[ANNOUNCEMENT] KARA’s Step Album available NOW in ODYSSEY

Step it Up with Odyssey Music and Video, Warner Music Philippines and KARA PHILIPPINES!

Grab a copy of KARA’s “STEP” (Special Limited Edition) available in the following stores as of Jan 2012:

– ODYSSEY SM MEGAMALL
– ODYSSEY SM MALL OF ASIA

* other branches to follow!

“Step” album track list:
1) Ey! Oh! (Intro)
2) Step
3) Rider
4) Strawberry
5) 따라와 (Follow Me)
6) Date (My Boy)
7) 나는..(Ing) (Acoustic Version)
8) Kara 4 U (Outro)
9) Step (Instrumental)
10) 내 마음을 담아서 (Dear Kamilia) <Bonus Track>

[NEWS] Japanese tourists prefer Kara over all K-pop stars

Source: TV Report
CREDIT: hannacha / en.korea.com
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Kara is selected as the most preferred K-pop star by Japanese tourists.

According to Unimedi Plastic Surgery on January 7, a survey titled “Who is your favorite K-pop star?” was conducted targeting Japanese tourists who visited Korea last year. As for the result, Kara was ranked at the top.

Dr. Yoo In Mo, the director of the hospital, said, “Japanese tourists prefer Kara, which is composed of Park Gyuri, Nicole, Han Seung Yeon, Goo Hara, and Kang Jiyoung, over all K-pop stars. After Kara, Jang Keun Suk, Bae Yong Joon, SNSD, Lee Byung Hun, and Jo In Sung followed the rankings.

Through this survey, we could learn the images of Kara seen by Japanese people. Kara members have a so-called ‘puppy face.’ They have cute, lovely facial shapes. Some Japanese tourists bring a picture of their favorite member to get a plastic surgery on their nose. By undergoing the surgery, they wanted to look more like their favorite singer.

Kara’s music also seemed to easily make a bond of sympathy with Japanese people, and I think that’s because they begin with a thorough revision before composing and selecting songs according to the global and domestic markets.

Japanese people’s preference for Kara could also be proved through another survey conducted by a different broadcaster. In the episode of Y-Star’s Curious that aired on November 19 last year, 62 Japanese tourists out of 100 answered Kara when asked of their favorite K-pop singers.

Japanese Sankei Newspaper analyzed the key to their popularity as, “Their attractive appearance, balanced body figure, and fancy dance. Korean girl groups are becoming very popular here by featuring distinguishing looks and fancy group dance from any other Japanese ‘idol’ groups.” The popularity then led them to great sales; Kara earned about 4.93 billion yen (73 billion won) in 2011 only from the sales of CDs and DVDs.

[NEWS] Park Gyuri Is an MC Queen in Japan

CREDIT: jbarky@soompi.com

Kara’s leader Park Gyuri will MC the 26^th “Golden Disc Awards in Osaka” with Super Junior’s Lee Teuk. She will also MC the “Korean, Japanese Fashion Event KISS” with the famous Japanese model Uri Ebihara. Both events sent love calls to Park Gyuri to MC for the events. This isn’t the first time that she has emceed.

In terms of Hallyu events she emceed for the “Music Bank in Tokyo, K-Pop Festival” on July 13, 2011 and “Seoul-Tokyo Music Festival 2011” on November 9.

The reason why Japanese companies want her to MC for the events is because of Park Gyuri’s fluent Japanese, her fluid way of emceeing, and also her skill at talking.

Currently Kara as a whole have recently appeared in NHK’s “Kohaku Uta Gassen.” They are currently going back and forth between Japan and Korea appearing in variety shows and radio shows.

[NEWS] KARA’s Jiyoung goes ‘jumping’ in the woods

SOURCE + PHOTO: OSEN
CREDIT: exceptlove / allkpop.com
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On January 2nd, KARA‘s maknae Jiyoung recently posted a series of amusing photos on Twitter from a trip outdoors in the woods.

Along with photo, she added the caption, ”jumping, jumping” in reference to KARA’s hit track “STEP.”

Fans could not help but smile seeing the singer jumping comically like a mischievous child. Netizens remarked, ”Totally cute. She’s cute even posing like that“, “She seems like a rascal“, “Girl groups have a side like this to them too. Cute“.

[NEWS] KARA skips meals on days they wear revealing stage ensembles

SOURCE + IMAGE: Newsen via NATE
CREDIT: leesa86 / allkpop.com
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The ladies of KARA guest-featured on the January 3rd airing of KBS 2FM‘s ‘Hong Jin Kyung’s 2:00‘ radio program, and revealed some of their secrets.

Member Han Seungyeon opened up saying, “We really like to eat.” But there are days that KARA skips meals even though they’re hungry and those are the days in which they need to wear revealing clothing.

The girls admitted that when they were promoting “Mister“, they wore short tops for the performances and they would not eat, or even drink, a single thing before they went up on stage.

“But once we’re done with the performance, we eat everything we want,” they said. “We drink bottles and bottles of water as soon as we step down from stage and eat everything from sushi to cake once we enter our dressing room. We line up everything we want to eat in a row, and then consume all of it.”

DJ Hong then asked, “Don’t you care that other people will see you guys eating like that?”, to which the members responded, “No, because… well, the food is delicious!”

