Smokyo

Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル, Utada Hikaru? born January 19, 1983), also known by her fan-nickname of Hikki (ヒッキー, Hikkī), is an American-born Japanese pop singer-songwriter.

She is one of the most popular and successful singers in Japanese music history.

Taken from wikipedia.

She sung the theme song "Aozora no Namida" for the anime Blood+

Ai Otsuka (大塚愛, Ōtsuka Ai), (born September 9, 1982) is a Japanese pop female singer-songwriter and pianist from Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She is best-known for her 2003/2004 hit Sakuranbo, which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 101 weeks.

Ai Otsuka Profile, Pics, and Video

She was influenced at an early age by Whitney Houston's singing and Michael Jackson's dancing. In her second year of junior high school, she submitted a demo tape to the Giza Studio recording label and won a contract. She debuted in the United States in 1999 with the song "Baby I Like," released as Mai K. Her first Japanese single, "Love, Day After Tomorrow", was released later in the year. It sold 1,385,190 copies in Japan. The success of her debut was quickly followed by her second single "Stay by my side" which become her first no.1 single and eventually sold 922,140 copies. Mai's third single "Secret of my Heart" was also very successful reaching no.2 on the Oricon Weekly Ranking (At this week, Masaharu Fukuyama's biggest hit single "Sakurasaka" was number 1, which sold 2,299,000 copies). The single charted for sixteen weeks and sold 968,980 copies. A few weeks before the release of her debut album Mai released her fourth single "Never Gonna Give You Up" featuring Michael Africk. The single peaked at #2 and sold 434,250 copies.

Following the release of four singles Mai Kuraki released her highly anticipated debut album "Delicious Way". The album was a massive success in Japan topping the charts and selling an impressive 3,451,660 copies. Delicious Way was the highest selling album in the year 2000 and officially the 9th best selling Jpop album of all time. Delicious Way is also the second best selling studio album from a female artist after Utada Hikaru's First Love and the third best selling Jpop female album of all time ~ after First Love and Ayumi Hamasaki's A-Best compilation album. In addition, Mai Kuraki also holds the record of having all 28 of her singles in the top-ten since her debut according to the Oricon's female artists ranking record. Like her popular contemporary Utada Hikaru, Mai Kuraki also writes the lyrics to all her songs.

Her English-language ventures, single "Baby I Like" and the album Secret of My Heart were both commercial flops, even though they were the flagship releases of the GIZA USA label. Her all-African-American tour band, Experience, is also somewhat prolific. They were featured in the music video for "Stand Up", and released one single featuring Kuraki Mai's vocals and a Michael Jackson tribute album.

Following the Delicious Way, Mai started releasing material for her second album. This was kicked off with the single "Simply Wonderful" which peaked no.2 and sold 384,820 copies. Mai's next single "Reach for the Sky" was also a success was peaking at no.3 at and sold 468,320 units. The single was used as the theme song for NHK TV series "Audrey". Reach for the Sky was Mai Kuraki's first single not to reach the no. 1 or 2 position on the Oricon Charts. Mai's third single form her second album was Tsumetai Umi / Start in my life. The single peaked at no.2, charted for eleven weeks and sold 356,310 copies. Next up was the single "Stand Up" an acoustic rock single. Stand Up peaked at no.2 and eventually sold 475,910 copies. A month before releasing her second album, Mai released the single "Always" an upbeat song. Peaking at no.2 the single went on to sell 219,940 copies.

Following the release of five new singles, Mai Kuraki eventually released her second album Perfect Crime in July 2001. Although the album did not match the phenomenal success of Delicious Way, it did fare well in its own right, peaking at no.1 on the Oricon Charts, and eventually went on to sell 1,317,170 copies.

Year 2002 was a year of success for Mai Kuraki. January that year, "Winter Bells", the 10th opening theme for the popular anime Detective Conan, reached the top position of the Oricon charts. FT Shiseido chose "Feel fine!" as the theme song for its 100 year celebration campaign. The single release of the song briefly held the daily top spot against Ayumi Hamasaki's "Free & Easy", but lost out the weekly top spot.

In October 2003, she released a rock cover of a Momoe Yamaguchi, a 1970's idol, song, "IMITATION GOLD" as part of Tak Matsumoto's HIT PARADE project, which claimed the top position on the Oricon charts, despite selling less than 50,000 copies on the first week. On New Year's Day of year 2004, Kuraki released her compilation/best album Wish You The Best and became the best selling album in the month of January plus the 5th best selling album for the year 2004 in Japan. Since the release of "Love, needing", she have been featuring more retro-sounding songs. In March 2005 she graduated from Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. 6th studio album "Fuse of Love" was release on 24 August 2005. Recently, her 7th studio album "DIAMOND WAVE" was released on 2 August 2006. This is the first time she is using her single title to be the same as the album and also the first time there are only three instead of four hit singles to be included in her album.

