KARA Sets New Record in Japan

Despite all the controversy surrounding KARA, the girl group is continuing to dominate Japanese music charts. And this time they’re doing it with their DVD album. According to Japan’s Oricon Charts on March 2^nd, “KARA BEST CLIPS,” a DVD compilation of the girl group’s top eight music clips, has sold 132,000 copies since its release on Feb. 23^rd, easily ranking #1 on the weekly Oricon DVD sales charts.

KARA’s record is the highest DVD sales figure ever in Japan by a foreign, female artist since Oricon started keeping track of DVD sales in 1999. Five other foreign artists have reached the top DVD selling spot in Japan so far, including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, TVXQ, JYJ, and Michael Jackson, but none were females.

It’s also the best-selling record for a non-live performance DVD in the first week of its release since Kuraki Mai’s DVD “First Cut” in November, 2000, which sold a total of 99,000 copies. KARA has also set the second highest first week DVD sales ever in Japan since Amuro Namie. Considering the fact that DVD albums cost nearly five times more than regular single albums, and KARA’s first regular album in Japan, “Girls Talk,” sold about 100,000 copies last year, their sales record is mind blowing.

“KARA BEST CLIPS” includes the Japanese and Korean versions of “Mister” and “Jumping,” as well as other hit singles such as “Lupin.” KARA is set to release their third Japanese single “Jet Coast Love” on March 23^rd.