K-pop girl group 2NE1 was the biggest winner in the Cyworld Digital Music Awards last March 1, bagging four prestigious awards including the plum for being the biggest selling artist for 2009. Besides bagging the "top seller award," 2NE1—composed of Sandara Park, CL, Park Bom, and Minzy—also won the Best Rookie Group, Best Song for “I Don’t Care” and Best Artist awards. The pop group thanked their fans for their continued support. Receiving the Bonsang award are: Girls Generation for “Gee,” Davichi for “8282;” Lee Ssang for "The Girl Who Can’t Let Go;” Brown Eyed Girls for "Abracadabra;" Big Bang for "Hallelujah;" MC Mong for "Indian Boy;" 2NE1 for "I Don’t Care;" 2PM for "Heartbeat;" G-Dragon for "Heartbreaker;" and 8eight for "Without a Heart." Seo In Gook won as Best Male Rookie for “Calling You” and Ali bagged the Best Female Rookie for “365 Days.” Park Hyo Shin was awarded the 2009 Hall of Fame for “Snow Flower” while Chrisette Michele was the Best International Artist for “What You Do,” which featured Ne-Yo. The Tam Eun Mania Award was given to Jang Giha and Faces for “The Moon is Waxing, Let’s Go.” The Best Composer award went to Jo Yeong Soo while the Collaboration Award was given to Jung In. The Official Soundtrack Award went to SS501 for “Because I’m Stupid,” which was used in the hit drama series “Boys over Flowers.” Big Bang’s "G-Dragon" won the Ting’s Choice Award. The Distribution Company awards went to Mnet Media (Korea) and Universal Music Korea (overseas). Fans trooped to the Seoul Olympic Park to attend the event and see their favorite Korean artists perform and receive the various awards.

2NE1’s Sandara Park is currently being featured on Asia E News. Called her Star Diary, Asia E News will be revealing Sandara Park’s life in 12 parts, from her childhood to her fame in the Philippines and now in Korea with fierce girl group 2NE1. On Part 2 of Sandara Park’s Star Diary, a batch of Sandara Park’s childhood pictures were revealed to the public! Check out the adorable pictures below. Recognize MBLAQ’s Thunder in the second picture?

Sandara Park talks about her experience on being on Filipino TV station ABS-CBN’s ‘Star Circle Quest’ and the hardships that she had to overcome while she was a contestant on the show. Sandara Park had her first taste of the entertainment industry in a foreign country, and is the prime example of a Korean later returning to Korea to debut in their mother country. During the time between 2003 when Sandara Park shot to fame in the Philippines and her return to Korea, she gained a huge amount of popularity. They say her popularity was so big that if you didn’t know who Sandara Park was, then you weren’t a native Filipino. When she returned to Korea after being active in the Philippines, Korean fans gave her the nickname: “BoA of the Philippines”. “Becoming a celebrity in the Philippines was a coincidence. One day my friend suggested I try out for the Filipino TV station ABS-CBN’s ‘Star Circle Quest’. I decided to try out for it, thinking that it would be a good experience for me, and in the end, the results turned out unexpectedly good.” ‘Star Circle Quest’ is the Filipino equivalent of FOX’s ‘American Idol’ in the U.S. and MNet’s ‘Super Star K’ of Korea, and during 2004, ‘Star Circle Quest’ was a very popular programme in the Philippines. Although the initial move to the Philippines made Sandara fall silent after being trapped by obstacles such as culture and language barriers, Sandara never gave up on her dream of becoming a celebrity. Sandara’s parents reassured her with the promise that once she had graduated from high school, they would send her back to Korea again. ‘Star Circle Quest’ was chanced upon by the young Sandara, who was counting down the days till her high school graduation: “I couldn’t speak Tagalog at the time. I was the first Korean to audition. I didn’t know all the things others did, so everything I did seemed clumsy and awkward. I must have seemed like a fresh image to them (the judges) at the time. I think I was lucky.”

Sandara Park’s career is on a roll and this time, she is helping out a member of Korean boy band Big Bang in promoting his first solo album. For those who are not familiar, 2NE1 (of which Sandara is a member) and Big Bang belong to the same company, YG Entertainment. Big Bang’s Taeyang, is set to release his first solo album “Solar” on July 1. Sandara and Big Bang leader G-Dragon will appear in the music video of the album’s title track, “I Need a Girl”. The teaser photos of the album were released last week. Sandara herself posted pictures that were taken during the filming of the music video on her me2day account. According to Korean news media, Sandara has been getting offers left and right to appear in dramas and entertainment shows. Last year, Sandara appeared in the drama “The Return of Iljimae.” “While she can be innocent, she can be equally sexy as well, and can even dance and sing. Any producers cannot help but to drool over her,” according to a news article translated by ygladies.com, the international forum for 2NE1 fans. On August 20, 2NE1 will perform together with “Boys over Flowers” star Lee Minho in the Pink Play Concert of beauty brand Etude. 2NE1 are the models of the brand.

2NE1 member Sandara Park is prepping for a music video shoot in Los Angeles for labelmate Taeyang of idol group Big Bang. Earlier this morning, the female pop idol posted a picture of herself at Los Angeles International Airport on her official me2DAY page (http://me2day.net/21dara) along with the comment "Wassup, LA." Two days ago, she put up a photo of herself and Taeyang at the music video shoot for the Big Bang singer who will be releasing his first full-length solo album next month. She left for L.A. on Wednesday, joining bandmates Park Bom, Gong Minzy and C.L. who flew out over the weekend "to travel," as agency YG Entertainment said. Park, 25, grew up in the Philippines and became quite well-known in the region after entering a local talent show. She moved to Korea in 2007 and signed with YG Entertainment, where she became a trainee and became one of the members of 2NE1. 2NE1 first came onto the music scene with the song "Lollipop," a joint collaboration with Big Bang which was featured in a commercial for LG's mobile phone brand CYON. They made their official debut in May 2009 with the single "Fire" and followed it up with "I Don't Care," which both became hits on various K-pop music charts. 2NE1 will be returning to Korea sometime early next month.