K-Pop Singer-Songwriter Park Boram Found Dead at 30

Park Boram, a breakout TV singing competition star who parlayed her powerful vocals into a decade in the K-pop industry, died Tuesday (April 11), according to a confirmation from her record label in Korea. Police are currently investigating the cause of death. She was 30.

Park’s agency Xanadu Entertainment shared the news of the singer-songwriter-actor’s sudden death on Friday (April 12) in Korea and said the cause of death was under investigation by police. The star was reportedly working on new music after releasing two new songs earlier this year.

Park Boram first impacted the K-pop industry at age 17, competing in the 2010 singing competition series Super Star K2 as a high school student with a love of R&B music and becoming one of the youngest finalists before finishing in eighth place. She made her official debut on the scene on Aug. 7, 2014, with the single “Beautiful,” featuring popular rapper Zico, which peaked at No. 2 on Korea’s local Gaon singles chart and won her an Artist of the Year honor for the chart’s top song of August at the 2014 Gaon Chart Music Awards. The track and music video was notably semi-autobiographical in detailing Park’s lengths to be “Beautiful,” including exercising and extreme dieting to lose nearly 70 pounds reportedly ahead of her debut.

The singer later shared her satisfaction with NPR in 2016, adding how her then-management supported her many changes ahead of the single release. “I think a lot of people, after listening to this song, were motivated to exercise more, lose weight and diet,” she told Elise Hu for the Weekend Edition Sunday show. “I think a big reason is because I put my story into it. Like, one banana, two eggs — eating just that, and you see the results in me, and that was motivating for people.”

Park released her first EP, Celepretty, in April 2015, which included “Beautiful” and through its title track single also secured another top 10 hit.

During her decade of singing, Park Boram was also known for her impactful contributions to Korean drama soundtracks like “Hyehwadong (or Sangmundong)” for the K-drama Reply 1988, which has boasted more than 16.5 million streams on Spotify since its 2015 release, or “Please Say Something Even Though I Know It’s a Lie” for the W soundtrack, which has nearly 12 million Spotify streams since 2016. Park collaborated with a range of different artists in Korea, including singer-songwriter Eric Nam, boy band member Park Kyung, balladeer Parc Jae Jung and rapper Lil Boi, and just this past February, she reunited with the winner of SuperStar K2, chart-topping vocalist Huh Gak, for their duet “I Hope.”

Following “I Hope,” Park Boram released the single “I Miss You” on April 3 as part of a project covering ’90s songs. It was previously shared that the star was working on an album celebrating her upcoming 10th anniversary for this summer.