Thursday, December 23, 2010

Kara(カラ) dubbed Japan’s #1 Rookie Artist for 2010


KARA has made magnificent achievements in 2010 since their debut into Japan this year, and it’s being reflected by their ‘all-kill‘ on various album, singles, and mobile annual charts as 2010’s #1 rookie artist, and even placing in the top 10 in charts for all of Japanese artists.

On December 20th, Oricon had announced through their 2010 Annual Charts that KARA was this year’s #1 rookies in album sales. “KARA, who received great interest during the debut with their ‘butt dance’, released eight albums including Japanese singles for ‘Jumping’ and ‘Mister’, one Korean album, and a DVD, and gained a revenue of $15 million USD,” said Oricon.

According to Oricon, KARA sold 493,000 units to gain $15 million USD, which was closely followed by SNSD in 2nd place. A 3rd ranked Japanese rookie artist sold 83,000 units and gained a revenue of $1.5 million USD, showing a 10X difference in revenue in comparison with KARA. Despite KARA’s first official album, ‘Girls Talk‘, being in Korean, the group still managed to sell 200,000 units in one month, displaying KARA’s increasing status in the Japanese market.

Not only is KARA #1 on album sales sites, but they also ranked the #1 best rookie artists on the Japanese mobile site, Rekochoku, for which they placed first in almost every single category in their annual charts, including bell sound downloads and music videos. In addition, KARA was also picked in the top 5 in a poll for ‘2010’s Best MVP Artists‘, chosen directly by the general public.

On the annual sales charts for iTunes Japan that was announced on December 9th, KARA’s ‘Mister’ was placed #14, which was the highest rank out of all the rookie artists that debuted this year.

But it doesn’t finish there. USEN, Japan’s biggest cable TV company, recently released their overall chart for 2010, and KARA’s debut single, “Mister”, was ranked in the top 20 at #18. USEN’s charts determine which were the biggest tracks of the year based on the number of times a track is requested by listeners and broadcasted.

Aside from official results from online charts, KARA’s popularity has hit the jackpot amongst the general public as well. KARA were recently appointed the models for Japan’s biggest mobile news agency, au, and will take the main roles for a public TV drama to begin airing next year in January. In addition, KARA will soon be officially announced for one of Japan’s famous gaming companies. To top it off, KARA’s ‘Mister’ was ranked #1 on Japan’s Karaoke charts for November and December.

Source: Newsen

Visit also www.karaweb.jp

No comments: