Lena Park

Park Jung Hyun (박정현), also known by her American name Lena Park, is a Korean R&B singer. After winning a number of singing contests in the United States she recorded a Gospel album in 1993. Eventually she attended UCLA for a year and then began work on her first Korean album, "Piece", in 1998. Lena's first album sold more than 500,000 copies in spite of the limited promotion - mostly due to her lack of confidence in speaking Korean. In 1999, "A Second Helping" was released and was well received by both fans and critics. The third album, "Naturally", released in 2001 was met with mixed reviews. Afterwards, Park Jung Hyun took a year off to continue her studies and returned in 2002 with her fourth album "Op.4." Unlike previous releases, she made herself more available for promotional events and interviews as she had become more comfortable speaking in Korean. In 2002, the South Korean government selected her, along with the hugely popular R&B group Brown Eyes, to represent Korea in the opening and closing ceremony of the World Cup. With Brown Eyes, CHEMISTRY and Sowelu, she became a part of a group aptly called "Voices of Korea/Japan" and performed the title song for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Album, "Songs of Korea/Japan." Following this, she later debuted in the Japanese music industry where she received moderate success. As of October 2006, Lena Park has released 8 Korean albums, 2 Korean singles, 3 Japanese albums and 6 Japanese singles.