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Sandara Park (Korean: 박산다라; born November 12, 1984^[1]), also known by her stage name Dara (Korean: 다라), is a South Korean singer, dancer, actress, television personality, model, and host. Rising to fame in the early-2000's, Park quickly established herself as a teen icon during her short-lived career ranging from a highly successful music and movie/tv venture while in the Philippines, garnering her honorific title "Pambansang krungkrung ng Pilipinas", before later joining 2NE1 in 2009. The group would later go on to be one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one of South Korea's most popular girl-group's nationwide as well as worldwide.

Park first came into the public eye after participating as a contestant and ending as a runner-up during the first season of Star Circle Quest in 2004. Having already been labeled as a mega sensation by the shows end, Park made her debut with her first self-titled extended play released immediately after the shows completion, which topped the Philippine charts and has since been certified 2x platinum. The album spawned the 1# single "In Or Out", which was a major dance hit. The album was repackaged

Born in Busan, South Korea, she later moved to the Philippines in 1992 where Park was launched to Her debut single "In Or Out" became a runaway hit and was one of the most successful songs of that year. Her self-titled debut album "Sandara" was certified platinum before going on to sell more then 60,000 copies, making her the first Korean born to do so. Dara then landed her first leading role in the 3 part film Bcuz of U (2004) starring alongside Hero Angeles, the winner of Star Circle Quest. Bolstered by the back to back success of her film and music venture, she cemented herself as a household name and earned the national title .

With the success of

After the completion of her activities, she returned to her birth home in 2007 and signed with South Korean entertainment company, YG Entertainment with the initial intention of continuing her career as an actress. Instead, she became a member of the South Korean girl group 2NE1 and debuted as the 'soft vocal' and visual of the quartet. The group is estimated to have sold more than 65 million digital singles worldwide and are the best-selling digital girl-group in South Korea. They are the only group to have won all Grand Prizes at the MAMA Awards and are tied with EXO for having the second most Daesang's at the said award show. In 2009, she released her first digital single "Kiss" in South Korea and it was included as the 9th track in 2NE1's first studio album To Anyone in 2010.

Following the hiatus of 2NE1 in late 2014, Park reentered the acting scene and took part in the growing trend of web-dramas, starring in back-to-back dramas Dr. Ian, We Broke Up, and Missing You all in 2015. She won a 'Best Actress' award at the K-wave festival for her portrayal as the shy Lee So Dam in Dr. Ian. She currently works as a fixed host on Sugar Man. Her younger brother, Park Sang-Hyun, better known as Cheondung, is a former member of boy band MBLAQ.^[2][3]

Dara was born Sandara Park on November 12, 1984, in Busan, South Korea. She was named after the revolutionary war hero General Kim Yushin, cousin to Queen Seondeok of Silla, who's childhood name was San Da Ra. Her mother gave her the name believing that it would make her confident in later years. She is the daughter of Ik-Su Park, a trading businessman, and Kyung Ran-Kim.^[4] She has a younger sister named Durami, and her younger brother is former member of K-pop boy group MBLAQ and actor Sang-hyun. During the earliest years of her childhood, Sandara lived well due to her father running a successful business in trading, but following a strain incurred by relatives, who got involved in bad deals, the business went bankrupt and the family was sent into financial ruin. They then moved to Daegu before her father was forced to leave his family in 1992 for the Philippines in hopes of rebuilding his career. Dara often stepped in and took care of her younger siblings in the place of her mother since she worked long hours. Eventually, her father was able to stabilize his career, and in 1995, moved the family to Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines to begin a new life.^[5][6]

The transition wasn't easy.

^[7]

In 2003, during one of her school activities, she met Pauleen Luna, a former talent of ABS-CBN Corporation Channel 2's Talent Center who encouraged Park to take part in the November auditions for Star Circle Quest, a reality-based talent search television program.^[8] Over the course of the season, she escaped elimination several times, and reached the final ten contestants.^[8] Her Korean ethnicity resulted in some trouble with the daily exercises set by the panel of Filipino judges. During the last elimination round (in which only five people advanced), Park received approximately half a million text votes. She eventually finished in second place behind Hero Angeles.^[9]

Park joined ABS-CBN's entertainment stable called Star Magic in the wake of her success in the show, with her projects ranging from commercial endorsements to television appearances. She starred in her first movie Bcuz of U (2004), a three-story movie.^[10][11] She acted alongside Hero Angeles, Kristine Hermosa and Heart Evangelista. Park won "Best New Actress", her first acting award, in the 21st Philippine Movie Press Club Star Awards.^[12] Park and Angeles launched their first solo movie, Can This Be Love (2005) which reportedly grossed almost 100 million pesos.^[12][13] Park was also nominated for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Musical or Comedy)" at the 2006 Golden Screen Awards.^[14] Her third movie in the country was D' Lucky Ones (2006) wherein she was paired with co-SCQ alumnus, Joseph Bitangcol due to Angeles' decision to retire from show business.^[12][15] In the same year, her fourth and last movie Super Noypi was shown in Christmas 2006 and was an official entry into the 32nd Metro Manila Film Festival.^[16] The success of Park in the Philippines lead her to star in a drama series. One was Krystala, a fantasy series with Judy Ann Santos.^[17] She also acted in various series Crazy For You (2006) and Abt Ur Luv (2006) and television specials My Name is Sandara Park (2004) and SCQ Reload: OK Ako! (2004).

