Kumi Koda

, (born November 13, 1982 in Kyoto, Japan), is a Japanese solo R&B and pop female singer and also the older sister of J-pop star misono, of the former J-Pop band day after tomorrow. Although Kumi Koda debuted in 2000 with her debut single "Take Back," massive success didn't come until 2003 with the release of her seventh single, titled "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba," which became a huge hit song mainly because the songs of the single were theme songs of popular PlayStation 2 videogame Final Fantasy X-2 and since then, Kumi's career has taken off.

In 2005, she was one of the best-selling artists because of her compilation of singles album titled "Best ~First Things~," and in 2006, she reached the top of the Oricon singles charts with the first single of the "~12 Single~ Collection," the single titled "you."

Biography

Kumi was the first girl born to the Koda family. Her professional career started with the strong support of her grandfather (who taught her Japanese bamboo flute) and her mother (who taught Japanese harp). Kumi started practicing classical Japanese dance at the age of three which sparked her interest in performing, and singing in particular.

She used to watch her mother singing at family meetings and parties held after Kumi's dance performances. Kumi's mother had the ability to captivate an entire audience while she was singing, and Kumi wanted to be like that when she was older.She did not want to be just an icon or celebrity and was fascinated by her mother's ability to capture an audience's attention just with her voice. In her primary school yearbook, she wrote "I want to be a singer when I grow up."

The first time she went for an audition was when she was in 3rd grade of primary school. While attending Kyoto Seika High School for young women, Koda auditioned alongside Maki Goto for the so-called 3rd generation of the Japanese group of entertainers known as Morning Musume, but she wasn't selected. In 2000 she finally won the "Avex Dream 2000" audition held by Avex Trax and was signed to Rhythm Zone, urban-minded sublabel at Avex.

Kumi wrote and rewrote lyrics over and over and did recordings endlessly without being given an exact day of the release date of her debut single. Finally Kumi Koda made her debut as a professional singer on December 6, 2000 with her debut single titled "TAKE BACK", but the single had poor sales and failed to chart. Kumi felt really depressed about her failure, because she thought it was her fault. Although the single was even released in the U.S. in March 2001 and debuted #20 at the Billboard Hot Music Single Charts (which can be considered a moderate success), Kumi wanted to put emphasis on reaching the top in the local charts back then (Japan).

The follow-up single of Kumi's was "Trust Your Love" ― also released in the U.S. ― which held the 19th position in Billboard's Hot 100 singles sales chart and went to number one in Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. Two more singles were released, "COLOR OF SOUL" and "So Into You", but no follow-ups in America.

After releasing those 3 singles, Kumi released her debut studio album, affection, on March 27, 2002. Kumi talked about it to an Avex reporter of this stage of her career, and she said she didn't care which songs she sang if she was able to sing. For example, with her songs "COLOR OF SOUL" and "So Into You" she used to wonder: "Will everyone hum this song or sing this song at Karaoke?"; She said that she did not had enough experience or skills and methods to understand her own feelings. The album wasn't a huge success either, and the release of her 5th single "love across the ocean", which she thought was a masterpiece, debuted at number 19 at Oricon. She said the reality hit her with disappointments.

In 2001, to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Kumi collaborated with Korean Pop singer BoA on the charity album SONGNATION with the single the meaning of peace, which was produced by Tetsuya Komuro.

She said, and surely it is true, that her 7th single "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba" saved her singing career. Both songs were the main vocal themes for the videogame, Final Fantasy X-2, in which she was also the voice actress for Lenne in the Japanese version of the game, and the song hit the 3rd position at the Oricon chart, becoming a huge success. She said that this single changed her life, because since the single became a hit, she started to be noticed at her town and also helped her attitude towards how she should present herself as an artist. She started to take care about her own look, and specially, about her weight.

After the release of the single it was already announced the release of her second studio album, titled "grow into one". At the recording of the album she felt the determination to reflect her own opinions and thoughts into the album. The album had moderate success.

She has been widely known for her effort to gain popularity as the singer for the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X-2, singing "1000 no Kotoba" and the main theme of the game "real Emotion". Although she recorded English versions of both songs, Square Enix believed that it sounded low-quality or lackluster, and many English-speaking fans have commented on the versions' Engrish lyrics and pronunciation. Consequently, Square Enix opted to have Jade of Sweetbox to perform the English versions of the Final Fantasy X-2 vocal songs. However, Kumi's versions were later released as b-sides on her single, "COME WITH ME", from her third album.

