Anggun: Indonesian Diva

Anggun Cipta Sasmi (Indonesian pronunciation: [aŋɡun] ahng-goon; born 29 April 1974) is an French-Indonesian singer-songwriter. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, she began performing at the age of seven and recorded a children's album two years later. With the help of famed Indonesian producer Ian Antono, in 1986 Anggun released her first rock-influenced studio album, Dunia Aku Punya (The World is Mine). She became further well known with the single "Mimpi" (1990), which was selected as one of the 150 Greatest Indonesian Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone in 2009. She followed it with a series of singles and three more studio albums, which established her as one of the most prominent Indonesian rock stars of the early 1990s.

Anggun left Indonesia in 1994 to pursue an international career. After two years struggling in London and Paris, Anggun met French producer Erick Benzi and signed to Sony Music Entertainment. She released her first international album, Snow on the Sahara (1997), in 33 countries worldwide; this album spawned her international signature hit "Snow on the Sahara", which reached number one in several countries. Since her international debut, Anggun has released five studio albums in English and French, as well as a soundtrack album to the Danish film Open Hearts (2002). She has collaborated with a host of international artists, including Julio Iglesias, Peter Gabriel and Pras Michel of the Fugees. 

Anggun is the first Indonesian artist to break into the European and American record charts. Her albums have been certified gold and platinum in several European countries. She has received a number of accolades for her achievements, including the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French Minister of Culture. Aside from her musical career, Anggun has been involved in numerous environmental and humanitarian works. She has been appointed as the global ambassador of the United Nations twice, first for the International Year of Microcredit in 2005 and then for the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009. Anggun is scheduled to represent France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Source: en.wikipedia.org.

Grace Park: an American-born Canadian actress

Grace Park (born March 14, 1974) is an American-born Canadian actress. She gained recognition as Sharon Valerii & Sharon Agathon on Battlestar Galactica, as well as Shannon Ng in the Canadian television series teen soap Edgemont. Park currently plays Detective Kona "Kono" Kalakaua in CBS' remake of Hawaii Five-0, which debuted September 20, 2010, on CBS.

Born Jee Un Park in Los Angeles, California, to American-Korean parents, Park moved with her family to Canada when she was 22 months old. She was raised in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kerrisdale. Grace Park graduated from Magee Secondary School in 1992 and holds a degree in psychology from the University of British Columbia.

Park had a role in the 2007 movie West 32nd, a crime drama set in New York City’s Korean neighborhood.

She appeared as Lt. Sandra Telfair in Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, along with her Battlestar Galactica co-star, Tricia Helfer.

In 2008, she had co-starring roles in the A&E series The Cleaner until it was canceled on September 25, 2009 and the CBC series The Border until it was canceled on 2010. In 2009, Park had an uncredited cameo role on the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. She appeared as a fan in a crowd at a science fiction convention, objecting to a gritty remake of a Star Trek-like series, comparable to the Battlestar Galactica remake in which she starred. In 2009 she reprised her role from Battlestar Galactica in the television movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. In 2010, she appeared in the Fox series Human Target as Eva Kahn and as Kono Kalakaua in the 2010 CBS revival of Hawaii Five-0.

Source: en.wikipedia.org.

Son Ye-jin: Famous South Korean actress

Son Ye-jin (born January 11, 1982) is a South Korean actress.

Son Ye-jin has taken on a variety of roles in her career to date, propelling her to fame both in Korea and in other Asian countries. She first appeared in a supporting role in Park Ki-hyung's film Secret Tears in 2000, and then went on to take the lead in TV dramas such as Delicious Proposal, Sun-hee and Jin-hee, and Daemang: Great Ambition. Her first high-profile role in cinema was in Im Kwon-taek's Chi-hwa-seon, which screened at Cannes and took home a Best Director award in 2002.

The biggest success of her early career was in the subsequent films Lovers' Concerto and The Classic. Both were solid mid-level hits in Korea, and The Classic in particular—being a work of My Sassy Girl director Kwak Jae-yong -- received wide exposure in countries such as Hong Kong and China.

