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. 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 Tagalog. However, she learned English when she began school in the Philippines, and later became quite fluent in Tagalog.
During one of her school functions, Sandara met Pauleen Luna, who was then a talent of ABS-CBN Channel 2. Luna encouraged the shy Sandara to audition for Star Circle Quest, a then-up-and-coming talent search for ABS-CBN. Park tried her luck and found herself in the same batch with fellow questors, Hero Angeles and Joseph Bitangcol.
The show's judges called her in, and she was able to elude elimination several times, paving the way for her inclusion into the contestant-pool's top ten. Being a native Korean, she displayed some trouble with the daily exercises set by the panel of Filipino judges. Though she had some comedic ability, she remained monotonous, dull or lacking in timing. What she lacked in talent, however, she made up with charisma. She proved this during the whole run of the show in which she consistently garnered the Texter's Choice Award, an award given weekly for the contestant who got the most text votes from viewers. During the last elimination round in which the final five contestants were chosen, Sandara made Philippine history by garnering approximately 500,000 text votes, making her the first female to garner that much SMS support. And so she remained until the final night when she was announced runner-up to Hero Angeles. It is estimated that she got at least 2,000,000 accumulated SMS votes from supporters during the entire run of the contest.
During the contest's run, she was paired with Hero Angeles but their relationship became increasingly estranged. This later ended up in a real fight that broke up their partnership. ABS-CBN showered Park with projects after her Star Circle Quest days. She had six local commercial endorsements for personal care and stationary products. She also received several television show offers. She starred as Sandara Soh in a Star Circle Quest spin-off SCQ Reload, OK Ako (SCQ Reload, I'm OK), 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 similar personalities 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, selling 60,000 copies.
Sandara also appeared in two movies. Her first was a three-storyline movie called Bcuz of U in which she co-starred with other prominent young local actors. Her second movie was with her loveteam partner, Hero Angeles, Can This Be Love, which grossed P 99,000,000.
After a tumultuous partnership with Hero Angeles, Sandara Park opted to pursue college and workshop lessons in Seoul, South Korea. There were rumors and statements in the Korean press that Sandara had tried to become a singer and actress in South Korea, but due to a series of setbacks, that never materialized.
Soon, local media, playing along with the controversy, voiced their unhealthy indifference with Angeles and his brother-turned-manager, Henry. This even led to the Angeles brothers suing writer/columnist/and showbiz aficionado, Cristy Fermin. Nonetheless, Sandara left for Korea still, leaving her troubles unresolved --for the public to decide on the fate of her popularity/rating.
During her stay in Korea, her rumored boyfriend, Joseph Bitangcol, openly admitted their relationship on national TV via the talk show, The Buzz, shocking "Hero-Sandara" fans.
On July 14, 2007, Joseph Bitangcol confirmed that he and Sandara had dissolved their relationship two weeks prior. No third party was involved because the only reason for the break-up was frequent quarrels between the two.
Six months after she first announced her plans of studying in South Korea, Sandara came back to the Philippines to continue her career. ABS-CBN had already released Angeles, so with no one currently paired with her, Joseph Bitangcol took the spot Angeles left.
Around December 2005, Sandara realized that her schedule was less tight than before. Despite improvements in her singing and acting abilities (after returning from South Korea), she had only a few TV invitations and one regular Sunday show. Additionally, she received a cold reception for her comeback. This was partly due to the success and attention that the Pinoy Big Brother Season One housemates were receiving at the time.
In early March 2006, Sandara voiced out (on national television) her feelings for the reception she received on her comeback, as well as her envy towards the Pinoy Big Brother housemates, commenting on them as colorful, whilst she is only black and white. However, the real surprise was when she revealed that her father had abandoned them, and had another family he resided with. Tears flowing, Sandara revealed that her father is a wife-beater and has taken all of her savings, leaving them in a hard position once again.