In 2007, she became more active outside Japan - performed "Born to be Free" at the A3 Champions Cup in China in June, performed her classic "Secret of my heart" at Taiwan's Golden Melody Award, performed new single "Silent love ~open my heart~" at the Asian Song Festival in Korea, and had her first overseas concert in Taiwan in November, just before the release of the "One Life" album in January 2008.

Also in 2007, she has joined Northern Music and left GIZA Studio. Her first album there went below #10 and hit #14.

In 2008, she attended Hong Kong's Hit Awards in December, and performed "Secret of my heart".

She is currently doing her new album ,which is scheduled to be released January 21, 2009. Her latest single , "24 Xmas time" was released on November 26th, 2008.

Her new album touch !(2009)hits the oricons daily and weekly charts!!!!,no.1 on billboard japan top albums!!!,and no.1 on G-MUSIC J-Pop(TAIWAN)

Her new single "PUZZLE/revive" release on april 1.2009...on the first day it ranks no.3...but it becomes no.1 until now...PUZZLE will be use for the next detective conan film : DETECTIVE CONAN : The Raven Chaser Teaser,and "revive" for its opening 25...

To date, Kuraki has recorded 8 studio albums (6 of which went to #1), 31 singles (4 of which went to #1), a compilation album, and 9 DVD/Videos.And she still rocks the japanese world of music.

Name: Olivia Lufkin Birthday: December 9th, 1979 Birthplace: Okinawa, Japan Blood Type: A

Olivia is an irresistible vocalist, a fabulous composer, an incredible lyrics writer, a talented artist and clothes designer & just an amazingly beautiful girl from Japan! (olivia.undreamed.ca)

She’s often known simply as OLIVIA .

ZARD (a.k.a. Izumi Sakai (坂井泉水, born Kamachi Sachiko 蒲池幸子, 6 February 1967 – 27 May 2007) was a female Japanese popular musician. Originally a group of 5 members, with lead vocalist Izumi Sakai (aka Sachiko Kamachi) as group leader. She was part of the record label B-Gram Records, Inc. Zard made their debut in February 10, 1991 with a single Good-bye My Loneliness. By their third album, it appears that the only member left in ZARD was Izumi Sakai, and from that point on, she had been the only member in that group.

Sakai was also a very prolific songwriter. She had written all her own lyrics, and had released several books of poetry as well. She had also written songs for other artists, most notably, for JPOP groups Field of View, WANDS and DEEN. She also wrote the lyrics for and participated in the collaboration for the single “Hateshinai Yumewo” featuring JPOP groups ZARD, REV & WANDS. The single also featured famed Japanese baseball hero Shigeo Nagashima. Some of her singles have been used in Anime, such as Dragon Ball GT and Detective Conan. Sometimes, she would cover songs she’s written for other artists like Field of View’s “DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku” or Teresa Teng’s “Anata to tomo ni ikite yuku”.

ZARD was also known for being mysterious. This is partially because her record label does not release too much personal information on their artists, and also because she did not make that many personal appearances. She had rarely appeared on any live TV music programs (eg. Asahi TV’s Music Station, Fuji TV’s Hey Hey Hey Music Champ), which the main public relations tool for the record industry in Japan, since 1993 or do any public appearances. Her first concert was in 1999, which was held on a cruise ship for a mere 600 people in her fan club (300 entries x2 among 2 million concert ticket requests). Her first real concert tour, “what a beautiful moment tour”, was held in 2004, 13 years after her debut. Almost every single concert was sold out at the time. The tour ended up having 10 concerts spanning 4 months from March to July 2004, with a final concert held in the famed Budokan.

ZARD was one of the most successful female singers in the 1990s, with her record sales being #1 for female singers, and #3 for overall total, just behind the groups B’z and Mr. Children. She has had 11 singles reach the #1 spot on the Oricon Singles Charts, and 9 albums reach the #1 spot on the Oricon Album Charts.

She will have released 42 singles 11 albums and 5 best albums as of 10 May 2006

She passed away on May 27, 2007 in Keio University Hospital. She was put in the hospital in June 2006 after discovering she had cervical cancer. In April 2007, the cancer had moved to her lungs, delaying her stay in the hospital. According to the hospital, she takes daily walks every morning, during her walk on May 26, 2007, she accidentally fell from the stairs and was discovered at around 5 a.m. She was sent to the emergency room, but unfortunately still left. She had planned to release a new album in the fall, as well as her first live tour in three years to show her fans that she’s fighting strong against her illnesses. Her company sincerely thanks her fans for the sixteen years of support and wishes that she can live forever in the hearts of the fans. She was 40 years old.

