Koda Kumi 倖田來未 (placeholder)

Kumi Koda (倖田來未, Kumi Koda?), (born Kumiko Kouda (神田來未子, Kōda Kumiko?) 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 became a hit mainly because the songs of the single were theme songs of popular PlayStation 2 videogame Final Fantasy X-2 and since then, Koda’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.”

Childhood
Kumiko Koda was the first girl born to the Koda family in a number of generations. It was the strong support of her grandfather (who taught her Japanese bamboo flute) and her mother (who taught Japanese harp) that helped Kumiko become a success. Young Kumiko started practicing classical Japanese dance at the age of three which inspired her interest in performing, and singing in particular.

She used to watch her mother singing at family meetings and parties held after Koda’s dance performances. According to Kumiko, her mother had the ability to captivate an entire audience while she was singing, and she wanted to be like that when she was older. Nevertheless, she did not want to be just an icon or celebrity, but wanted to rise to fame because of her talent. 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, Kumiko 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.[citation needed] Her pursuit of a singing career would have to be held off for a number of years.

Discovery and affection Era
It was not until 2000 until she was able to pursue a singing
career. Koda Kumi won the "Avex Dream 2000" audition held by
Avex Trax and was signed to Rhythm Zone, an urban-minded
sublabel at Avex.

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. The single was also released in the U.S. in March 2001 and debuted #20 at the Billboard Hot Dance Music Sales, which can be considered a general flop. Instead of focusing on a possibly lucrative American career, Koda wanted to put emphasis on reaching the top in the local charts back then (Japan).

The cover of Koda Kumi’s first album, “affection.”The follow-up single of Koda’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.” Koda did not release any more singles in America.

After releasing her first four singles, Koda released a collaboration with Korean pop singer BoA. The song was created to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and used for the charity album SONGNATION. BoA and Kumi contributed the single the meaning of peace, which was produced by Tetsuya Komuro.

With four solo singles under her belt, Koda released her debut studio album, affection, on March 27, 2002, which also became a flop. She stated that she did not contribute to this album other than singing, because she “didn’t care which songs she could sing as long as she was able sing.”

Grow into one Era
Koda remained active despite commercial failures of her
previous works. In the summer of 2002, she released her 5th
single love across the ocean. While she was very much
satisfied with the single, the single, again, failed to
bring her success. It debuted at number 19 at Oricon and
quickly disappeared charts.

Unfortunately for Koda, her 6th single, m·a·z·e fared worse on the charts than love across the ocean, peaking at # 25 and garnering ten thousand less sales.

Koda enjoyed the first-ever success in her career with the release of real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba. Both songs were the main vocal themes for the videogame, Final Fantasy X-2, in which voiced Lenne in the Japanese version of the game. The single peaked at #3 at the Oricon chart, becoming a huge success. This single is one of the most successful single in her career to this date, and outsold all her previous singles and albums combined.

The cover of Kumi’s second album, “grow into one.”With the success of the single, Koda realized that she had to adjust her attitude as an artist and the way she presented herself to the public to achieve success she has wanted. As a result, she began to care more about her looks, and especially her weight.

As for the tie-in to a video game, Koda 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.

After the release of the single, the release of her second studio album, titled grow into one, was announced. This time, she grew more determined to assert her musical style and personal feelings into the album. In the end, the album became a modest-sized success as a top ten album and went on to sell close to selling 200,000 copies.

Feel my mind Era
After the release of a successful album, Koda continued to release a string of top twenty hits, including COME WITH ME, Gentle Words, and Crazy For You. COME WITH ME, released right after her last album, was the best performing single of her feel my mind album, selling 42,000 copies.

During the recording session of her 3rd album “feel my mind”, she started listening to international musicians, which influenced her music. The influence led her 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 in the final recording session, and the track was included in “feel my mind” as a bonus track.

Secret Era

From Kumi Koda’s 4th studio album, SecretCutie Honey, a song previously made available of feel my mind as a bonus track was also made available as a track on her next single, “LOVE & HONEY” single released on May 2004.

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 believed that fans wanted all songs to have complicated meanings, or to be technically “cool”, but then, some fans told her once that straightforward, frank songs were the songs they loved most. She decided “to just have fun” recording her 4th studio album secret, which was finally released in February 2005. The album reached #3 at Oricon Top 200 Charts, higher than any of her previous albums, as well as her first top five Oricon release. The album was certified two times platinum by RIAJ for selling 521,000 copies in total. Compared to her past two releases, Secret was a breakout success. Most likely, this release signalled the beginning of superstardom for Kumi Koda.

