Korean singer Gu Ha Ra, a member of Kara

                            

Kara (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Kara
Background information
Origin	South Korea
Genres	Pop, R&B, dance
Years active	2007 (2007)–present
Labels	DSP Media (Korea) Universal Sigma (Japan)
Website	kara.dspenter.com universal-music.co.jp/kara/index.html
Members
Park Gyuri Han Seung-yeon Goo Ha-ra Jung Nicole Kang Jiyoung
Past members
Kim Sunghee

This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul or hanja.

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]