Korean Beauty: BoA

How did BoA Become a Singer?

SM’s idea three years ago was to begin to make a huge star who would represent Asia. Their plan was to make a star who would use the Korean music industry as a stepping stone into Asia, and then into the world, in order to spread Korea’s prestige abroad. At that time, the mainstream of the entertainment world was taken over by 13~16 year old female idol stars. The Japanese representative of an idol group, SPEED, was also composed of girls around 15 years of age. With that point given, it was obvious that it would be most favorable for our country to put out a [young] girl who would go abroad. Also, [SM] figured that ‘they needed at least 2~3 years in order to completely finish the casting and training of this future star’, so they concentrated first on casting.

They asked all of the candidates they met at national contests and talent shows, and even those who came to the studio to audition, if they had a younger sibling. And if they did, they went as far as to call those siblings in for auditioning. Through this never-ending effort to find their future star, the jewel that they found was BoA. At that time, BoA’s older brother had come to the studio for an audition. The answer to the question "Do you have a younger sibling" was the one and only 5th grader named BoA. At the time, she was 11 years old. BoA has trained ever since that young age for this day. The fact that she sang at the audition that she had through her older brother was what guided her into becoming a future star. The dancing and singing that the young elementary student did at the audition showed plenty of potential to be a star.

BoA’s talent and passion, and her skills, although not yet fine tuned, were extraordinary in spite of her young age. The company did however worry about how well she could do at such a young age, but they couldn’t just let this opportunity pass them by. As soon as SM found BoA, they quickly met with her parents to persuade them into permitting her training. BoA also showed her parents her strong interest in making her dream of becoming a singer come true. But in the beginning, her parents strongly opposed. Her brothers understood why their parents opposed this decision so strongly; BoA was bringing home very high grades, and they just wanted her to keep studying, not become a singer. But the company who had already found BoA’s talents could not let go of her so easily. In the end, SM was able to persuade her parents with the certainty of her success, and BoA gained the opportunity of a lifetime to live out her dreams.

As soon as the permission of the parents were received, the company immediately began a very focused training period to making a world star. The first thing that BoA needed to learn was neither dancing or singing, but foreign languages. She was given a private tutor who taught her both English and Japanese. This was something that BoA absolutely needed to learn in order to go abroad with her future music. BoA was even sent to Japan during her vacations in order to receive extra focused lessons. It may have been because of her young age, but her ability to learn these new languages was extraordinary. Also, after her graduation from elementary school, her start in the International middle school was delayed for six months in order to go to Tokyo, Japan once again. This time, not only did she learn Japanese, but she also received vocal and dance lessons. On top of that, she was only allowed to speak Japanese during her stay there. In order to pick up fine tuned pronunciations, she stayed with and was taught by NHK’s GuMiKo. This intense training has given BoA the ability to speak Japanese almost perfectly, and also understand and converse in English.

When Yungsung Akanemi (who manages one of Japan’s top entertainers) saw BoA, they took upon themselves the responsibility of her dance and vocal training. As a result, they introduced one of the top instructors to BoA. Sakuma, who had been recognized as Japan’s best dancer, gave BoA dance lessons, and Japan’s top hip hop dancer Kazeu personally came to Korea to choreograph BoA’s debut album. Sakuma even praised BoA saying "When compared to the Japanese dancers who do nothing but dance, her skills are right up at that level. And among the female singers who do both singing and dancing, there is no one who has the skills that BoA has. There has been no one this young who can dance so well."


Awards

Year Awards 2000
• Wins Rookie of the Year award at MTV's music video festival
• Wins Rookie of the Year award at the annual music contest of KMTV
2001
• MTV Taiwan New Sound prize
2002
• Becomes one of the 10 best singers on MBC TV
• Wins the grand prize at Japan Record (Taishou) Grand Awards
• Daesang and Best Choreography at M-net Music Video Festival
• Daesang at Seoul Gayo Awards
• Daesang at SBS Gayo Awards
• Artist of the year at KMTV Music Awards
• Album of the year at Japan Record (Taisho) Awards
2003
• Becomes one of the 10 Best Singers on MBC TV
• Wins the grand prize at the Proud Korean Awards
• Bonsang at MBC Awards
• Bonsang and Artist of the year at KMTV Music Awards
• Daesang at M.Net 2004 Music Video Festival
• Best MV at KBS Music Awards
• Album of the year at Japan Golden Disk Awards
• Best dance award at Japan Record (Taisho) Awards
• Prize at Best Hits Song (Kayousai) Festival 2003
2004
• Wins Favorite Korean Artist and Most Influential Asian Artist awards at the MTV Asia Awards (MAA)
• Wins Best Dance Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2004 (VMAJ)
• Wins the main award at the Gold Disc Grand Awards in Japan
• Best Hallyu (Korean Wave) Star Award
• Most popular artist and Bonsang at SBS Gayo Awards
• Daesang at M.Net 2004 Music Video Festival.
• Best album prize at Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan
• Best Asian Star prize at Pepsi Top Chinese Music Awards
• Golden artist at Best Hits Song (Kayousai) Festival 2004
• Best Dance award at Japan Record Awards
2005
• Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan (Breaks record as the only foreign artist to ever attend four years in a row)
• No. 1 in HIT FM Asia Music Chart
• Best Korean Artist at the World Music Awards
• Best Female Artist at the M.net music video festival
• Best Hallyu (Korean Wave) Star Award
• Prize at Best Hits Song (Kayousai) Festival 2005
• BonSang Award
2006
• Best Jewelry Wearing Teenager (Japan)
• Cutest girl in Asia award
• Vocal musicianship 2006 (Korea/Japan)
• Jamadel and Drew's Prestigious Award
• Golden Artist at Best Hits Song (Kayousai) Festival 2006
• Gold prize at Japan Record (Taishou) Award
• Participates in NHK Best Singers (Kouhaku) contest in Japan (Breaks record as the only foreign artist to ever attend five years in a row)
2007
• Wins Annual Hallyu Award
• Tokyo Best International Jewelry Dresser Award
• Overseas Popularity Award