ASP News

In the jungle of Japan’s music industry, you will find lots and lots of different artists. There is a great danger to get lost and drown in all that weird music. But surely, every country has their own superstar. Kumi Koda (倖田 來未) is Japan’s Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera (you-name-it) R’n'B/pop-queen. Sexy and sweet, she is Japan’s hit-machine!

This 26-year-old Japanese female singer and song-writer debuted in 2000 with her single “Take Back”, and thereafter her career slowly began to grow and became what it is today. She is known for her Japanese Urban and J-pop hits. She has made various singles and promotional videos (PV) and also received awards for both her music and fashion (nail art in her PVs which she received an award for too).

During the years up till 2004, Koda’s image changed. Still early in her career, pop dominated her music and she was not really noticed and her singles did not peak high at the Oricon charts, the Japanese equivilent of the Billboard Charts. Not untill her seventh single “Real emotion/1000 no kotoba” (2003), which songs were used for opening and ending themes of the popular game “Final Fantasy X-2” did Koda Kumis career start to flourish. In addition to performing the feature songs of the game, she even got to voice the character Lenne in the Japanese version of the game. She gained even more success in 2004, when she covered the theme song for the popular anime “Cutie Honey”, or the feature length movie of the same name. This song marked her new image change, which was referred to as “ero-kakkoii” – meaning erotic good-looking (clothes which revealed a lot of skin) – which later became a trend in Japan.

The two years following, Koda’s popularity was growing and a lot of her singles peaked in top 5 of the Oricon charts. She released a greatest hits album which became number one after two weeks on the charts. She could now be referred to as Japan’s superstar who had delivered several hits in rows. In the end of 2007, with her 38^th single, she collaborated with the Korean super group Dong Bang Shin Ki (short DBSK) – Tohoshinki in Japanese – the song was titled “Last Angel” and was the image for Resident Evil: Extinction. With her 40^th single in the summer of 2008, she collaborated with Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie.

Her 41^st single “Taboo” was released in October 2008 and debuted as number 1. The PV of her song Taboo is a good image of her sexy “ero-kakkoii” image.

Her newest single (#42^nd ) is titled “Stay With Me” and has been described as a “winter love ballad”. Her image here is more the “sweet and beautiful”. This single was released on the 24^th of December 2008 (Merry Christmas!).

Of course there are a lot more popstars in Japan, this is just to give a taste of one of them! Enjoy and happy new year!