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Shiratori Emiko

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Shiratori Emiko is a J-Pop and folk singer firstly most known for the duo Toi et Moi with Sumio Akutagawa during the early 70's. She also became highly successful with her solo career in 1987 with the album "Amazing Grace". The younger generation is mostly familiar with her for singing the theme song "Melodies of Life" for the Playstation video game Final Fantasy IX. Her daughter is singer-songwriter Shiratori Maika, better known for her work in Taiyou no Uta.


Profile

  • Name: Shiratori Emiko (白鳥英美子)
  • Birthday: March 16th, 1950

Biography

Shiratori Emiko (Yamamuro Emiko by birth name) began singing at the age of 6 to which she was introduced by her mother who was a cabaret singer during the war. Emiko pursued a high degree in English aiming for professorship yet her passion for singing remained strong and she kept sending demo tapes in hopes of getting noticed. Her career as a singer, however, didn't start out that well until in 1969 she and Sumio Akutagawa formed the duo Toi et Moi under Toshiba EMI. The duo turned out to be highly popular which even granted Emiko the chance to sing the song "Niji to Ame no Ballade" in the Sapporo Winter Olympics in 1973. The year 1973, however, saw the dispandment of the duo and Emiko went pursuing a solo career as a composer and producer under the record label Fun Housse.

Her debut solo album "Yamamuro Emiko" was released quite quickly after the disbandment of Toi et Moi. In 1975 Shiratori Emiko married Shiratori Sumio, a composer and producer under the independent label WOOD-GREEN, who would also end up being the producer for her future releases. September 25th 1976 Emiko gave birth to their first child Shiratori Maki. In 1977 she returned to releasing music but under the pen name "ARO" which comprimised of her and her husband Shiratori Sumio. They continued releasing under the record label Victor till 1981. In 1982 she continued with her solo career under her own name releasing two new albums till 1983 when she decided to focus on her family and so moved to America.

Shiratori Emiko during I'm Here
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Shiratori Emiko during I'm Here

Signed to King Records Emiko returned in 1987 with the commercial success "Amazing Grace" which featured Emiko singing completely in English and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The success of "Amazing Grace" also led her to work with the Warsaw Philarmonic Orchestra the next year. Due to the success Emiko also toured widely around Asia with a symphonic orchestra from 1987 to 1989. In 1990 Emiko collaborated with her husband Shiratori Sumio in doing the music to the anime series "Tanoshii Moomin Ikka", a series based on the "Moomin" books by the Finnish writer Tove Jansson, which turned out to be a widely celebrated show in Japan during the 90's. However, after 1991 Emiko started to fade away from the public as her sales started to drop.

In 1993 she released her first completely self-produced album "Arcadian". The next year she celebrated her 25th anniversary in music business by releasing the mini-album "Emiko Shiratori". In 1995 she released G sen ue no Aria comprising of her earlier songs and one new song. The same year "Dear...", a collection of her Beatles tribute songs, was released. In 1996 she temporarily quit King Records and rejoined Fun Housse, to which Sumio Akutagawa was signed to as well. In 1997 Toi et Moi was brought together and they began releasing new material. However, Emiko grew dissatisfied with Fun Housse as they released two compilation albums in a too short amount of time and so she finally quit the label in 1999.

In 1999 Emiko was approached by Universal Music but due to Emiko's temporary leave from King Records she still had two years with them until the contract would end. With the year 2000 came Emiko's new breakthrough as she was chosen by Nobuo Uematsu to sing the theme song "Melodies of Life" for the Playstation role-playing game Final Fantasy IX. The single reached #10 on the Oricon charts and sold 114,260 copies. Her next solo album "Cross My Heart" also featured her covering the Final Fantasy series' ending theme melody with Nobuo Uematsu. In 2001 she released yet one new album under King Records but this would turn out to be her last year with them. The same year she signed to Universal Music releasing her first single "Shizuka na Chikyu no ue de" with them. Her first full album with Universal Music, "I'm Here", in 2002 was produced in America and the album was almost completely sung in English. In 2005 Emiko collaborated with Watanabe Toshiyuki under Gunboy by releasing the symphonic image album Collaboration ~Emiko sing Vifam~ celebrating the 20th anniversary of the anime series "Ginga Hyouryuu Vifam".

Discography

Shiratori Emiko with Yuriko Nakamura, a pianist producer for her and Toi et Moi.
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Shiratori Emiko with Yuriko Nakamura, a pianist producer for her and Toi et Moi.

Albums

Singles

ARO Albums

ARO Singles

Toi et Moi
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Toi et Moi

Toi et Moi Albums

Toi et Moi Singles


External links

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