Singles
‘Good-bye My Loneliness’ (10 February 1991)
‘Fushigine’ (25 June 1991)
‘Mou Sagasanai’ (6 November 1991)
‘Nemurenai Yoru wo Daite’ (5 August 1992)
‘IN MY ARMS TONIGHT’ (9 September 1992)
‘Makenaide’ (27 January 1993)
‘Kimi ga Inai’ (21 April 1993)
‘Yureru Omoi’ (19 May 1993)
‘Mou Sukoshi Ato Sukoshi…’ (4 September 1993)
‘Kitto Wasurenai’ (3 November 1993)
‘Kono Ai ni Oyogitsukaretemo’ (2 February 1994)
‘Konna ni Soba ni Irunoni’ (8 August 1994)
‘Anata wo Kanjiteitai’ (24 December 1994)
‘Just believe in love’ (1 February 1995)
‘Ai ga Mienai’ (5 June 1995)
‘Sayonara ha Ima mo Kono Mune ni Imasu’ (28 August 1995)
‘Mai Furendo’ (8 January 1996)
‘Kokoro wo Hiraite’ (6 May 1996)
‘Don’t you see!’ (6 January 1997) (Closing Theme to Dragon Ball GT.)
‘Kimi ni Aitakunattara…’ (26 February 1997)
‘Kaze ga Torinukeru Machi he’ (2 July 1997)
‘Eien’ (20 August 1997)
‘My Baby Grand -Nukumori ga Hoshikute-’ (3 December 1997)
‘Iki mo Dekinai’ (4 March 1998)
‘Unmei no Ruretto Mawashite’ (17 September 1998)
‘Atarashi Doa -Fuyu no Himawari-’ (2 December 1998)
‘GOOD DAY’ (2 December 1998)
‘MIND GAMES’ (7 April 1999)
‘Sekai ha Kitto Mirai no Naka’ (16 June 1999)
‘Itaikurai Kimi ga Afureteiruyo’ (14 October 1999)
‘Kono Namida Hoshi ni Nare’ (1 December 1999)
‘Get U’re Dream’ (6 September 2000)
‘promised you’ (15 November 2000)
‘Sawayakana Kimi no Kimochi’ (22 May 2002)
‘Asu wo Yumemite’ (9 April 2003)
‘Hitomi Tojite’ (9 July 2003)
‘Motto Chikakude Kimi no Yokogao Miteitai’ (12 November 2003)
‘Kakegae no Naimono’ (23 June 2004)
‘Kyou wa yukkuri hanasou’ (24 November 2004)
‘Hoshi no Kagayaki yo/ Natsu wo matsu SEIRU no You ni’ (20 April 2005)
‘Kanashii Hodou Anata ga Suki/ Karatto Ikou!’ (8 March 2006)
‘Heart ni Hi wo Tsukete’ (10 May 2006)
‘Glorious Mind’ (12 December 2007)
‘Tsubasa wo hirogete/ Ai wa kurayami no naka de’ (9 April 2008)

Albums
Good-bye My Loneliness (27 March 1991)
Mou Sagasanai (25 December 1991)
HOLD ME (2 September 1992)
Yureru Omoi (10 July 1993)
OH MY LOVE (4 June 1994)
forever you (10 March 1995)
TODAY IS ANOTHER DAY (8 July 1996)
ZARD BLEND -SUN & STONE- (23 April 1997)
Eien (17 February 1999)
ZARD BEST The Single Collection -Kiseki- (28 May 1999)
ZARD BEST -Requested Memorial- (15 September 1999)
ZARD Cruising & Live (26 January 2000)
Toki no Tsubasa (15 February 2001)
ZARD BLEND II -LEAF & SNOW- (21 November 2001)
Tomatteita Tokei ga Ima Ugokidasita (28 January 2004)
Kimi to no Distance (7 September 2005)
Golden Best -15th Anniversary- (25 October 2006)
ZARD Request Best -beautiful memory- (23 January 2008)

Izumi Sakai wikipedia

TiA (born June 11, 1987 in Yokohama, Japan) is a Japanese singer, famous for her songs Ryuusei (part of the Naruto ending themes repertoire) and Every Time. Her August 2005 single Promise, is used as Yakitate!! Japan’s second opening song.

In 2004 she released her first music album, entitled “Humming”.

AYUMI HAMASAKI -Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎 あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi?, born October 2, 1978) is an award-winning J-pop singer. Also known as Ayu, Hamasaki is one of Japan's most popular pop singers and has been dubbed the "Empress of J-Pop". Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo to pursue a career in entertainment. Since her 1998 debut with the single poker face, she has sold more than 45 million records in Japan alone, with the releases of her eight full-length studio albums, one mini-album, four compilation albums, 42 singles, and numerous non-studio albums, making her the top-selling solo and female artist and the fourth best-selling Japanese artist in history. With the release of her 40th single, Blue Bird, Hamasaki's single sales exceeded 20 million, making her the first solo and female singer to reach that milestone.

With the release of her 39th single, Startin'/Born to Be..., in 2006, Hamasaki became the female solo artist with most number-one hits. With the release of her 2007 single Talkin' 2 Myself, Hamasaki has 29 number-one singles (30 when A Song Is Born is included) and 39 singles in the Top 10 of the Japanese Oricon charts. The release of Talkin' 2 Myself also gave Hamasaki 17 consecutive number-one singles (starting with Free & Easy). Hamasaki is also the first Japanese artist to have her first original eight studio albums top the Oricon charts.