BoA was cultivated for stardom by South Korean Record Company SM Entertainment.
The idea was to groom and create huge star to become the pop music icon of Asia. Such a star, rising in Korea, then Asia, and then the world, would spread Koreas prestige abroad.
In 1997 when the plan was first conceived, the Asian music scene was dominated by 13~16 year old female idol stars. In Japan, the worlds second largest music market behind the US, the best-selling group was, SPEED, an idol group composed of 15 year old girls.
It became apparent that Korea should put forth a young girl between13 and 16 years old, who could compete in both Korea and Japan. Since it would take at least two or three years in order to completely finish the casting and training of this future star, they set out on a search to find the perfect young diamond in the rough.
Because 11 is too young for talent competitions, 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 sister. Then those girls were brought in for auditioning. It was an exhaustive effort. They struck it lucky when BoA arrived in their studio to accompany her older brother on his audition. The attention was soon on the fifth grader, who showed great star potential in dancing and singing.
The 11 year old had plenty of talent and passion, and her skills, although not yet fine tuned, were extraordinary in spite of her young age. SM Entertainment sought the permission of Boas parents to sign her on and begin her training. At first, her parents were strongly opposed. BoA was bringing home very high grades, and they just wanted her to keep studying. But the company 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 from her parents was received, the company immediately began a very focused training period to create 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 NHKs GuMiKo. This intense training has given BoA the ability to speak Japanese almost perfectly, and also understand and converse in English.
The company spared no expense in Boas training. Sakuma, who had been recognized as Japans best dancer, gave BoA dance lessons, and Japans top hip hop dancer Kazeu personally came to Korea to choreograph BoAs 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."
BoA broke records in both Korea and Japan with her smash hits, including "No. 1" and "Valenti" and "Listen to My Heart". She has made strides in music and acting with chart breaking albums released in both Japanese and Korean as well as being cover models for huge companies such as Shiseido, Honda, KDDI: Au, and Calpis.
BoA has also become a cross-cultural icon bridging historical tensions between the nations of Korea and Japan. In 2002, her album Listen to my Heart rocketed straight to #1 on the Japanese Oricon charts, during the time of the tension surrounding the 2002 World Cup, which was hosted by Korea and Japan. Her exceptional reception in Japan is believed to be a contributor to the improvement of relations between the two countries, Korea having not forgotten being colonized by Japan for the majority of the first half of the 20th century.
Valenti, her second album in Japan sold 1million copies in single day, and she was only 16. The album which has sold around 2 million copies, made BoA the hottest female star since Utada Hikaru in Japan. In Korea, she was more like a hero who broke the barrier to the Japanese music market and opened it up for all Korean singers.
Her third album in Korea, Atlantis Princess has become a mega hit in Korean and Chinese markets (yes now she speaks Chinese!)
To date, she has earned more than US$1 billion from her 15 releases in Japan including two regular albums, three special albums and nine singles.
in 2004 the 18-year-old Asian star BoA became the first Korean to be picked up as a model for "Maybelline New York"
