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Koda Kumi

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Koda Kumi (倖田來未) made her debut in late 2000, but it wasn't until 2002 that her debut album, affection, made its way onto the scene. She has only recently started to gain some more wide-spread popularity, thanks to reasons such as her appearing on the Japanese soundtrack of Final Fantasy X-2, her fresh Urban music style, her revealing photo-shoots as well as her "12 Days of Christmas" wide-scale releases of one single every week starting in December 2005.

File:KodaKumi.jpg
koda Kumi, 2009

Profile

  • Stage Name: Koda Kumi (倖田來未)
  • Real Name: Kouda Kumiko (神田來未子 - こうだ くみこ)
  • Birthdate: 13th November 1982
  • Birthplace: Kyoto, Japan
  • Blood Type: A
  • Favorite Singers: Christina Aguilera & Ja Rule
  • Height: 154 cm (5 feet)
  • Sibling(s): misono (younger sister; ex-vocalist of day after tomorrow)

Biography

Koda Kumi was the first girl born into her family in a number of generations. She dreamed of becoming a singer since she was in elementary school. She auditioned alongside Goto Maki for the 3rd generation of Morning Musume when she was seventeen, but it is not clear whether she made it but turned it down due to the fact that Avex signed a contract with her as a solo artist on a different genre because she won another contest around the same time, or actually didn't make it. In any case, she was signed to Avex Trax and started to release music of the J-Urban genre.

Her debut single, TAKE BACK, was released in December 2000. After a few more unsuccessful singles, she released her debut album, affection in 2002. All of these were flops. But with the release of real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba, the single that was chosen for Final Fantasy, Koda's career finally found success and a real large fan base.

As she matured, her imaged changed. She adopted long flowing streaky platinum blonde hair and dressed a little more on the wild side. She released three more albums: grow into one, feel my mind, and secret. With the release of each album, her fan base grew and grew.

BEST ~first things~ could be considered Kumi's breakthrough album. It is her first single collection, sold nearly 2 million copies, and remained on the charts for a good four months. It became the highest selling female album of 2005 and reached #17 on the top albums of 2006.

Cherry Girl / Unmei and the follow up fifth studio album, Black Cherry, were both released in December 2006 and sold very well. Oricon reports that Black Cherry is the first female studio album to stay at number one for four weeks in four years, selling 802,000 copies. The last female studio album to have done that was Hamasaki Ayumi's 2000 album, Duty.

She released a third compilation album, BEST ~BOUNCE & LOVERS~. It charted at #2 on both the Oricon daily and weekly charts with first week sales of 161,458 copies. This is a big significant difference of first week sales, compared to Koda Kumi's last two BEST albums, BEST ~first things~ and BEST ~second session~, which each sold about 558,916 and 983,359 copies in their first weeks, respectively.

On July 7th, 2007, Koda played at Makuhari Messe, Tokyo, one of Japan's Live Earth concert venues.

On September 12th, 2007, Ai no Uta (愛のうた Love Song), Koda's 37th single was released.

She will release her 38th single on November 7th, 2007. Entitled LAST ANGEL, which will be a collaboration with Korean/Japanese boyband TOHOSHINKI (Tong Vfang Xien Qi, 東方神起, TVXQ).


Discography

Original Studio Albums

  • [2002.03.27] affection #12
  • [2003.03.19] grow into one #9
  • [2004.02.18] feel my mind #7
  • [2005.02.09] secret #3
  • [2006.12.20] Black Cherry #1


Compilation Albums

  • [2005.09.21] BEST ~first things~ #1
  • [2006.03.08] BEST ~second session~ #1
  • [2007.03.14] BEST ~BOUNCE & LOVERS~ #2

Singles

  • [2000.12.06] TAKE BACK #59
  • [2001.05.09] Trust Your Love #18
  • [2001.10.03] COLOR OF SOUL #29
  • [2002.03.13] So Into You #50
  • [2002.07.24] love across the ocean #19
  • [2002.12.11] m・a・z・e #25
  • [2003.03.05] real Emotion / 1000 no Kotoba (1000の言葉; 1000 Words) #3
  • [2003.08.27] COME WITH ME #14
  • [2003.12.10] Gentle Words #15
  • [2004.01.15] Crazy 4 U #12
  • [2004.05.26] LOVE & HONEY #4
  • [2004.07.28] Chase #18
  • [2004.09.08] Kiseki (奇跡; Miracle) #7
  • [2005.01.19] hands #7
  • [2005.04.13] Hot Stuff feat. KM-MARKIT #10
  • [2005.06.22] Butterfly #2
  • [2005.08.10] flower #4
  • [2005.09.07] Promise / Star #4
  • [2005.12.07] you #1
  • [2005.12.14] Birthday Eve #6
  • [2005.12.21] D.D.D. feat.SOULHEAD #5
  • [2005.12.28] Shake It Up #6
  • [2006.01.04] Lies #7
  • [2006.01.11] feel #1
  • [2006.01.18] Candy feat.Mr.Blistah #3
  • [2006.01.25] No Regret #4
  • [2006.02.01] Ima Sugu Hoshii (今すぐ欲しい; I Want You Now) #5
  • [2006.02.08] KAMEN (仮面; Mask) feat. Ishii Tatsuya (石井竜也) #3
  • [2006.02.15] WIND #3
  • [2006.02.22] Someday / Boys♡Girls #3
  • [2006.05.24] Koi no Tsubomi (恋のつぼみ; Bud of Love) #2
  • [2006.07.26] 4 hot wave #2 - Koda's highest selling single to date 489,000 copies sold
  • [2006.10.18] Yume no Uta / Futari de... (夢のうた / ふたりで...; Dream Song / Together...) #1
  • [2006.12.06] Cherry Girl / Unmei (運命; Fate) #3
  • [2007.03.14] BUT / Aishou (愛証; Proof of Love) #2
  • [2007.06.27] FREAKY #1
  • [2007.09.12] Ai no Uta (愛のうた; Love Song) #2
  • [2007.11.07] LAST ANGEL feat.TOHOSHINKI

Awards & Achievements

  • [2006] Artist of the Year
  • [2006] Pop Album of the Year
  • [2006] Music Video of the Year
  • [2006] Triple Crown

JpopStop Links


External Links

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