KARA members Goo Hara and Park Gyuri shared a photo in which they’re striking the same pose while wearing matching outfits.

Goo Hara posted the photo above via her official Twitter page on the 11th and wrote, “Gyuri unni and I wore the exact same outfit to practice. Telepathy!”

In the photo, the two are wearing white baseball shirts with black sleeves, and black sweats to match. They even had their hair done up the same way and struck the same pose, holding their smart phones and looking towards each other. They looked as though they were mirrored reflections of one another, and the photo evoked much laughter from netizens.

Fans who saw the photo left comments such as, “Feel like there’s a mirror in between the two“, “Gyuri gets prettier by the day. They are so cute“, and “Good to see that they are so close. Please post a lot of pictures like these from now on“.

In related news, Goo Hara, Gyuri and the rest of the KARA members will be embarking on their Asia tour starting next month.

CREDIT: VITALSIGN / allkpop
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On January 11th, many of Korea’s top musicians and pop stars gathered at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka for the 26th Golden Disk Awards.

This year, the show was divided into two parts: the first part (held on January 11th) honors the winners of the physical album categories, while the second party (held on January 12th) will do the same for digital albums. KARA‘s Park Gyuri and Super Junior‘s Leeteuk acted as MCs for this year’s awards.

The first ‘Golden Disk Awards’ began in 1986, and since then, it’s become Korea’s most prestigious awards ceremony for music. Nicknamed the ‘Korean Grammy Awards,’ the ceremony is reputed for its fair standards, as the committee utilizes figures from album and digital music sales only.

Below are the list of winners from this year’s show!

=======

Disk Daesang
- Super Junior

Disk Bonsang
- f(x)
- INFINITE
- MBLAQ
- Jay Park
- KARA
- CNBLUE
- B2ST
- Super Junior

Rookie Award
- B1A4
- Dal Shabet
- A Pink

Popularity Award
- Super Junior

Hallyu Icon Award
- INFINITE
- Rainbow

Best Hallyu Star Award
- KARA

MSN Japan Award
- Super Junior

CeCi Award
- B2ST

Golden Disk Producer Award
- Hong Seung Sung (Cube Entertainment)

PICTURE OF KARA:

CONGRATULATIONS KARA LADIES FOR WINNING A BONSANG AND BEST HALLYU STAR AWARDS!!!

SOURCE: StarNews via Nate
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Five member girl group KARA will be going international in February with an overseas tour! Starting with a concert in Korea this February, the girls will be hitting major cities in Asia to meet with their many fans. They are still in the process of securing the dates for their concert, moving around the events they have in Korea and Japan.

KARA will be performing ‘KARASIA‘ at Olympic Hall in Seoul on February 18th & 19th, and this is the girls’ first independent concert since their debut in 2007 with ‘Blooming‘. The tour title is appropriate, as KARA is embarking on this tour to become one with their fans in Asia, hence, KARASIA.

A representative from their agency DSP Media informed StarNews on the 11th, “KARA had put on numerous performances in the past and fan meet-and-greets as well, but this is the first time they are putting on an independent concert since their debut. The girls have come a long way, now being one of Korea’s top girl groups and they plan on meeting with all of their fans that have supported them for the entirety of their journey.”

The fans themselves have been anxiously waiting for a concert. Their agency reserved one of Korea’s largest halls to ensure that a large number of fans would be able to see their favorite girl group. The tickets for the concert are being sold at a rapid rate.

KARA is without a doubt at the forefront of the Hallyu wave, going back and forth between Korea and Japan. They showcased their adorable charms and powerful performances with hit songs like “Mister“, “Jumping“, “Honey“, “Pretty Girl“, and more, while “Mister”, “Go Go Summer“, “Jetcoaster Love” and more were huge hits in Japan.

KARA has been highly acknowledged in Japan and has become one of the hottest girl groups today. They have earned the honor of performing at the NHK Red & White Music Festival last month, an opportunity reserved only for the most elite of Japanese celebrities.

