’m looking forward to the Hollywood remake of the Japanese anime Blood — the Last Vampire, starring Jeon Ji-hyun. For the western market, she’s been renamed Gianna, which as many people have pointed out, is not a million miles from Ji-hyun-ah. Maybe the rebrand could bring her back up the commercial popularity stakes. According to a survey by Brand38 she’s slipped from her regular high position to only the fifth most bankable advertising model.

Laundry wars

As JJH slides down the advertising charts, the same survey has Jang Dong-gun in the ascendent. It can’t be for long though. His next project has the naffest title I can think of: Laundry Wars, a Korean / Hollywood co-production. The international pulling power of Zhang Ziyi should save the thing from complete oblivion, but really, what sort of plot is conjured up by the ridiculous title?

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Celebrity news round-up: January 07

09-Feb-07

Rain, LKL’s man of the year 2006 has started 2007 on a low-note with a speeding ticket in Hong Kong at the start of his gruelling tour. He also underwhelmed one reporter at a Singapore press conference who found him just a little dull. This wasn’t a reflection on his performance on-stage (and I’ve yet to find any proper reviews of these): more that, given Rain’s broad portfolio of interests and abilities the reporter thought he should have had something a bit more interesting to say. If anyone finds a review of any of his World Tour gigs, please let me know. Meanwhile, here’s a pic of his Malaysian gig, courtesy of Popseoul:

Rain in Malaysia

Meanwhile Hyolee, chastened by her disqualification from the LKL woman of the year 2006 award has vowed to do better in 2007. She commented:

In the end, I came through that experience with more than what I lost. The most valuable thing I got from it was realizing how much I love singing on stage. Hopefully this year will be better. Instead of looking for simple popularity, this year I’m hoping people will see I’m improving my singing, dancing and acting skills.

We wish her well. She starts the race for LKL woman of the year 2007 with a clean slate.

Hyolee pink

Other Hyolee coverage comments on her appearance in a one-off romantic drama on TV: 사랑한다면 이들처럼 (translation: Love like them). (Cue a not very in-depth discussion of an alleged image crisis for Hyolee in the Chosun). And guess what? In an effort to go one better than your average Korean melodrama, Popseoul reports that the plot involves both lovers having incurable diseases. Who’s gonna die first? And how many hankies will you need to get through that experience?

The same Chosun article from which the above quote was taken also reports that she’s the third most powerful woman in Korea, after GNP head Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. I love these silly surveys.

Other silly surveys in the past few weeks:

BoA

A celeb who was unjustly neglected last year was BoA. Yes, she topped the Japanese pop charts, yes she was even number 2 in the world charts for a week, and yes, she was Korea’s highest-earning pop star. But somehow people didn’t seem to be interested, which is a bit of a shame. Compared with Hyolee and the TV stars, BoA hardly seemed to register on the various amateur celebrity news blogs (and in respect of my sporadic coverage of the area, she attracted less than a quarter of the visits of Lee Sabi). Is there a lesson here: focus on getting the job done and avoiding the press, and you end up with more Won in your pocket? BoA has started 2007 on a high note, topping the charts in Japan again. Congratulations to BoA, the pop star who just seems to get on with it. And does it well, even though success comes at the price of loneliness, according to the Chosun.

Korean Pop Music

Moon Geun-youngOther news? A trifling piece in the Korea Times suggesting that big names from the commercials don’t pull in the crowds when appearing on the big screen. No analysis is provided as to whether it’s anything to do with the stars’ acting skills or the quality of the film itself. Never mind - it’s an excuse for some pretty pictures.

The Korea Times also reports how Moon Geun-young’s attempt to break free of her “Nation’s Younger Sister” image is attracting adverse attention, with accusations of plagiarism in respect of her TV ad. But the Chosun reports that she’s been a good girl at university, attending all her classes.

And, coming soon, get the complete hallyu experience at Hallyuwood, the latest Korean-wave-themed tourist attraction.

Filed in BoA, Celebs, Hallyu, Lee Hyolee, Moon Geun-young, Music: K-pop, Rain, Travel | Comments (1) »

BoA #5: Girls on top

19-Nov-06

BoA #5: Girls on Top(2005)

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BoA’s 5th Korean album is leagues ahead of her 2nd, (No 1). Since then, she’s worked on her voice, and her managers have hired some decent songwriters and pushed the music in a more international direction.

