Bada

Bada (Hangul: 바다, born February 28, 1980) is a South Korean singer and musical actress. Her birth name is Choi Sung-hee (최성희). Bada studied theater at Dankook University. The former lead vocal of the now-defunct S.E.S., Bada has released four solo albums and three singles. She won Best Actress at the 3rd The Musical Awards and has starred in nine musicals to date. Early life: Born February 28, 1980, Bada's father is Choi Sae-wol, a faceless trot singer with a background in Korean pansori. Due to financial struggle during her childhood, especially after her father fell ill, she lived in a container home provided by a local church for nine years until her debut. In a recent series of lectures for youth, she has addressed her beginning and has encouraged students to not let their background become an obstacle in obtaining their dreams. After being scouted by Lee Soo-man, she entered SM Entertainment and debuted as the leader and lead vocal of S.E.S., the first successful female K-pop idol group. S.E.S.: S.E.S. enjoyed tremendous success, becoming the top-selling K-pop girl group to date. The group broke up at the end of 2002 after five full albums and two special albums. Bada and Eugene left SM Entertainment and pursued solo music careers, while Shoo stayed with SM Entertainment until 2006 and is now pursuing a career in acting. Solo career: Bada moved from SM Entertainment to sign with WoongJin entertainment. Her debut solo album, A Day of Renew, has sold approximately 130,000 records, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea. Her second album Aurora, in comparison, sold approximately 23,000 copies. In 2006, her third album, Made in Sea, was a big success. In 2009, Bada released a new album called See the Sea which featured both Korean rap group Untouchable and 2PM's Ok Taecyeon. Bada appeared as a vocalist for the song "City Life" on American electronic musician Brian Transeau's electronic dance music album A Song Across Wires. Musical career: Bada became the first Korean idol singer to venture onto the musical stage in 2003 with the musical Peppermint, a love story about a singer named Bada. It was written for her by creator and producer Lee Yuri, who is also responsible for other musical projects such as Typhoon, Mother and Winter Sonata. In 2007, Bada was cast in the role of Denise in the Korean version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tell Me on a Sunday. Right afterward, she took on the role of Esmeralda as a part of the original Korean cast of Notre-Dame de Paris. Her widely praised portrayal of Esmeralda gained her acceptance as a musical actress and won her the Best Newcomer Actress award and others at The Musical Awards and the Korea Musical Daesangs in 2008; she reprised the role in 2009. The following year, 200 Pounds Beauty, a musical based on the popular movie of the same name, cast Bada in the titular role of Kang Hanbyul, an overweight ghost singer who aspires to become a star and undergoes extensive plastic surgery. Bada's turn as Kang earned her the Best Actress honor at the third The Musical Awards. She was recast in 2011 for the project. In 2010, Bada played Peggy Sawyer in Broadway on 42nd Street and Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. During Legally Blonde, her mother passed away. Despite the loss, Bada continued performances for the musical until its final run and famously sang Secret Garden's "You Raise Me Up" on KBS's Open Music Concert just two days after her mother's passing. She has since stated that this loss was the reason for her relative inactivity in both her music and musical career from 2011 to mid-2013. In 2012, she briefly took on the role of Mozart's wife, Constanze, in Mozart!, and in 2013 she was cast as Marguerite in the first Korean adaptation of Frank Wildhorn's The Scarlet Pimpernel. She returned as Esmeralda in the 2013 production of Notre-Dame de Paris. She then signed on to depict Carmen in the first Korean production of the musical Carmen. Concerts: Showman aLIVE (2006), Varacon (2009), Varacon Encore Concert (2010), Varacon X-MAS Special (2010), Alive Show Vol.1 (2014), Musicals: Year Musical Role 2003 The Peppermint Bada 2007 Tell Me on a Sunday Denise 2007, 2009, 2013 Notre-Dame de Paris Esmeralda 2008, 2011 200 Pounds Beauty Kang Hanbyul 2010 Broadway on 42nd Street Peggy Sawyer 2010 Legally Blonde Elle Woods 2012 Mozart! Constanze 2013 The Scarlet Pimpernel Marguerite 2013 Carmen Carmen Television: Year Program Dates 2006 X-Man 21 May 2006, 26 Nov 2006, 2009-2012 Infinite Challenge 31 October 2009, 30 January 2010, 30 April 2011, 7 May 2011, 11 June 2011, 18 June 2011, 25 June 2011, 2 July 2011, 7 January 2012, 2012 Golden Fishery Radio Star 14 June 2012 2012 Saturday Night Live Korea 7 July 2012 2013 Adrenaline 2 16 April 2013 2013 All The K-Pop 16 April 2013, 23 April 2013 2013 QTV's Handsome Boys of the 20th Century 11 June 2013 2013 tvN's My One Fantasy 10 July 2013 2013 Immortal Song 2 20 April 2013, 4 May 2013, 1 June 2013 - won, 8 June 2013, 15 June 2013 - won, 22 June 2013, 6 July 2013, 13 July 2013, 27 July 2013 - won, 3 August 2013, 10 August 2013, 24 August 2013, 31 August 2013 - won, 7 September 2013 Solo discography: