Sandara Park

Sandara Park_17

Sandara Park (Korean: 박산다라, Hanja: 朴-, born November 12, 1984 in Busan, South Korea) is a Korean who once starred in movies and television shows in the Philippines. Her unusual three-syllable Korean name, which she has talked about numerous times during interviews, comes from that of a Korean general, Kim Yushin – whose childhood name was “Sandara (산다라)”. Sandara Park made her debut in 2004 with ABS-CBN’s Star Circle Quest.

Sandara was born to affluent Korean parents. However, by the time Sandara was 8-years-old, her father’s relatives placed him in a financially tight spot which then crippled his business. In hope of recovering from this strain, Sandara’s father tried his luck in the Philippines. He settled in a small apartment in Pasay City, and started a business. Sandara and her family remained at her grandmother’s house in South Korea for some time until her father finally had enough money to relocate them to the Philippines.

Sandara enrolled in voice lessons at the Center for Pop Music in the early 2000s. Initially, no one in their family was fluent in English or Filipino(Tagalog). However, she learned English and studied Chinese when she began school in the Philippines, and later became quite fluent in Filipino(Tagalog).

Sandara Park became a member of ABS-CBN’s elite circle of homegrown talents, properly named Star Magic . ABS-CBN showered Park with projects after her Star Circle Quest days. She had six local commercial endorsements for personal care and food products. She also received several television show offers. She starred in a youth-oriented program SCQ Reload, OK Ako, and hosted “Sandara’s Romance”, a show featuring Korean dramas and commentary. She also had a hosting stint on ASAP Fanatic, a Sunday noontime teen variety show. She also appeared in a local daily primetime superhero soap opera, Krystala, as Kim, who shared similarities with her real-life self, but her tight schedule limited her appearances.

In addition, Sandara also embarked on a musical career that eventually led to the release of her self-titled 6-track album which spawned the novelty dance hits “In Or Out,” a song that parodied her experiences on Star Circle Quest, and “Walang Sabit,” the jingle for Rejoice Shampoo. As proof of Sandara’s rapid rising-star status, the album was Certified Double Platinum after 6 months.

Sandara also appeared in four movies – Bcuz of U, a three-storyline movie which co-starred other prominent local actors, Can This Be Love, which grossed P 99,000,000 in the box office, D’ Lucky Ones and Super Noypi, a Filipino fantasy film and an official entry to 32nd Metro Manila Film Festival.

Sandara left the Philippines and returned to South Korea on August 1, 2007 with her mother and siblings to begin a new life. The next day, August 2, 2007, YG Entertainment reported that they had signed a contract with Sandara. As a new member of the YG family, she joined popular Korean artists and bands such as Big Bang, Se7en, Jinusean, Lexy, and 1TYM. Sandara has made an appearance in Gummy’s Music Video for the song “I’m Sorry (ft. T.O.P of Big Bang)” as the partner of T.O.P.

2NE1

2NE1 was much anticipated by the fans of YG Entertainment. Before their debut, YG Entertainment had put up numerous videos of the members, Sandara Park, Park Bom, CL, and Gong Minji during practice, and they became well-known as the Female Big Bang. Sandara was a very popular member of 2NE1. News of the “Female Big Bang” even became highly anticipated overseas, and their fans began to grow. Then, on March 27, 2009, 2NE1 was featured in a commercial for the LG phone Lollipop with Big Bang. Sandara and 2NE1 gained popularity both through the commercial and the music video of the song “Lollipop” and their debut became a hot topic. On May 6, 2009, two versions of their debut song “Fire”‘s Music Video were released, igniting the fire that would spread throughout the Kpop world. 2NE1 performed their debut stage on May 17th on SBS Inkigayo. Their song “Fire” topped charts for weeks, and 2NE1 hit the top spot again with their song “I Don’t Care” from their first mini-album. The song was released on July 1, 2009 and hit number one on the charts the same day.