Sandara Park

Sandara Park (Korean: 박산다라, born November 12, 1984 in Busan, South Korea) is a television personality who is also called "Dara" as one of the vocal members of Korean Girl Group 2NE1. She is a former Korean expatriate 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 was born to affluent Korean parents. However, by the time Sandara was eight years old, her father's relatives placed her 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. Initially, no one in their family was fluent in English or Filipino. However, she learned English and studied Chinese when she began school in the Philippines, and later became quite fluent in Filipino. Her interviews have also shown that she developed English and Tagalog capabilities. 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[6]. As a new member of the YG family, she joined popular Korean artists and bands such as Big Bang, Se7en, Jinusean, Lexy, and 1TYM. 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. 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. 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. 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.