Kara (카라, often stylized as KARA) is a girl group from South Korea signed with DSP Media (DSP). The band name Kara comes from the Greek Word "chara" (χαρά, lit. "joy", which the group interpreted to mean "sweet melody".[1]
Kara started as a four-member group and debuted with their first album The First Blooming in 2007. In 2008, Kim Sunghee departed the group due to parental pressure, and two members were brought in; as such, the group consists of five members: Park Gyuri, Han Seung-yeon, Goo Hara, Nicole Jung and Kang Jiyoung. The five-member band achieved their first number one song with "Honey".[2]
The group has released two full-length albums — The First Blooming and Revolution — along with various EPs. Kara has won various awards, including the Best Dance Award at the M.net Asian Music Awards and Best Female Singer at the 16th Korean Entertainment Arts Awards.
The group eventually made their debut in Japan on 2010. By the end of that year, Kara was dubbed as Japan's #1 Rookie Artist of 2010 by Oricon and also received the New Artist Of The Year Award (International) from the Japan Gold Disc Awards. The group also released their first Japanese album, Girl's Talk which was eventually certified as Platinum by the RIAJ. By February 2011, Kara's "Jumping" and "Mister" singles have received Platinum and double Platinum certificates respectively from RIAJ. In March, Kara was hailed as the first foreign female artist to top Oricon’s Composite DVD Chart [2] and the first foreign artist to top the said chart for 2 consecutive weeks.[2]
Debut
Kara had their debut performance on March 29, 2007 with "Break It" on M! Countdown. Their first album was The First Blooming. [3] They made two music videos from this album: "Break It" and "If U Wanna". Because of their similarity to Fin.K.L and the fact that both were signed to the same company, the two were often compared; in response, Kara stated that they regarded the comparison as beneficial and inspiring.[4] Years later, Seungyeon stated that the album wasn't of as big success as she and the group would have liked.[5] Seungyeon had participated in many variety shows on TV during that time in order to keep Kara as a group recognizable to the public.[5]
2010: "Lupin"
After a short hiatus, DSP Entertainment released two teaser photos of Kara's comeback concept on February 9, 2010. The photos garnered a lot of interest because compared to their past album concepts, the new photos displayed a more mature, dark and mysterious Kara. The next day, the album jacket was unveiled with the concept named "Stealer" and the title track "Lupin", which became #1 on several online music charts after its release. The teaser video was released on February 12 on Naver; the mini-album followed on February 17. Kara had their comeback starting on M.Net's M! Countdown on February 25, 2010. [28] [29]
The music video was released on February 22, garnering more than 90,000 views in the first 2 hours.[30]
On March 4, 2010, Kara won their first #1 award for "Lupin" on M! Countdown.[31] On the following week, Kara won yet another #1 award on M! Countdown, making it their second consecutive win on the music program. "Lupin" also gave Kara their first #1 win on Music Bank on March 12, 2010, making it the group's first win for the music show since their debut,[32] holding onto the position for three consecutive weeks.[33] The song also won the Mutizen award from Inkigayo.[34]
End of 2010: "Jumping"
After about 9 months hiatus in Korean Music Entertainment, Kara announced the promotional track "Jumping" in Korea and Japan. Kara released it as a 2nd Japanese single and title track for their fourth Korean mini album. Despite promoting the song at the same time, Kara had 2 different concepts for the song in Korea and Japan.[35] A teaser photo of Jumping's album cover was released on November 3, 2010 and according to a company official, “Kara’s new album utilizes the optical art concept of black and white geometric patterns, which differs depending on each member’s physical characteristics and image.” He added, “You will see a new and upgraded Kara with these modern, yet chic images.”[36] Kara made their comeback with Burn and Jumping on MBC Music Core on November 20, 2010. On December 10, 2010, Kara got their second #1 win on KBS Music Bank for Jumping.[37] Two days after their win in Music Bank, Kara won a #1 Mutizen Award for "Jumping" on SBS Inkigayo's 600th episode.[38]
, which the group interpreted to mean "sweet melody".[1]