Park also embarked on a musical career that led to the release of her self-titled six-track album that contained the novelty dance hit "In or Out", a song that parodied her experiences on Star Circle Quest.^[18][19][20]

In December 2004, YG Entertainment's Yang Hyun Suk offered Park workshop classes in South Korea after seeing the KBS Documentary My Name Is Sandara Park.^[21] In March 2005, Park went ahead with the workshops, putting her career in the Philippines on hold. After six months, she resumed work in the Philippines, starring in several movies. She left the Philippines show business industry permanently and returned to South Korea with her family on August 1, 2007.^[22] YG Entertainment announced the following day that Park had signed a contract with them.^[23]

^[24]

She sung the theme song "We Are The Stars" for the worldwide hit computer game turned animation Ragnarok the Animation.

Sandara Park is regarded as the most influential Korean artist in the Philippines, having been credited for breaking racial barriers in its entertainment industry and for helping to bring Korean culture to the island country. StarStudio magazine observed that she was largely responsible for the introduction of a Korean presence in the film, music, and TV industry. A song she sang during Star Circle Quest, a famous Korean folk song called Arirang, sparked a sudden awareness towards Korean culture. The song was widely popular amongst the public after she performed it wearing traditional Korean garb called a hanbok, which furthered the Philippine interest regarding the foreign culture. Analyzing Park's extreme popularity, ???? noted that her "gentle, down-to-earth" and "child-like" character endeared her to fans who previously thought that Koreans were "haughty". Their acceptance of Park marked the breakdown of preconceived perceptions.

It was when Park returned to South Korea for a short period of time did her native people become aware of her presence. Korea JoongAng Daily stated that the documentary My Name Is Sandara Park made her a "star" in Korea.^[25] Bolstered by the media attention gained from the documentary, fans described her as being the "BoA of the Philippines," due to the unheard of but similar success between the two, as BoA was the first Korean to break through the Japanese market.Sandara Park is credited as one of the leading figures in the term 'Reverse-Hallyu' Wave due to the reach her popularity had in neighboring countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand.^[26] She holds the national title of 'Pambansang Krung Krung ng Pilipinas' (The Philippines' national weird or unique personality) given to her by her Filipino fans.^[27]

As a result of her successful transition to movies and music, Park dominated nearly every field in the entertainment industry. Her presence was described as being "so incredible that it was said that one was not a citizen of the Philippines if they did not know Sandara Park". And following so closely behind the Meteor Garden craze, the public "jumped at the chance to discover something new and embraced her". Sandara remains as the first and only female contestant of Star Circle Quest to garner so much support from the public, and the only Korean to break through the Philippine market with such groundbreaking success.

Park's return to prominence in 2009 made her one of the few. Park remains as the only the Korean entertainer to have

In popular culture, Sandara is the icon of 'baby-face' amongst celebrities and the public, which is a term used to describe an individual who looks younger than their years.^[28] Despite being born in the early 80's, Sandara is known to top and beat other competitors in survey's, often with a large gap between their ages, thus earning herself the nickname 'Vampire' for her youthful skin and look.^[29][30] She is noted for having the ideal facial proportions, called 'the golden ratio', which is a 1:1:0.8 measurement of the face by plastic surgeons.^[31] Attesting to the quality of her skin, she was described to be a popular choice for both advertisers and consumers, who would be drawn to her clear and seemingly pore-less face. In 2012, she was announced to be one of the most beautiful women of her time (80's).^[32]

Fashion

Sandara features some of the most iconic and memorable styles in the Korean Industry, ranging from her signature tail lilt eye make-up, to her bold hair styles and clothing.^[33][34] Labeled a pioneer of unconventional trends, Sandara's first appearance in Lollipop sporting her 'Palm-tree' hairstyle became the most famous and widely parodied style in 2009 and remains an iconic piece in K-pop. ^[35][36][37] In particular, her shaved-head look, for which she had shaved a portion of her trademark locks for the promotional single "I Love You", attracted massive media attention and initially garnered mixed reactions, but was nonetheless praised for its shock factor and contradictory styling to the typical girl-group 'look'.^[38][39][40] The style is considered to be her most noteworthy transformation.^[41]