Let’s get the final track, 가을 편지, out of the way first, as it’s atypical. It comes as a bit of a surprise. It’s a very simple unaccompanied number. Just BoA singing what is, if I’ve got hold of the right end of the stick, a setting by Kim Min-ki of a Ko Eun poem. Can anyone confirm this? Anyway, it’s rather nice. Like an old folk song. But also, without wishing to trivialise it, it’s the sort of tune which you might hear on a TV commercial for a mass-market consumer product: the tune starts small and tentative, but progressively more people join in the refrain until it becomes a massed, rousing chorus. I guess given Kim Min-ki’s background in the protest movement this isn’t surprising [1]. The performance on this CD is just the first, tentative, exposition of the tune. I’d like to hear the original Kim version.

Now the rest. A good mixture of well-composed songs covering a wide variety of styles. There’s a great ballad, Breathe Again, by Ha Cheong-ho, and a couple of lively numbers by Yoo Young-jin, including the title number Girls on top, which is a good one. Apart from these three (and of course the Kim Min-ki), all the other tracks seem to be composed by non-Koreans, including a Swede (Love can make a miracle).

BoA is at her best in the livelier tracks, for example Kenzie’s Moto and Garden in the Air, and my personal favourite, Jamie Jones’s Addiction. When it comes to a ballad, I’m afraid she hasn’t really got the right voice. Too reedy and edgy. This particularly shows through in the 5th track, Love can make a miracle, where her voice is too thin and has a fast, uncontrolled vibrato.

Overall though this album is a lot more consistent than the previous one I reviewed. No track is less than bearable, and many are really rather good.

  1. Boy, was I wrong. After writing the above I asked a friend what the poem was about. It’s a sad Autumnal ode about fallen leaves, loneliness and longing for love. Thanks for correcting me, Soyang[back]
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BoA #2: No.1

18-Nov-06

BoA's second Korean album: No.1(January 2002)

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With the emphasis on electronic sounds rather than compositional inspiration, this is not a recommendable album. The robotic drum machine, brainless key shifts and silly noises do not make for engaging listening. BoA’s voice is nothing remarkable, a bit nasal - though not unpleasant. Perhaps the video is worth watching, but I’m not going to rush to search it out.

The first track to be not totally dreadful is the ballad track (track 3) Waiting, thanks to Kangta’s input as composer, and the slightly funky Shy Love (track 4) with a contribution from rapper Rize is more than just bearable, if only the arranger hadn’t used that shimmery tinkly thing. Day, with its electronic voice effects, should be skipped over. BoA’s own composition, Dear my love, is an easy-going number which shows off what her voice can do, but it’s a shame they couldn’t find a saxophonist who could play up to pitch.

If you have to play one track from this lactlustre album, go for P.O.L. (Power of Love), composed by S.Y.M, which has a catchy tune, whose electronic beats are offset by the harpsichord stop on the keyboard. But seriously, don’t bother with forking out good money for this.

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Jeon Ji-hyun’s smooth thighs

24-Aug-06

Jeon Ji-hyun Laneige commercialJeon Ji-hyun as rock chickAs regular visitors to this site will know, once in a while I like to lower the tone with an unnecessary post. This post is one of them.

I’m not sure how the Chosun can tell from looking at the video of the cosmetic commercial in question, but

On stage, [Jeon Ji-hyun] shows off her singing ability and smooth thighs, with a newfound energy infusing her every move.

BoA's Olympus campaignBoA's Nike contractThe cosmetics contract goes some way to compensating Jeon for the loss of the Olympus promotional contract to BoA: in 2003 she was the face of Olympus in Korea - see the Olympus site here, and some YouTubes here. In relation to the BoA commercial (still left) Olympus commented as follows:

BoA will show off her powerful voice and dance moves while bringing out her gentle feminine side.

I’m convinced that there’s a not very sophisticated computer algorithm that generates this gushing drivel. I’m working on reverse-engineering it, but need a few more examples to perfect it.

BoA’s Olympus win goes alongside her Nike contract. Nice little earner.

Kim Yun-jin from Update (7 Sept)

More drivel from the Chosun to assist in my algorithm:

Appearing in a black tank-top and hot pants, Kim shows off her copper-tone skin as she flaunts her down-home sexiness.

referring to a photoshoot of that star from Lost for a UK lads mag.

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BoA not quite top of the world pops

07-Mar-06

Again, I’m a little slow on the uptake, but megastar BoA managed to make it to number 2 in the worldwide pop charts last week with her new Japanese release “Outgrow”. Others are better qualified than me to comment on the workings of the global pop music industry, but the charts seem to be dominated by the American market, so for BoA to sell 222,000 albums in a week is not bad going and a testament to her popularity in Japan - though she’s down to number 16 in the second week of sales (82,000). If it hadn’t been for the ubiquitous James Blunt she’d have made it to number 1. Still, I supposed I should be happy that a Brit has made it big Stateside.

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