May Pang's Asian Media Internet News

Reports in Japan and Korea recently said that pop diva BoA is once again working with American R&B star Akon on his upcoming Japanese release “Freedom+2”.

Akon personally asked the multilingual singer, who is currently working to dominate the American pop/R&B scene after successfully taking both the Japanese and Korean market, to take part in the project. She agreed immediately, happy to be working with him again, according to press reports.

“I was glad to work with the world’s top pop star, Akon. Personally, ‘Beautiful’ is one of my favorite songs,” she reportedly told press.

The two previously worked together on Akon’s song “Beautiful” which will be included on the album, along with songs from his third release and a reggae remix of “Beautiful”. It is set to be released in Japan on Aug. 5.

She is also reported to have recently worked with Japanese artist Crystal Kay on her single “Girlfriend,” which is the image song for the Japanese dub of “He’s Just Not That Into You.”

BoA seems to be meeting relative success in the U.S., something that has proven to be difficult for most Asian crossover artists (Think Se7en’s U.S. debut and Utada Hikaru’s first U.S. album). Her first English album “BoA” was released in March, just six months after her first English single “Eat You Up,” was released. Since then, she’s performed in the Jingle Ball in the Anaheim Honda Center and headlined at the San Francisco’s Pride Festival this summer.

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