Boa Kwon (born November 5, 1986 in Guri, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea) is a South Korean singer, better known by her stage name BoA. She is active in South Korea and Japan. Her Korean record label, SM Entertainment, has positioned her to become a cross-cultural idol in East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia. BoA was discovered when she was 11 years old while accompanying her brother to an audition at SM Entertainment. Her brother didn’t make it, but BoA caught the eye of the talent scout instead.
BoaAis fluent in her first language Korean, Japanese, and has become more fluent in English due to her recent debut in the United States. She is currently learning Mandarin Chinese. BoA has re-recorded several of her songs in Mandarin and written the lyrics for several of her Korean and Japanese songs. She has also translated some of her songs from Japanese to Korean and vise-versa and then re-recorded them again.
BoA is one of the most commercially successful artists in both Korea and Japan and is one of the leading stars of the "Korean wave" otherwise known as "Hallyu". She is well known for her soft and powerful vocals as well as her amazing dancing skills. BoA has re-signed an extended contract with SM Entertainment until 2012 for which she will receive 100,000 shares of SM Entertainment.