Superstardom
Later with the release of her 16th single, “Butterfly”, Kumi Koda got her highest chart position on the charts at that
moment, debuting at the number one place on the daily charts for the first time. The single sank to #2 on the weekly
chart, but it was still the highest positions her singles
have ever reached. Butterfly proved essential to bringing her
further into the public spotlight as it was named song of the year.[citation needed] Her next two singles, flower, and
Promise / Star continued her impressive string of top ten hits, both peaking at number four on the weekly Oricon
charts.

On September 21 Koda 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.

12 single collection and BEST_{second session}

The cover of “you”, Kumi Koda’s first #1 single of the _{12 Single} Collection.On December 2005 Koda started a project of releasing twelve singles in only three months. The project was entitled _{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 Koda’s first ever number one hit. 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.

As 2005 came to a close, Koda enjoyed more success as she won the 47th Nihon Record Taishou grand prize for her song “Butterfly” on December 31, 2005.

Koda’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 Koda 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])

The success of her singles helped Koda earn Best Pop Artist Of The Year at Japan’s 20th Gold Disc Awards. Koda was also nominated for 3 awards on MTV Video Music Awards Japan. In the categories “Best Video of the Year”, “Best Female Video” and “buzzAsia Japan”. Koda won all 3 awards on May 27, 2006 and performed on the night with a medley of you and Candy Feat. Mr. Blistah.

Koda 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.

“4 hot wave”.Shortly after the release of Koi no Tsubomi, news of Koda’s 1st photobook were released. The photobook is called “MAROC” and was shot in Morocco. Shortly after the announcement of her photobook, information about Koda’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 was used with the advertisement of the Vodafone 705T mobile phone, “With your smile” was the theme for NTV’s 2006 Japan Pro Baseball, and “JUICY”’s tie-in was with GemCerey, a jewellery company with Kumi as their model, featuring the song in the new ad with 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.

Her next single “Yume no Uta / Futari de…”(Dream Song/Two of us…) was released on the October 18, 2006. It is named as a “2 Story Ballad”, and will be released in both CD and CD+DVD format. The first pressing for the CD+DVD version will contain one of nine special photo liners, two bonus tracks and a special 8 page booklet for the CD only version. The two ballads display extremities of a woman’s love, the light and darkness of a woman’s heart.

“Yume no Uta/Futari de…”.This single is self-produced by Koda herself, she wrote the lyrics, chose all the outfits and produced the videos for both of the songs. She commented confidently, “It was a first time experiment for me, but I was able to convey how both happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin.”[citation needed] This is officially her first time at self-producing. The original plan was to have just a single song about happy love, but Koda thought the melody had elements of both happiness and sadness, so she wrote another set of lyrics and collaborated with her staff and made two songs as requested by Koda. There’ll be a story in each PVs, with Koda as heroine. Yume no Uta is a powerful song that Koda recorded with the lights off for effect, while Futari de… is the slower of the two and is sung tenderly.

On October 18, 2006, Koda Kumi released her 33th single Yume no Uta/Futari de…. The single debuted at #1 on the Oricon Charts and secured it position with first week sales of 176,000 copies. Making it Koda’s 3rd #1 single, 2nd highest first week sales single and 3rd highest first weeks sales for a female solo single.

Before the end of the year, there will be two additional singles released by Koda. The first one is titled Won’t Be Long is a duet with the band EXILE and it will be released on November 21, 2006. The second one is titled “Cherry Girl / Unmei” and will be out on December 6, 2006. Cherry Girl is said to be an upbeat song while “Unmei” is a ballad which will be used for the theme of a movie called Ooku.

Koda’s 5th studio album titled BLACK CHERRY has been confirmed via her official website and set for December 20, 2006. The album will come in 3 types; CD Only, CD+DVD and CD+2DVD. The second disc of the CD+2DVD Version will contain the TV Drama Cherry Girl which will star Koda Kumi. This is Koda Kumi’s first debut as an actress and will start actors such as MEGUMI, Itou Yuuko, Takeda Masaharu, Hoshino Mari and Hamada Mari. The theme will be Koda Kumi’s very song new release Cherry Girl.

The album will contain Koda’s 2006 releases of Koi no Tsubomi, 4 hot wave, Yume no Uta, and new releases such as Cherry Girl/Unmei and Won’t Be Long. It has also been announced Koda’s first personal composition track Milk Tea is also included.

It is said in the press release the album will contain fourteen tracks plus an intro (equaling fifteen overall tracks), and that the first pressing will contain three bonus tracks. While her Yume no Uta single will make the album, the other a-side from that single, Futari de…, will not for unknown reasons.