SOURCE: Xportsnews
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A Korean cosmetic-surgery clinic conducted a survey of Japanese patient visitors for the entire year of 2011 asking, “Who is your favorite Hallyu Star?”  At the end of the year, KARA was the most preferred K-pop star among Japanese visitors.

Director Yoon In Mo of the hospital explained, “The most favored Hallyu star came out to be Park Gyuri, Nicole, Han Seung Yeon, Goo Hara, and Kang Ji Young who are in KARA.  The following favorite stars after KARA were Jang Geun Suk, Bae Yong Jun, Girls’ Generation, Lee Byung Hun, and Jo In Sung.  Through this survey, we were able to find out how the Japanese think about KARA’s image.  The KARA members resemble puppy dogs.  They all have cute and lovely faces.  Some Japanese visitors brought photos of their favorite KARA member and asked to change their nose to look like their favorite KARA member.  They wish to look a little more like their favorite stars, even if it’s through a nose job.”

He continued, “I think KARA’s music brought a good response from the Japanese due to a thorough planning from the start before composing and selecting songs to release to the global and domestic markets.”

Kara’s high popularity among the Japanese was also proven back on November 19th of 2011 when Y-STAR‘s ‘Curious‘ conducted surveys with Japanese tourists to which 62 out of the 100 chose Kara as their favorite K-pop star.

Japanese Sankei Newspaper also ran an analysis about the girls and concluded that KARA’s popularity is due to, “Their attractive face, balanced body line, and fancy dance“.  Sankai also reported that Korean girl groups are gaining popularity due to their distinguishing appearance and interesting group dance compared to current Japanese idols.  This sort of popularity has led KARA to earn 49.3 billion yen(73 billion won) in Japan from CD and DVD sales in 2011 alone.

In related news, KARA will be attending the ‘Golden Disc Awards in Osaka‘ on the 11th.

SOURCE + IMAGE: SportsKorea via Nate
CREDIT: leesa86 /allkpop.com
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KARA vs Girls’ Generation, who will be the first to sell a million copies of their album in Japan?

Girl groups KARA and Girls’ Generation continue to sell an impressive number of albums in Japan into the new year, and the race to see who sells a million copies first has already begun.

According to the Oricon, KARA’s second full-length Japanese album ‘Super Girl‘ sold 586,400 copies as of January 9th, while Girls’ Generation‘s first full-length Japanese album also titled ‘Girls’ Generation‘ sold 734,000 copies.

For now Girls’ Generation is ahead by 148,400 copies, but it is too early to be optimistic. KARA’s ‘Super Girl’ was released more recently on November 23rd, and was #1 on Oricon’s Weekly Chart for five days straight it’s first week of release, it also achieved #1 on Oricon’s Monthly Chart.

In two short days, the album sold 100,000 copies and 200,000 by the fifth day. In eight days, the album sold over 300,000 copies and 400,000 after 16 days. By the 29th day, the album had sold over 500,000 copies.

After less than a month after the release, the album impressively secured the #7 spot on a list of the overall best selling albums of the year for 2011.

Girls’ Generation is also continuing to increase the number of sales with their new repackaged album which includes their latest hits. The Girls’ Generation members seem determined to be the first Korean girl group to sell a million copies of their album in Japan.

Of all the Korean singers that have promoted in Japan, the one artist who broke the million-mark is none other than Asia’s ever-rising star, BoA. BoA’s second Japanese album ‘Valenti‘ released back in January of 2003 sold approximately 1,240,000 copies, setting a new record.

One thing is for sure. One of the two girl groups will become the first Korean artist in 9 years to sell over a million copies, and the first ever foreign girl group to break a million. Fans are highly curious to find out which group will reach the goal first.

SOURCE + IMAGE: bntNews via Nate
CREDIT: leesa86 /allkpop.com
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The nation’s sweetheart IU was beyond shocked on the latest episode of SBS ‘Star King‘.

National magician Choi Hyun Woo and three ‘magicians king’s Choi Hyung Bae, Kim Min Hyung, and Lee Jun Hyung guest-featured on the January 7th episode of ‘Star King’.

