Kara

Kara

is a girl group from South Korea. They are under Daesung entertainment (DSP). Kara comes from "chara", which means "sweet melody" in Greek.

After losing a member in 2008, Kara regrouped to become a 5-member girl group and eventually achieved its first #1 song with "Honey".
The group was scheduled to have their comeback in March 2008 with their second album. However, Kim Sunghee left the group suddenly due to parental pressure, as her participation in the group was contingent on the maintenance of her grades. She failed to pass her college entrance exam, and as a result, she was forced to leave the group. In response, DSP stated that the second album would be shelved and replaced by a mini-album to come in May; in addition, two members would join the group, chosen through public auditions, to be chronicled by music television station M.Net. However, this show was canceled the day it was supposed to air.

The two new members were eventually revealed to be Gu Ha Ra and Kang Ji-young. KARA's comeback as a 5-member group was on July 24, 2008 with "Rock U" on MCountdown. They made their comeback with the "cute" concept. The same month, their first EP was released. After promotions for the song ended, Kara digitally released "Good Day: Season 2", a remake of a song on their EP, on October 13, 2008. A music video of this song was released a few days after.

On November 29, 2008, DSP entertainment released a teaser video for their upcoming single, "Pretty Girl", which received over 10,000 hits in one day.During their first national performance on KBS's Music Bank, member Gu Ha Ra accidentally slipped due to falling confetti and cried for an hour backstage.Netizens made it a "hot issue", but Gu received comfort instead of criticism from the public.

After the release of "Pretty Girl", "Kara" become a popular search term on various Korean portal sites. Leader Park Gyu-ri attributed their popularity increase to their "pretty but natural" appeal, while media reports gave credit to the band finding their own identity and to older male fans, most notably singer Shin Hae-cheol.

Due to the hectic promotional schedule, a few of the group's members were taken to the hospital on December 19 after a KBS Music Bank rehearsal, but a DSP representative said that it was not serious.

At the end of January 2009, DSP entertainment announced that it would commence voting on January 28 at Kara's official website for the follow-up single to "Pretty Girl", which would end on February 2. By the deadline of February 2, "Honey" was the clear winner, with 60% of the votes. The group filmed a music video for the song, which was released on February 16. The song was also first performed on KBS's Music Bank program on February 13, 2009; a repackaged mini-album followed on February 19. "Honey" became the group's first #1 single when it topped the M.Net M Countdown show, beating out SNSD's "Gee" for the spot. The song became the "Mutizen" song on SBS's ("Popular Songs") music program.The song also won the "Mutizen" ("music netizen") award on SBS's ("Popular Songs") program.

KARA has so far recorded two songs for various soundtracks. The original group recording a song titled "Fighting" on the soundtrack for "Chasing a Mother from Kangnam", a drama that aired on SBS; the soundtrack was released on July 25, 2007. The second song was "Butterfly" on the soundtrack for the Naruto anime, which was released on September 29, 2008.