Park is one of the most in-demand faces in both the Philippines and South Korea, having appeared in many TV commercials and print ads over the course of her career.^[44] Park's huge popularity led to her instantly signing many Philippine and foreign endorsement deals ranging from personal care and food products to everyday items at the end of the competition. Her first endorsement was for Dong-A pens.^[45] Along with other Star Circle Quest finalists, Park modeled for and endorsed BNY Jeans in 2004.^[46] She served as the face for Tekki Asian Classic Noodles, and helped promote Canon, a Japanese camera brand looking to solidify their power in the Philippines.^[45] She endorsed Confident feminine napkins,^[45] and Rejoice shampoo as well. In addition to the shampoo's advertisements, Park also contributed a single to go along with the brand.^[47] Park also campaigned for Maxi-Peel with Kristine Hermosa. Following the revival of her career as a member of 2NE1, Sandara endorsed high-profile local brands without the group. In 2009, she became the endorsement model for Oriental Brewery's Cass beer series, one of Korea's most famous alcoholic beverages, alongside actor Lee Minho.^[48] To help promote the beer, an accompanying music video and song was released to explosive nationwide attention.^[49] While promoting alongside 2NE1 for an endorsement deal with Mitsubishi's subsidiary Nikon Corporation, Park was solely chosen to become their main model for their new product Nikon Coolpix p300 camera.^[50] Dongkook Kim, brand manager of Nikon Korea, stated that signing her would increase their products "attractiveness", and motivate buyers to purchase their items.^[51] After her campaign debuted, the company reported a massive increase in sales that put them only behind Samsung, the largest business conglomerate in South Korea for the year of 2012.^[51] The company named the camera after her, going by the official name of "Sandara Digicam".^[50]

Makeup brand success, and Penshoppe

Park is also well known for endorsing makeup brands. Despite having already worked with Etude House in 2010 alongside her group, the makeup brand sought to continue with her for an additional two years with the belief that her image would be a "good influence" to potential buyers. Over the course of her endorsement with Etude, the brand was able to compete with popular local makeup companies and were launched to international success. An umbrella called Sweet Bunny was made available online and in stores to be given to buyers who paid for a certain amount of items.^[52] The limited special not only increased Etude House's sales, but also attracted a foreign consumer base who, moments after Park was seen holding the item, visited the South Korean stores specifically to purchase the umbrella, where it was bought in every color.^[52] In a week, Etude House sold over 40,000 of the umbrellas, ultimately selling out the product.^[52] A representative described the reactions of the public as "surprising". In late 2011, Park was joined by Shinee as endorsers for Etude House.^[53] Together they starred in commercial films styled in a web-drama format that appeared on Youtube and on television. The series was entitled Kiss Note, a spoof off of the Japanese manga Death Note which shows her writing the names of the members (excluding Onew who was absent during filming due to injury) using Etude lipsticks, spurring them to give her a kiss instead of causing death as in the original. At the time, the choice of format was an unusual one for a beauty industry to make, but due to the overwhelmingly positive appraisal of the series, Etude House successfully separated themselves from their competitors and gave themselves a foothold in the beauty market as a brand "unique and wholly original". The campaign went on to be a critical and commercial success, recording exponentially increased sales, and, bolstered by high global viewership, the Dear My Lips-Talk product (the lipsticks the kiss note series was for)became one of the years best-selling makeup products. The makeup brand won several web awards for their achievements in marketing, services and makeup as well.^[54][55]

In 2013, Sandara became the new makeup model for Clio, a well-established makeup company founded in 1993.^[56] Immediately after, sites recorded increased sales and her 'bloody series' makeup became a top-seller.^[57] The following year, the company's new mascara, Salon de Cara, was launched with Sandara as it's model and sold out 130,000 units of it's initial stock nationwide in only three weeks.^[58] The mascara went on to sell a record-breaking 300,000 units in the months following. A fansigning event was held on the 14 of November as a thank you to the buyers.^[59] Clio then closed the year with 4 awards, 3 of which were modeled by Sandara.^[60]

In 2015, Sandara joined the likes of supermodels Cara Delevingne, Sean O'Pry, and fashion model/tv personality Kendall Jenner as Penshoppe's ambassador.^[27] The following year, Sandara and G-Dragon was chosen as exclusive models for the cosmetic brand Moonshot launched previously by YG Plus in 2014, a subsidiary company of YG Entertainment.^[43] Days after launching products released in their namesake, the product was sold out and required immediate restocking. A representative of Moonshot noted that it was the first time their products left stores at such a high rate and that the overall reservations had gone up substantially.^[61]

Aside from her solo endorsements, Park has endorsed Adidas, 11st, Intel, Baskin Robbins, Italian sports brand Fila, Samsung, Yamaha, Bean Pole, and Nintendo Wii with her group.

In November of 2013, Dara and her brother lent their support for the campaign "WEGENERATION" to help the survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda that swept through the Philippines and which was then estimated to have killed 6,000. Having long considered the Philippines their second home after spending their childhood there, the Park siblings responded to the desperate situation by collaborating with both "WEGENERATION" and charity organization "World Share" to launch an online emergency aid fundraising system.^[62] By January, they raised 3 million won (₱116,721) for the survivors.^[63]

Dara does regular volunteer work for label-mate Sean's annual briquette charity event at the end New Years Eve.<ref>Eun, Elizabeth. "[Goodwill] Idols and Their Warm Hearts & Good Deeds". Mwave. Retrieved March 14, 2016.