(That's just the way I like it, don't wanna be somebody else)
If you could understand, why it's never enough
(I'm gonna make it happen, who says there can't be girls on top?)
BoA is an immensely successful Korean Pop Music star who has been branded "The Korean Britney" by her fans and the media alike. She is most well known for her catchy music as well as her crazy dance skills and her ability to sing live decently while doing said dancing. She has sold upwards of 25 million albums in Asia alone and is only rivaled by Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki in terms of overall album sales.
Born Kwon Boa on November 20, 1986, she was raised in the Gyeonggi-do province of South Korea and initially had no interest in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. That all changed when she was scouted by Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment at a talent search that she accompanied her brother to. SME saw what they were looking for in the then 11-year-old BoA; a young star who would allow Korea to break into the fickle and often closed-off entertainment industries in both Japan and in the United States. After two years of training she released her debut effort, titled ID; Peace B. The album was a success and paved the way for her to pursue a career in the Japanese music industry. Two years after her Korean debut she released her debut Japanese album, Listen To My Heart. The album was a success and BoA quickly became one of the premiere pop idols of Japan, being the first non-Japanese Asian singer to have two million-selling albums in Japan (Valenti and her best-of album Best Of Soul). She also went on to become one of only two artists in Japan to top the Oricon weekly album charts six consecutive times (the other artist being Ayumi Hamasaki).
In 2009 SME decided that it was finally time to break into the U.S. market; they chose BoA as the flagship artist for their new American label. BoA collaborated with high-profile producers such as Bloodshy & Avant, Britney Spears and Sean Garrett during the recording process. She released her English-speaking debut in 2009 to less-than-stellar reviews and even worse sales; the album stalled on the Billboard charts and was unable to sell even 10,000 copies. The three singles from the album became minor hits on Billboard's Club Airplay charts but it soon became apparent that BoA's stateside debut was a bust. "Look Who's Talking" was written by Britney and featured in the album.
BoA returned to Japan to release her seventh Japanese studio album Identity in 2010; the album didn't fare much better on the charts than her English album did though. However, she experienced a slight resurgence in her career when it was announced that she would release her first album of Korean music in five years later that fall. Hurricane Venus went on to spawn a number one hit with the title track and would go on to be the highest-selling album from a solo artist that year.
Although her first attempt at success in the American music market didn't go that well, it seems like BoA may be getting another shot at fame, thanks in large part to the growing presence of K-Pop in the U.S. She appeared in a dance-themed movie titled Make Your Move 3D in 2014. Anime fans might know about her from her closing song for Inuyasha called "Every Heart", as well as "Masayume Chasing", which served as the opening theme for season 7 of Fairy Tail.
- Korean Albums
- ID; Peace B (2000)
- Jumping Into The World/Don't Start Now (Mini-Album) (2001)
- NO.1 (2002)
- Miracle (Mini-Album) (2002)
- Atlantis Princess (2003)
- SHINE WE ARE (2003)
- My Name (2004)
- Girls On Top (2005)
- Hurricane Venus (2010)
- Only One (2012)
- Kiss My Lips (2015)
- Woman (2018)
- BETTER (2020)
- Korean EP's
- One Shot, Two Shot (2018)
- Starry Night (2019)
- Forgive Me (2022)
- Japanese Discography:
- LISTEN TO MY HEART (2002)
- VALENTI (2003)
- LOVE & HONESTY (2004)
- OUTGROW (2006)
- MADE IN TWENTY (20) (2007)
- THE FACE (2008)
- IDENTITY (2010)
- Who's Back? (2014)
- Watashi Kono Mama de Ii no Kana (2018)
- English Discography:
- BoA (2009)
- Compilation Albums:
- K-POP SELECTION (2004)
- BEST OF SOUL (2005)
- BEST&USA (2009)
- Remix Albums:
- Peace B.REMIXES (2002)
- Next World (2003)
This singer provides examples of:
- Acronym Confusion: She had issues with this when she began to promote her English debut... she quickly found out that BoA also stood for Bank of America... she was rather annoyed.
- Album Title Drop: Almost all of her studio albums except for her self-titled album.
- All Just a Dream: The ending of the video for "Jazzclub" implies this, since she gets into a taxi at the beginning of the video and then is back in it at the end, suggesting everything else in the video was just a daydream. However she has a photo as a Fantasy Keepsake, so maybe it did.
- Auto-Tune: A lot of her later music utilizes it frequently, especially her English album and Hurricane Venus.
- Be Yourself: The entire message behind the English version of "Girls On Top."
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: She's been all three at one point or another.
- Break Up Song: "Look Who's Talking".
- Child Prodigy: She quickly gained notoriety for her slick dancing skills despite being a tween. It didn't hurt that she could carry a tune decently while pulling off most of that mad choreography.
- Darker and Edgier: It could be said that My Name was the album that marked her transition into a more mature sound and direction in Korea, while in Japan it would probably be Outgrow. Then of course there's her English album, which is basically about sex and dancing.
- Double Entendre: Whether it's intended or not, "Girls On Top" definitely applies.