Singer IU was completely shocked when magician Choi Hyung Bae made IU’s fellow ‘Inkigayo‘ MC, KARA member Goo Hara’s necklace disappear.

T-ara‘s Jiyeon also picked up a crushed empty can of soda from the trash and watched it become a brand new soda right before her eyes.

Jiyeon even took a few sips from the can, leaving everyone on set dumbfounded and amazed.

SOURCE & IMAGE: Narsha’s Twitter
CREDIT: leesa86 / allkpop.com
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Brown Eyed Girls‘ member Narsha shared a sweet photo of herself and KARA member Goo Hara.

The singer recently shared the photo above via her official Twitter page and wrote, “Na ra gu~”

In the photo, both Narsha and Hara had their full stage-makeup on and posed cuddling next to each other. Narsha looked like Hara’s older sister with her arms protectively wrapped around her and her chin gently resting against Hara’s forehead.

Netizens were glad to see that the previous ‘G7‘ members were still very close.

Fans who saw the photo left comments such as, “I miss the old G7 and apparently they do too“, “Two sweetie pies“, “Narsha Koo Hara…pretty unni & cute dongsaeng! ^__^“, “so sweet~“, and more.

SOURCE + PHOTO: Sports Chosun via Naver
CREDIT: VITALSIGN /allkpop.com
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KARA‘s Gyuri shocked her fans by transforming into a Smurfette!

Producers of ‘Lululala‘ had originally requested that she show up in a glamorous red carpet get-up. Gyuri obliged and arrived in a sexy red dress that emphasized her perfect figure and drew everyone’s attention.

Unfortunately, she was late to arrive, forcing producers to lay down a penalty. The sexiness lasted just for a moment, as she was transformed into a Smurfette backstage.

Gyuri quickly asked, “Why are you doing this to me?!” but immediately adjusted into her character once the cameras began rolling.

The episode featuring her Smurfette transformation airs on January 8th.

SOURCE + PHOTO: Mydaily via Naver
CREDIT: VITALSIGN / allkpop.com
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KARA‘s Seungyeon, After School’s Lizzy, SISTAR‘s Hyorin, and SECRET‘s Sunhwa have been confirmed for MBC‘s new ‘We Got Married‘ spin-off, ‘Pit-a-pat Shake‘.

On January 6th, PD Jun Sung Ho revealed, “We recently completed the first shoot with Seungyeon, Lizzy, Hyorin, Sunhwa, and their male partners. The atmosphere was great, and I think it will be fun for the audience to watch the stories these couples create.”

When asked about the male partners, they revealed, “We cannot reveal that yet. There’s a mix of singers and actors.”

He continued, “The female stars showed a side to them that isn’t normally seen. Seungyeon had unique ideas about dating with a strong feminine side, while Hyorin was cool about everything. Sunhwa was also different from the ‘blank sheet’ character she’s known to be. Lizzy was well-loved by the male stars and worked hard to escape her ‘saturi’ image. Still, she couldn’t help but slip in her country dialect now and then, which was cute.”

The spin-off is the dating version of ‘We Got Married’. The continuation of the show will depend on how the viewers receive it for now.

SOURCE: Star News
CREDIT: carolicity /allkpop.com
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On January 5th, Japanese media outlet Sponichi reported the viewer ratings for the country’s biggest year-end music festival, ’62nd NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen’, which included performances from 50 artists.

According to Sponichi, SNSD‘s performance brought in 39.9% in viewership ratings, while 38.4% tuned in for KARA‘s performance. This is quite an achievement for both groups considering how Japan’s most popular female group, AKB48, achieved 38.9%.

However, one thing to take into consideration is that the first half of Kohaku usually records less viewer ratings than the second half. AKB48 performed during the 1st half, while SNSD and KARA performed during the 2nd half of the show.

Meanwhile, the artist that brought in the most viewer ratings for the night was the popular Japanese group, SMAP, with 48.2%. TVXQ came close with 42.6%, a very impressive feat for a Korean artist. Additionally, this was the third time that TVXQ was invited to participate in the festival, which demonstrates their continuous popularity in Japan.