During the recording session of her 3rd album "feel my mind", Kumi discussed with her sound producers and arrangers about the music she wanted to make now. Kumi started listening to international musicians and started getting influenced by them. She wanted to put more R&B and Hip-Hop tastes into her next album and wanted to go on a tour for the first time as well. While Avex was doing the mastering of the album, Kumi was asked to sing the theme song of anime series Cutie Honey. She recorded it at the last time and finally was included in "feel my mind" as a bonus track. This song was also available in Kumi's "LOVE & HONEY" single released on May 2004.

From Kumi Koda's 4th studio album, Secret

Her success continued at her 13th single, her first ballad single, titled "Kiseki", and it was also a big hit in Japan. Kumi said she noticed an important fact as she was recording her 4th album, listening to her fans. She thought that fans wanted all songs to have complicated meanings, or to be technically "cool", but then, some fans told her once that simple, pure and straight songs were the songs they loved most. She decided just to have fun recording her 4th studio album secret, which was finally released in February 2005. The album reached #3 at Oricon Top 200 Charts.

Later with the release of her 16th single, "Butterfly", Kumi got her highest chart position on the charts at that moment, debuting at the number place for the first time. On September 21 Kumi released her very first Best Of collection of her singles, entitled "BEST ~first things~"; the album was entitled First Things as her first 5 years in music. Though the album was second to Mr. Children the first four days on the Oricon charts, it reached the top spot on the 25th. At the week's end, the album ranked #2 on the weekly charts and sold a highly impressive amount. Through the next week Kumi finally reached #1 on the weekly charts. To date, she has sold over 1.5 million copies and holds the best-selling female album of 2005, beating out many famous female artists, including Namie Amuro and BoA.

The cover of "you", Kumi Koda's first #1 single of the ~12 Single~ Collection.

On December 2005 Kumi started a project of releasing twelve singles in only three months, the project was called the ~12 Single~ Collection. The first single of the 12 singles series, "you", placed #1 on the Oricon charts for its first 3 days, keeping popular boyband TOKIO from the top position. The single's success continued throughout the week and reached #1 on the weekly charts selling over 72,000 copies, making it Kumi's first ever number one hit. "you" is the first single released by Kumi in a set of 12 singles in a 12 week period. The Following week the second single of the 12 set, "Birthday Eve", was released and grabbed the #6 position for the week (selling 44,294 copies of the limited pressing of 50,000 copies) while "you" took the 7th position. This marks the first time since Ai Otsuka's "Sakuranbo" and "Amaenbo" singles in March of 2004 that a female singer has had two singles both in the top ten in the same week. The third single, "D.D.D. feat. SOULHEAD" (also limited to 50,000 copies) had also great sales, selling almost all of the copies that were made.2005 ended really well for the Kumi Koda: she won the 47th Nihon Record Taishou grand prize for her song "Butterfly" on December 31, 2005.

Kumi's single "Shake It Up", released on December 28, 2005, and "Lies" on January 4, 2006 grabbed the #6 and #7 position respectively, while her single "you" was still charting, ranking in at #9 position. This made Koda Kumi the first female artist to have three singles in the Oricon Top 10 in the same week (link). The first male artist that had three Top 10 singles was B'z in 2003.

The 12 singles set ended with the release of the single "Someday/Boys♥Girls", and later with the "00" single of the collection, entitled "Get It On", which was released only virtually, via cellphone.

The Cover of BEST ~second session~.

Recently Kumi released her second Best Of collection, "BEST ~second session~", which was released in three formats. The album reached the #1 spot with 983,000 copies sold in the first week. This is the most recent album that surpassed the 900,000 mark in its first week of sales after Ken Hirai's "UTABAKA: Single Collection" in December 2005 and the highest debut since Utada Hikaru's Single Collection Vol. 1, which was released on March 2004 and debuted with sales of 1,400,000. ([1])

Also Kumi has recently won Best Pop Artist Of The Year at Japan's 20th Gold Disc Awards. Once again Kumi shed tears of joy and performed two songs "Butterfly" and "Promise".

Recently, Kumi was nominated for 3 awards on MTV Video Music Awards Japan. In the categories "Best Video of the Year", "Best Female Video" and "buzzAsia Japan". Kumi won all 3 awards on May 27th 2006 and gave her trademark sexy performance on the night with a medley of you -acoustic version- and Candy Feat. Mr. Blistah.

Kumi's latest single Koi no Tsubomi was ranked #2 on the weekly Oricon charts with first week sales of 140,000 copies. This was the highest weekly sales amount for a female artists in 2006 until Ayumi Hamasaki surpassed it with BLUE BIRD. Also this single is Kumi's 19th consecutive single which have made debuted in the Top 10 (since "Kiseki"). - ([2])

"4 hot wave".