- Europop: She's worked with Bloodshy & Avant and Henrik Jonback. It doesn't get much more Europop than that.
- Fanservice: Her skin-tight leather getup in the "I Did It For Love" video.
- Former Child Star: It's how she was discovered, successfully debuting at a young age of 13. Like many child stars, she hasn't really had a break in her career since she began; however she has not fallen into any controversies and is still well-respected by many for her legacy.
- Fun with Acronyms: BoA is also a backronym for "Beat of Angel."
- Genre Roulette: She's dabbled in R&B, Hip-Hop, Bubblegum pop, Dance-pop, Electropop and Adult Contemporary... sometimes all on the same album.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Check out the cover of her Best & USA album.
- Godiva Hair: The Best & USA cover and the video for "Eat You Up."
- Good Bad Girl: She comes off so mild-mannered and polite in interviews, but her music is an entirely different story. Couple that with her dancing and she definitely fits this trope.
- Gratuitous Disco Sequence: You can definitely hear its influence in some of her J-Pop albums.
- Gratuitous English: BoA, like so many other Asian pop stars, is very guilty of this trope, whether it be her Korean music or her Japanese music. It even crosses over into her English debut as there are a couply of oddly-worded parts throughout.
- Grief Song: "Implode".
- Hotter and Sexier: The videos for "I Did It For Love" and "Game" provide more fanservice than their predecessors.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: At 5'2" BoA is pretty petite, so a lot of the time she's dwarfed by her male dancers.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: A lot of the styles she's worn for her latest albums and videos are really awesome.
- Improbable Age: By the age of 24 she's sold 20 million albums in Asia alone. She's conquered Korea and Japan and it's highly likely that she's going to make a splash in the U.S. once moviegoers get a load of her in COBU 3D. She's pretty amazing.
- In Da Club: Quite a bit of her music but especially her English debut. The music video for "Energetic" even features a dance-off in a club.
- Intercourse with You: Almost all of the songs from the English album imply or outright say this.
- Japanese Pop Music: One of a few foreign acts to actually become very successful in the Japanese music industry; she has had three million-seller albums, several multi-platinum awards, several gold awards, and numerous hit singles on the Oricon charts.
- Let's Duet: With Koda Kumi for "The Meaning Of Peace," "The Love Bug" with M-Flo, and "I Did It For Love" with Sean Garrett may be considered a duet. Also with 三浦大知 (Daichi Miura) on "Possibility",
- Lighter and Softer: All of her ballads, with special shout-outs to "Mamoritai~White Wishes" and "Implode."
- Mood Whiplash: From Hurricane Venus. The pumping electropop track "Let Me" seques into the GINORMOUS tear-jerker "Implode." A little unsettling when you're jamming one minute and then bawling your eyes out the next.
- Motor Mouth: "Let Me" is sung in pretty rapid-fire style.
- New Sound Album: She's done this a few times, but it's most notable on her English-speaking debut. She went from fluffy, innocuous J-Pop to harder-edged electropop beats.
- Obsession Song: "Eat You Up" and of course, "Obsessed". Duh.
- The One That Got Away: "Implode." Oh GOD, "Implode".
- The Patriarch: BoA mentions her father in "Our Love: To My Parents" from her Made In Twenty album.
- Pimped-Out Dress: The feathery dress from the "Hurricane Venus" video definitely applies.
- Record Producer: She's worked with Henrik Jonback quite a bit in the last few years.
- The Rival: Depends on the territory. If it's Korea then fans like to pit her against Lee Hyori, another popular K-Pop singer. In her heyday in Japan she was compared to the likes of J-Pop royalty such as Utada Hikaru and Ayumi Hamasaki so much that she was considered one of the "Big Three" in Japan along with the other two aforementioned ladies.
- Rock Star Song: "Look Who's Talking", written by Britney Spears.
- Scenery Porn: The videos for "Hurricane Venus" and "I Did It For Love" definitely apply. They're just purdy.
- Singer-Songwriter: With her 2015 album Kiss My Lips being her first album to be entirely self written and self produced, and with every one of her projects since then having at least 1 song with writing credits to her, she's had alot more control over her music as of recent. She's even the head producer for NCT Wish and a creative director in SM!
- Spell My Name With An S: Officially BoA's name is stylized so that the "A" is capitalized due to the fact that 1) her Korean name is Kwon Bo-Ah, Bo+A is BoA and 2) it's a backronym.
- Stage Name: She goes by BoA when on stage.
- Summon Backup Dancers: She has them in quite a lot of her videos but the most blatant case of summoning them is in the video for "Jazzclub", where she goes into a club and within seconds has everyone dancing behind her.
- The Stoic: She pretty much keeps to herself and doesn't have much to say good or bad about her contemporaries.
- Teen Idol: For the first 7 years of her career she was this trope personified; since then she's not only become an adult but has also shown a lot of growth both musically and image-wise.
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Check out the black and white checkerboard eye shadow she used for her Hurricane Venus album cover!
- Woman Scorned: "Did Ya".
