South Korean pop star BoA sets sights on U.S.
 

Source: JapanToday

Thursday 11th September, 07:00 AM JST

SEOUL —

South Korean singer BoA plans to soon release her first album in the U.S. featuring the single “Eat You Up.”

The pop diva said Wednesday that her Japan debut in 2001 taught her that successful adaptation to a new market makes all the difference.

“Perfect localization is the most important thing,” she said at a press conference to announce the new recording.

BoA debuted as a singer in South Korea in 2000 at age 13 before crossing over to Japan, the world’s second-largest music market.

Now she’s going for the world’s biggest market.

Her first album in America will be released online through iTunes and MySpace on Oct 7 and in stores on Nov 11.

Besides her native Korean, BoA speaks Japanese, advanced English and beginning-level Chinese. She has won a wide following in South Korea, Japan, China and Southeast Asia.

“Now it is time that a star of Asia can become a star of world,” Lee Soo-man, the head of her record label, said at the press conference.

Lee described the Western market as ripe, since many music lovers were exposed to Asian culture while watching the recent Beijing Olympics.

More discussion here: http://www.tokyo-nights.org/forum/f1...t-plans-39039/

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Well I really do hope BoA sees success over here! Come on, PROMOTION is KEY!

To bad the song she plans to debut with sucks =/

Well.. This should be interesting the very least.

i was really iffy about this at first, but then when i heard the song and saw the video previews i'm really excited~ good luck to her!

we will see how she can conquer us market

hmm not a fan of eat you up~ but curious as to how she'll turn out!

I don't really like "eat you up". I think she should take a more mature approach instead of just another pop star...

I think even Ayu's english is better than BoA's O_o based on the CNN TalkAsia interviews

I'm still skeptical of her success - Japan and the US are very different markets, in my opinion - but I wish her the best. I've seen plenty of hyped Asian-to-American artists in the past.

I'm still hoping she owns successful there

i've heard she had broken her arm?! but the plan is still continuing...

I wish her good luck!
It's a brave step but she's an talented and successful artist so...why not?

Same here if she can do it more power to her, I think that she can, but she might have a little bit of trouble at first.

Single in November, Album in 09

I wish her the best of luck, I hope she does well I do want her to succeed in US market. I've been a fan of BoA for a few years, I like her music and I hope she does well in whatever she attempts. However if you look at it realistically, I don't mean to offend anyone but honestly I don't think the song is very good, the sound is ok but its not the best I've seen from her, and her English still isn't very good from what I'm hearing from the preview. I sort of feel sorry for her I really don't think it is going to do all too well in the US.

This is clearly going to flop. Eat You Up seems ****** and if people hear it on the radio they're probably just going to laugh and not take her seriously. Someone just needs to be honest to her and tell her her English sucks and is nowhere near ready for a fluent English audience. :/

I'm sorry but Ayu's speech was so rehearsed. O_o She was try'n to force out words that she didn't even know how to pronouce. Ayu's english is poor and is tramped by BoA's english.

Why r u being so negative? :irked You told us 97097970 times that it sucks. No it doesn't. It's hip 'n kewl. :heart

Please don't jinx her austin. I need at least one asian chic to break thru the America market. :weep

I really think she has potential to do really well. The song very well could be a success here on some level. I think her chances are much better than Utada's if there's good promotion and airplay. I'm just so excited. The song kicks ass and I just can't wait to see if people actually like it here.