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generasia:Featured article for 2021 week 43

Nakashima Mika promoting "SYMPHONIA / Shiritai Koto, Shiritakunai Koto" (2021)

Nakashima Mika

Nakashima Mika (中島美嘉) is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter and actress under Sony Music Japan. In order to pursue her dream of becoming a singer, Nakashima decided not to attend high school, and in November of 2001, she saw her payoff. Her debut single "STARS" was a huge success, going on to sell over 469,000 copies. "CRESCENT MOON", her second single, was limited to 100,000 copies, and incidentally sold out the first day of release. Nakashima's first studio album "TRUE" went on to sell over one million copies.

2002 gave Nakashima recognition of her achievements, winning "New Artist of the Year" from The Japan Gold Disc Awards, "Best New Artist of the Year" from All Japan Request Awards 2002, and "New Artist of the Year" from the 44th Japan Record Awards. Her next album LØVE in 2003 saw similar success, selling over 1 million copies. However, her 2005 album MUSIC sold only 545,820.

In 2005, took on the lead acting role in a movie called NANA, based on the manga of the same name. Under the name "NANA starring MIKA NAKASHIMA", she released the movie's theme song "GLAMOROUS SKY", composed by HYDE, the vocalist and lyricist of the popular Japanese rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel. "GLAMOROUS SKY" was a huge hit, giving Nakashima her first number one single and selling over 439,000 copies total. Five of her studio albums, one of her mini-albums, and one of her compilation albums have reached number one on Japan's Oricon album chart.

Her 46th single, "SYMPHONIA / Shiritai Koto, Shiritakunai Koto", is released this week on October 27th.