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%20BoA%20retiring%20in%202025%20%231.png "BoA might be retiring in 2025. Maybe. Possibly. Oh, it was typo? Okay. But, what if...? | Random J Pop")
So, BoA casually posted an Instagram story alluding to her possible retirement. Which she then followed up to clarify was a typo. Which was then followed up with another story where she reassured fans that her contract with SM Entertainment runs until December 2025 and that until then, she’ll keep doing as she’s been doing. Then she scrubbed her Instagram account.
Misunderstandings? A stunt for a new release? An announcement not related to a retirement? Just antics?
Who the hell knows.
But it’s left fans concerned. People are confused. And unfortunately, all of this shit has gotten more attention than the song BoA had released mere days before.
But if BoA did choose to retire at the end of 2025, I wouldn’t blame her.
For years now, BoA has not been getting a decent enough return for what she puts out in K-pop. Her Japanese career on the other hand, is a WHOLE ‘nother story.
Girl. Retire, yes. Live your life. Renew the SM contract, for what!?
![A photo of BoA on stage at one of her concerts, holding a microphone to her mouth with one hand and holding a bottle of water in the other. The image features subtitles, which read ‘I hope you’re enjoying this show. Because it’s the last one you’re getting from me. [Laughs]’](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmlQDdrvwp58QYHNQ0r0EWfCob1fQQcAssQueHW8fGWGmRiNox3EpX3fdpAupwoGG-0ly3EVBT0o0xN7k1D88wVOTig5_ToovgaAiQl6cBs5Fx6pU5NXnaNfBfeFQkyj3Sx4KabrYMQKQOMzOO0OGwq21UoEaQssDYh-nLhYAMQowpR8hpeJNe4eQQ5qj/s16000/20240408%20Random%20J%20Pop%20(News%20on%20a%20ting)%20BoA%20retiring%20in%202025%20%233.png "BoA might be retiring in 2025. Maybe. Possibly. Oh, it was typo? Okay. But, what if...? | Random J Pop")
BoA’s Instagram posts may have been purely reactionary, following a post where she called out those who had been commenting on her appearance, specifically her weight. And I can understand this too. As is the case with many other countries — especially in this day and age — South Korea is known for being very image focused and it’s common for people to get cosmetic procedures done at a very early age. If you look at the face of a K-pop star 2-4 years into their career versus how they looked when they were a trainee, there’s a likelihood their whole face is different. Not just ‘grew into their features’ different. But ‘Visits to Dr. Hwang’s surgery’ different.
Everybody can do whatever they want with their own bodies. But this doesn’t make it any less concerning when you see people’s appearances changing in a certain way. BoA being in this period of her career where she is being aged out could possibly be resulting in the choices she’s making to her appearance. BoA’s face has looked noticeably different to me ever since the release of “Better”. But she looks REALLY different now, to a point where sometimes I’ll see an image of her and she looks unrecognizable to me. So if her retiring from K-pop would be better for her mental well-being and her own perception of her image, then I’m all for her stepping away from K-pop.
%20BoA%20retiring%20in%202025%20%234.png "BoA might be retiring in 2025. Maybe. Possibly. Oh, it was typo? Okay. But, what if...? | Random J Pop")
If BoA has made up her mind to retire, I support her fully. K-pop is cutthroat when things are going well, let alone when you are having to deal with other shit. Also, BoA’s had a pretty rough few years. Starting with that whole sleeping tablets scandal mess, which scuppered her 20th anniversary rollout, and things haven’t really been the same for her since. And then there was the loss of her brother in 2021 — who was the reason she ended up at SM Entertainment in the first place.
But it’s also become really clear that SM Entertainment don’t know what to do with BoA. She is an anomaly. BoA is one of the very few acts from an early generation of K-pop who has continually been active. And K-pop is not only an industry which favours ‘the young’, but an industry which moves fast and isn’t used to having an act stick around for as long as BoA has. So, BoA only knows how to do what she’s always done, and she’s doing it the best she’s ever done it. The problem is, that the market isn’t really caring for it, because they feel BoA is past her sell-by date. She is seen as a relic of an old era. But then you also have SM Entertainment, who don’t know how to package or market BoA to this audience who don’t hold her with the same reverence as older audiences once did — key word being ‘older’ — because those audiences are older now and not as locked into K-pop as they once were. It’s a reminder of how K-pop’s target demographic is teens and tweens, and it seems to have really locked into this more and more over the years. There just isn’t much of a market in K-pop for older listeners.
%20BoA%20retiring%20in%202025%20%236.png "BoA might be retiring in 2025. Maybe. Possibly. Oh, it was typo? Okay. But, what if...? | Random J Pop")
If BoA retires, it would be unfortunate, because it feels like she’s being pushed out by the industry that made her, that she in part also made huge contributions to. But this is the unfortunate thing about show business.
I can’t think of any career progressive reason as to why BoA should choose to renew her SM contract. The only thing SM is truly giving BoA at the moment is security and familiarity, because SM and K-pop is all BoA has known for most of her life. But to have to deal with continually being side-lined, putting up with toxic comments from netizens and also staying in a company where Lee Soo-man — her biggest champion and founder of SM — is no longer there and has also completely trashed his own reputation!? There are more reasons for BoA to not renew her contract than there are reasons for her to renew it. But I’d like to think that if BoA did choose to retire, that she wouldn’t pull a Namie Amuro and just disappear. But instead, still be open to making odd special appearances here and there.