Kumi recently has become a spokesperson for Diet Coke in Japan. She has been featured in 2 of their Diet Coke ads as well as being a model on Diet Coke's posters and banners across Japan.

Shortly after the release of Koi no Tsubomi, news of Kumi's 1st photobook were released. The photobook is called "MAROC" and was shot in Morocco. Shortly after the announcement of her photobook, information about Kumi's 32nd single appeared on Japanese forums. The single was decided to be a quadruple A-side called "4 hot wave" and will coincide with the release of her photobook. Both items have similar covers and will both be released on the 26th of July.

It was later revealed that all songs on the single will have tie-ins. "I'll be there" was used in the Seabreeze ad for a sun tanning lotion. Ningyo-Hime will be used with the advertisement of the Vodafone 705T mobile phone and With your smile will be the theme for NTV's 2006 Japan Pro Baseball. "JUICY"'s tie-in is with GemCerey, a jewellery company with Kumi as their model. The song is featured in the new ad featuring Kumi advertising their newest item.

The ad JUICY was featured in is to promote their newest product "Binary Face". These products have been designed by Koda Kumi herself and she has based the concept of the design on herself. The "lion" is to represent the dark, sexy and powerful woman while the "rabbit" is for the innocent, weak and cute side of a woman.

Trivia

*Bloodtype: A
*Hobby: shopping
*Favourite music: Hip-Hop
*Favourite sport: squash
*Favourite colour: green and purple
*Favourite season: Summer
*Favourite clothes: Dolce & Gabbana, H・A・K
*Favourite Japanese artists: Toshinori Yonekura, Sukima Switch
*Favourite Western artists: Christina Aguilera, Nelly, P!nk, Pharrel Williams

Lenne

*Kumi Koda is the official model of the character Lenne(Final Fantasy X-2) in Final Fantasy X-2 franchise

Discography

DVDs

# 7SPIRITS (2003/3/19)# feel... (2004/3/24)# girls~Selfish~ (2004/11/25)# secret -FIRST CLASS LIMITED LIVE- (2005/9/21)# BEST~first things~ LIVE TOUR 2005 - available only in limited edition of second best album

songnation

# the meaning of peace w/BoA (2001/12/19)# songnation (performed the meaning of peace w/BoA) (2002/1/23)

Other Collaborations

# LISA - SWITCH feat. Koda Kumi and Heartsdales (2004/4/21)# LISA - So Beautiful (performed SWITCH WALL5 remix) (2004/6/2)# LISA - GRATITUDE (performed SWITCH) (2004/6/30)# JHETT a.k.a YAKKO for AQUARIUS - Just Go feat. Koda Kumi(2005/3/9)# JHETT a.k.a. YAKKO for AQUARIUS (performed Just Go) (2005/3/24)# KM-MARKIT - Vivid (performed Rainy Day) (2005/4/20)# KM-MARKIT - Hot Stuff# Super Sonic w/ D.I PROD BY DAISUKE IMAI (2005/7/20)# JHETT BLACK EDITION [CD+DVD] (2005/8/24)# SOULHEAD - D.D.D feat. Koda Kumi (2006/2/1)# TRF - JOY - meets Koda Kumi- (2006/2/15)

Soundtracks

# Final Fantasy X-2 O.S.T. (performed real Emotion and ) (2003/3/31)# Gilgamesh O.S.T. (performed Crazy 4 U) (2004/2/25)# Cutie Honey O.S.T. (performed ) (2004/5/26)

Theme songs

The following songs performed by Koda Kumi have been used as themes for a range of motion pictures, TV series and video games:
*"So Into You:" Rank Ōkoku'', Japan Count Down, Tokyo Club Gang (TV shows)
*"m·a·z·e": Psycho Doctor (dorama)
*"real Emotion": Final Fantasy X-2 (video game)
*"1000 no Kotoba": Final Fantasy X-2 (video game)
*"Crazy 4 U": Gilgamesh (anime)
*"SWITCH": Crimson Tears (video game)
*"Cutie Honey": Cutie Honey (movie), Re:Cutie Honey (anime)
*"Into your heart": Cutie Honey (movie), Re:Cutie Honey (anime)
*"The theme of Sister Jill": Cutie Honey (movie)
*"Yogiri no Honey": Cutie Honey (movie)
*"Chase": Samaazu to Yuka no ayashii××kashi chau no kayo