A week after Sandara gave her interview on national television, Star Cinema studios revealed its intent on casting Sandara and her boyfriend Joseph in D'Lucky Ones, coupled with her latest single, Ang Ganda Ko, the movie's official theme song. The movie opened in theaters on April 16, 2006, but grossed only P71,200,000.
Sandara then signed up with Regal Films. Dondon Monteverde, Regal's talent manager for Aubrey Miles, was in charge of Park's projects in films. She made her Regal "baby debut" in the Metro Manila Film Festival entry, Super Noypi, working alongside with actors from ABS-CBN's rival, GMA Network. Despite being a contract star of ABS-CBN's Star Magic, Park appeared as a guest on the December 31, 2006 edition of GMA Network's Mel & Joey. Her appearance sparked rumors that Park was exploring the opportunity of transferring to the rival network.
Eight months later, and after receiving no substantial projects, on August 1, 2007, Sandara left the Philippines once more, sadly returning to South Korea with her mother and siblings to begin a new life. The next day, August 2, 2007, YG Entertainment reported they had signed a contract with Sandara and had the confidence that she would be successful like the popular singer BoA. As a new member of the YG family, she joined Korean popular artists and bands such as Se7en, JINUSEAN, LEXY, and 1TYM. In 2008, Sandara will film a whole new drama, to which it shall be shown on television. Sandara has already appeared in a Gummy MV for a song entitled "I'm Sorry" as a partner with T.O.P., which is one of the members of BigBang. The two are both members of YG Entertaimment.
Although she was enormously popular with the teen/young-adult market, critics had panned Park for being "all hype, and no substance." But many people still believe that she has what it takes to be a star, and that she just needs to develop her craft.
Enthusiasm for Sandara died down with her breakup with Hero Angeles. After the breakup, Hero's acting career eventually faded due to further controversies with ABS-CBN and a couple of reporters. When the HeroSan mania, which prevented other loveteams from gaining recognition, had fizzled out, so did the career of Sandara, whose "reel and real" partnership with fellow Star Circle Questor, Joseph Bitangol, hardly took off. After Hero's descent into obscurity, Hero later began a career as a film-maker, rather than continue as an actor.
The artist left the Philippines and returned to South Korea on 1 August 2007 with her mother and siblings to start a new life. The next day, 2 August 2007, YG Entertainment reported that they had signed a contract with the Park. As a new member of the YG Entertainment, she joined Korean popular artists and bands like Big Bang, Se7en, Jinusean, Lexy, and 1TYM. Sandara's younger brother, Sang Hyun, also debuted in early October 2009 as a rapper and dancer of a Korean boy band, in J. MBLAQ Tune Entertainment. 2NE1 was highly anticipated by fans of YG Entertainment. Before his debut, YG Entertainment had posted numerous videos of members, Sandara Park, Bom, CL, and Gong Minzy during practice, and became known as the Big Bang Man. News Woman of the Big Bang, "even became eagerly awaited abroad, and their fans began to grow. Then, on 27 March 2009, 2NE1 was featured in a commercial for the LG Lollipop with the Big Bang. 2NE1 gained popularity through both commercial and music video for the song "Lollipop" and his debut became a hot topic. On 6 May 2009, were published two versions of his music video "Fire". 2NE1 made his stage debut on May 17th at SBS Inkigayo. "Fire" topped the charts for weeks and 2NE1 hit the first again with his song "I Do not Care" from their first mini-album. The song was released on 1 July 2009 and reached number one on the lists on the same day. She is the first member to release a single entitled 2NE1 Kiss. In his commercial music video, she joined the famous Korean actor Lee Min Ho, who is best known as the Boys Goo Pyo June hit drama in Flores. The single "Kiss" won much attention and took first place on the same day it was released. She first performed live on the night of the awards for their performance MAMA 21st Street Musical. She offered to play the lead role in the Korean version of "Step Up", but negotiations are still ongoing on the production.
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