Son further solidified her status as a "hallyu" (Korean wave) star in 2003 by taking the lead in TV drama Summer Scent, a part of the hugely successful series of TV dramas including Autumn Love Story and Winter Sonata (though this drama would not attract the attention of the previous two). Her next two films also proved to be huge hits in Asia: A Moment to Remember, based on a famous Japanese TV series, set box office records in Japan and sold over two million tickets in Korea, while April Snow in which she co-starred with superstar Bae Yong-joon was also a smash hit in Japan and China (though not, incidentally, in Korea).

Son's most recent work sees her cast off her nice girl image. She took on the roles of a con artist in The Art of Seduction, an ambitious reporter in Spotlight, a femme fatale in Open City, and a divorcée in the critically acclaimed 2006 TV drama Alone in Love opposite Gam Woo-sung. In 2008, her portrayal of a polyandrous woman in My Wife Got Married bagged her Best Actress honors from the prestigious Blue Dragon Film Awards and other local award-giving bodies.

After filming the dark mystery White Night, Son wanted to do a more fun project, so she chose the romantic comedy Personal Taste, followed by the supernatural love story Spellbound (Korean title: Chilling Romance). She next stars in her first blockbuster action flick, Tower, a remake of the 1974 Hollywood film The Towering Inferno.

Source: en.wikipedia.org.

Wonder Girls: Shining Stars from Korea

Wonder Girls (Korean: 원더걸스) is a South Korean girl group. Its producer and manager is singer-songwriter Park Jin-Young and the Wonder Girls is signed to his talent agency, JYP Entertainment. Each of the five original members were selected through auditions. Debuting in early 2007, they became popular in the fall of that year with the song "Tell Me." They have scored five consecutive #1 hit singles: "Tell Me", "So Hot", "Nobody", "2 Different Tears" and "Be My Baby". In 2008, they won two Daesangs ("Artist of the Year" Awards).

The group began their entry into the American market in 2009, with the English version of their hit single "Nobody".

They are co-managed in the United States by JYP Entertainment and Jonas Group.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Aysel Teymurzadeh: Moonbeam from Azerbaijan

Aysel Teymurzadeh (Azerbaijani: Aysel Məhəmməd qızı Teymurzadə; born 25 April 1989, Baku) is an Azerbaijani pop and R&B singer.

Aysel was born in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, the youngest of the three daughters of a journalist and a university professor. She is a descendant of the nineteenth-century Azerbaijani publicist Hasan bey Zardabi. Her grandmother on her mother's side was half-Russian, half-Ukrainian. Aysel started to sing at the age of four and the piano became her passion since childhood.

Aysel graduated from the Intellect Lyceum in Baku and attended Texas High School (Texarkana, Texas) in 2005–2006. Within days of her arrival in the United States, she signed up for the local choir and began training for young vocalists competitions. While in the U.S., Aysel won three gold medals at contests held in the Southern Arkansas University and in the University of Texas at Austin. In 2005, she participated in Season 4 of the national song contest Yeni Ulduz ("New Star"). As of January 2009, Teymurzadeh was majoring in International Relations at the Azerbaijan University of Languages.

In January 2009, Teymurzadeh was selected internally by İTV to represent Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia along with Iranian-Swedish singer Arash with the song "Always". Aysel became the first female singer to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest and only the second act ever to do so. On May 16, 2009, Aysel Teymurzadeh and Arash finished third with 207 points, among the 25 performers that qualified for the Eurovision grand final.

Aysel together with Arash became the winner of the 4th Annual ESC Radio Awards in the category of the Best Group.

On May 28, Teymurzadeh announced going on a European tour with Arash, involving concerts in countries such as Sweden, Greece and Russia. Upon return she announced that together with Arash and his team she is working on an album, which will be released by Sony BMG and Warner Music. The date of release is unknown.

She starred in a high profile TV commercial for Danone yogurts, which was broadcast on Azerbaijani and Georgian TV channels.

Source: en.wikipedia.org