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Touyama Mirei

Touyama Mirei promoting "Kuenai" (2021)

Touyama Mirei (當山みれい) is a Japanese pop and R&B singer-songwriter under MASTERSIX FOUNDATION in Japan and Cool Japan Music in America. She made her International debut in 2013 with the digital single "Tattoo" and her Japanese debut in 2014 with the double A-side single "Fallin' Out / I Wanna NO" feat. SHUN.

In 2018, she released the song "Dear My Boo", an answer song to Shota Shimizu's song "My Boo", which caused a minor noise in Japan. In 2019, she made her U.S. debut under the name MIREI.

Profile

  • Stage Name: Touyama Mirei (當山みれい), MIREI
  • Birth Name: Touyama Mirei (當山みれい)
  • Birthdate: July 27, 1998 (1998-07-27) (age 25)
  • Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
  • Blood Type: O
  • Height: 154cm

Information

Touyama Mirei promoting "Fallin' Out / I Wanna NO" (2014)

Touyama Mirei was born in Osaka, Japan. She started dancing while in kindergarten, following her mother's recommendation, and began learning songs in earnest starting in second grade. In 2008, Touyama's fourth year of elementary school, she participated in the Kids Dance Battle "SPROUT" Osaka Games with Misaki of Dancing Dolls, and achieved second place. Around her fifth or sixth years of elementary school, she began writing lyrics on her own using a MacBook Pro and composition software that her parents bought.

In September 2011, Touyama, a junior high school student, went to New York to celebrate the passing of the level 3 English proficiency examination. She performed on stage at an open mic night at the live house Village Underground. After only three short weeks studying abroad, she won the Amateur Night -Stars of Tomorrow- on April 11, 2012 at the Apollo Theater. From September of the same year, she began to study abroad in New York for one year.

Touyama Mirei promoting My Way (2016)

While studying abroad, Touyama attended The Professional Children's School Arts Program and joined the gospel team "Gospel For Teens" led by the creator of the musical Mama, I Want to Sing!. She was the only Asian on the team, selected by internal audition and served as a lead vocal. While in New York, she also had one-on-one voice training and dance lessons by Rhapsody James, a dancer and choreographer who choreographed for artists such as Beyoncé.

On January 13, 2013, Touyama released the song "Hysteric Girl" in Japan for DJ Kazu's compilation album A GIRL↑↑ mixed by DJ Kazu. On June 18th of the same year, at the age of 14, she released a single "Tattoo" under the name of MIREI, making her U.S. debut. She also participated in the song "Online" with Young Money artist Torion.

Touyama made her official Japanese debut with the single "Fallin' Out / I Wanna NO" feat. SHUN in June 2014. On July 29, 2016, she made her first appearance on TV Asahi's Music Station for RADIO FISH's single "GOLDEN TOWER" of which she was a featured artist. She also appeared as a guest on RADIO FISH's one-man live "PERFECT SUMMER" held at Akasaka BLITZ on August 26th.

After releasing another Japanese single, various songs for compilation and tribute albums, and being featured in songs by other artists, she released her second album My Way on her 18th birthday. The album ranked #1 on the iTunes R&B/Soul chart.

Japanese Discography

Touyama Mirei promoting Negai E.P. (2017)
Touyama Mirei promoting Answer (2018)
Touyama Mirei promoting PLAYLIST (2019)
MIREI promoting Take Me Away (2020)

Albums

Mini-Albums

Singles

Digital Singles

Compilations/Other

English Discography

Albums

Digital Single

Trivia

  • She is sometimes referred to as a "dancer songwriter" because she composes lyrics and dances.
  • Her surname Touyama is common in Okinawa, where her father is originally from.
  • In addition to singing and dancing, she had been learning English since the second grade.
  • In high school she was in the photography club.
  • She says that her musical roots are hip-hop and R&B.
  • She often listened to Western music from a young age, to K-Pop and VOCALOID songs, but she didn't listen to J-Pop, which was popular at the time. However, after enrolling in high school, she was encouraged by friends to listen to songs from bands such as Johnny's and RADWIMPS.
  • Artists that have influenced her include Rihanna, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Stevie Wonder.
  • She opened an official LINE account on August 7, 2014 because of her desire to create songs with everyone. By first using the ON-AIR function to accept "consultations," she presented a demo song "LINE ME" based on the troubles she gathered via ON-AIR. She then released a singing video on YouTube. The song was also included in her single "Memories" as "DON'T CRY, LINE ME". After that, she continued to discuss with people about their concerns as the "DON'T CRY, LINE ME project", and on October 7th of the same year, the music video of "DON'T CRY, LINE ME" was made using photos collected via ON-AIR and was released on GYAO! On January 14, 2015, a demo song "Strongers" was released on YouTube exclusively for LINE friends, which was also created through consultation. A lyric video was released to the public as "Our Song" in December of the same year, and was included in her first album My Way.

External Links

Japanese
International

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