Meanwhile, Park Gyuri wasn’t present on this day due to a scheduling conflict, while Seungyeon, Nicole, Goo Hara, and Jiyoung were present.

[NEWS] Goo Hara picks Takuya Kimura as her favorite Japanese actor

SOURCE + IMAGE: MyDaily
CREDIT: leesa86 / allkpop.com
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KARA member Goo Hara giggled like a schoolgirl when talking about Japanese SMAP member and actor, Takuya Kimura.

Goo Hara along with some of her fellow KARA members guest featured on KBS 2FM‘s radio program ‘Hong Jin Kyung’s 2:00‘ on January 3rd, and the girls shared a story about the time they met Takuya Kimura.

When talking about Japanese actors, Goo Hara remarked that she liked Takuya Kimura after watching one of his dramas. “I recently met him at the Kohaku Uta Gassen,” she said.

“We introduced ourselves to him as KARA and said hello to him first. He responded by telling us he was happy to meet us and was extremely friendly,” they explained with an excited laugh.

While Goo Hara picked Takuya Kimura as her favorite Japanese actor / actress, Nicole chose Mizusima Hiro, Han Seungyeon chose Toda Erika as well as Abe Hiroshi, while Kang Ji Youngchose Yuki Amami.

[NEWS] Fans grow concerned over IU & Goo Hara’s slim legs

SOURCE + IMAGE: TV Report via NATE
CREDIT: leesa86 / allkpop.com
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The thin figures of KARA‘s Goo Hara and singer IU are causing quite the buzz online.

A photo of the two girls standing on stage together surfaced on an online community site recently, and fans were shocked to see how their frail their legs looked.

Goo Hara, who’s been called an assortment of ‘doll’ names because of her waifish figure, looked more healthy when compared to fellow ‘Inkigayo‘ MC IU.

Netizens commented, “Unbelievable, how are their legs so skinny?”, “Can they walk? Their legs look as though they’ll break“, “They need to eat more and put some meat on their bones.”

It could be a distorted picture, but netizens and fans seemed to agree that health should override beauty trends.

[PHOTOS] 120103 KARA at Hong Jin Kyung’s 2:00

CREDIT: KARAfacts@twitter

Visit KARA501’s (my) ImageShack profile

Quickpost these images to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

[NEWS] KARA’s ‘MBC Gayo Daejaejun’ stage is worth $17 million USD

Source: TV Report via Nate
CREDIT: phenom / allkpop.com
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It’s been revealed that KARA‘s pre-recorded stage for the ‘MBC Gayo Daejaejun‘ cost a whopping 20 billion won (~$17 million USD).

On January 31st, KARA attended Japan’s ‘NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen‘, which forced them to miss out on performing a live stage for the ’2011 MBC Gayo Daejaejun’.

Instead, KARA presented viewers with a video of their hit songs ‘Jumping‘ and ‘Step‘. The cruise ship they performed on for their pre-recording was said to be worth $17 million USD, and to rent it for one day cost thousands of dollars.

A representative from KARA stated, “Because we felt sorry for being unable to attend the ‘Gayo Daejaejun’, we thought it would be nice to give our all for the video. By chance, we were able to make a deal with Japan’s leading shipping company, and so we shot the video for ‘Jumping’ and ‘Step’ there. This was a busy season where we got to know KARA’s status in Japan.”

KARA garnered much attention and popularity in Japan by attending several special year-end programs, such as the ‘Kohaku Uta Gassen’, ‘Japan Record Awards‘, ‘Music Station Super Live‘, and ‘FNS Festival‘.

[NEWS] Asian Pop Addict Radio reveals the winners of their ‘Melo’ Awards 2011

SOURCE: asianpopaddict.com
CREDIT: liime_arix / aramatheydidnt
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Asian Pop Addict is a weekly podcast radio show centered around Asian music. While the name does contain ‘Pop’, they also focus on rock, rap, hip hop and other forms of Asian music.

Once again they hosted their own awards that centered around Asian entertainment from the past year. Last year it was the Fuckery Awards, but this year, it is known as the Mamamelo or Melo Awards. The categories were provided by the hosts of the shows and listeners were encouraged to nominate and vote for who they wanted to win in each category.

GTFO My TV!
Japanese: SNSD

Biggest WTF of the Year
Japanese: Earthquake/Tsunami

Douchebag of the year
Japanese: Arama They Didn’t users

Twitter whore of the year
Japanese: Gackt

Artist Who Needs More Airplay
Japanese: Daichi Miura

Best comeback
Japanese: Koda Kumi

Worst comeback
Japanese: Anything from AKB48

Most Improved Artist or Group
Japanese: KAT-TUN

The ultimate BAMF of the year
Japanese: Koda Kumi

Worst dressed of the year
Japanese: Jang Geun Suk

Worst hair style
Japanese: Ueda (KAT-TUN) “shaved head”

Most rigid award show
Japanese: MTV “VMA’s”

Most “FABULOUS” male
Japanese: Matsumoto Jun (Arashi)

Best Drama
Japanese: Ikemen Desu Ne

Best Crossover Artist or Group Into Japan
Kara

Song of the Year
Japanese: Koda Kumi “KO SO KO SO”