Asia-wide star BoA is starting the New year on a High Note. She is to release her fifth album in Japan on Jan. 17 and has already proved her huge popularity by coming top in the real-time ranking charts of HMV and Amazon, where customers can pre-order albums. Her fifth album titled ¡°Made in Twenty¡± is the first to come out after she came of age, and fans are dying to hear what kind of music she is to offer. Already, ¡°The prayer,¡± which is included on the album, is available on several websites here, and reactions have been positive. ¡°This is something new,¡± one fan wrote online. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect this at all.¡±
It remains to be seen if BoA can keep up her series of record-setting releases. BoA was the first foreign singer to have four regular albums at the top of Japan¡¯s Oricon Chart. Among Japanese singers, Ayumi Hamasaki did best with seven consecutive regular albums at the top. If BoA's fifth album does the same, she will be a step closer to the top. The album, which comes 11 months after her fourth, ¡°Outgrow,¡± contains 13 songs including the previously released singles ¡°Winter Love¡± and ¡°Key of Heart.¡±
The Korean singer won the gold prize in the 48th Japan Record Award, the nation's most prestigious music award, on Dec. 30. She was also a headline act on Kouhaku Utagassen (literally ¡°Red and White Song Festival¡±), a popular program on NHK for a fifth year running. BoA is to start her nationwide concert tour in late March.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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