Friday, November 05, 2010
Today's BoA's 25th birthday. I have listened to her songs for probably about 6 years I think. I can't remember exactly. I think the BoA song that I listened to was one of her earlier Korean songs,
Waiting, from a TV drama. From that point on, I've been hooked on to her songs ever since. The first BoA MV I watched was
Every Heart. And, the first BoA album that I bought was Best of Soul. The first BoA concert I watched (albeit not in person but that'll be in future) was
Arena Tour 2005: Best of Soul.
Over time, many of her songs became my favourites.
Waiting was a really sad song that I liked at the start.
Every Heart came next, partly due to the brilliant rendition of that song in the Best of Soul Arena Tour.
Everlasting had a great classical version alongside many great live versions and the melody is probably one of the best among her songs.
Your Colour was my favourite for very long , partly because it was linked to a Dynasty Warrior style game. Heh. Next was
Key of Heart which had an English version that made me cringe. The Korean version was brilliant though. The Korean PV was okay lar. Typical storyline but since she's in it, it's quite good. =P Then, there were
Sweet Impact and
Aggressive. The former had a really cool PV and the latter had one of the best ever performances imo, during
Live Tour 2008: The Face. I remembered in Nov 2008 during some exercise in PLC, I was so hooked on to that song. Jie Hao told me he kept seeing the same song title on my PSP. Heh. Now, let's skip the next one to the latest one first.
Hurricane Venus sounded totally horrible to me when I first heard it. I waited one week for its release after I heard about the news about the day of release. But well, the PV plus performances got me hooked. The choreography is very interesting.
Now, we come to probably my favourite song of all time, considering all the songs I've ever heard,
Mamoritai ~White Wishes~. It doesn't have a very grand PV like
Hurricane Venus and the choreography's not elaborate like
Eien. And it's not a song that's like I must listen to everyday or something. I get that feeling for a lot of songs and they usually probably last for the most about 3 months. This song feels like an old friend. I first heard it when I watched the PV release. Simple and nice song. And I love how the PV ended with the sound of applause and she looked like she was going to go on stage. Glad that the timing was perfect when I asked Kay Siong to buy the Japanese-made single for me when he was in Japan. I first heard this song in October 2009 and as can be seen from my iTunes chart, it's still top. =)
There was this day during my army days when I had a bad day and didn't even had the mood to go for nights out. Cannot remember what happened but I remembered Yanmin kindly stayed to talk to me. Suddenly, I received a call from home saying that BoA's Best & USA had arrived at my doorstep. I was so elated I rushed home straight. (I must say sorry to Yanmin here. Paiseh that you stayed and I pangseh-ed you in the end.) I reached home, grabbed the stuff and rushed back to watch the DVD. (I had all the songs beforehand. Heh.) It just made my night.
I'm thankful for knowing about her and her songs. I spent many angsty and sad nights listening to her songs or watching her performances. I spent many happy moments bathing in her great voice. Her live performances never fail to amaze. Never. Acoustic, dance or simply just her voice alone. As of now, my favourite performance is still her performance named "Over the Top" at the MKMF 2005 Awards. That performance of
Girls on Top blew my mind off and I was stunned to hear that she performed that standard while being sick that day and that she fainted after the performance. Lately, I watched the documentary film of
Best of Soul Arena Tour. She injured her ankle at one of the starting legs of her tour and she promised to finish the show. She did and I'll remember the scene where she limped from one end of the stage to another end to bow and thank the crowd. That was a really moving scene.
Her style has changed a lot over the years. She's no longer the cute little girl that her fans saw about 10 years ago. And her musical style changed too. As fans, we grew up together with her and watched her mature and how she ventured into Japan, then USA. I don't think it matters whether her sales are great or whether she made it in America. She's a great artiste and that is undeniable. Just by looking at her dancing and singing, it makes one wonder how she does it. How can anyone sing and dance so well? And be able to converse in so many languages and venture into so many markets?
Even if I cannot understand most of her songs, I don't find it a disadvantage. I listen to her voice in this case then. One great example would be the Moon and Sunrise performance in her
BoA the Live 2006. That is probably the 2nd best performance to me. The amount of pain and sadness she delivers in that song is chilling. You can even see the fans crying just by hearing her live rendition.
To me, she is and will probably will always be the best artiste. At such a young age, she has achieved what many can never do. She is a very inspiring figure and she probably wouldn't know about how much she has impacted the lives of others. In this way, it's very similar to a teacher. But there are so many youths who look up to her as a role model, including myself and she is a great role model. I hope she can continue to enjoy her career and to inspire others.
As a last note, I can't express how much I wish for that Copy&Paste repackaged album to be in my possession. It feels like how I was awaiting for Best&USA. Looking forward to it seems to a great motivation for me. In this lifetime, I must at least watch her concert in person once and if possible, meet her once. That'll be another wish fulfilled then.
Labels: BoA
rotted-7:13 PM
