- This article discusses the Japanese singer Hitomi. For other uses of the term "hitomi" see Hitomi (disambiguation)
hitomi is a Japanese singer and songwriter.Hitomi may also refer to:*Hitomi , a Japanese feminine given name *Hitomi , Japanese voice actress from Osaka...
.
is a
JapaneseThe are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as...
singer and
songwriterA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well as the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer.-History and background of songwriters:...
. Some of her biggest hits include "Candy Girl" (1995), "Love 2000" (2000), and "Samurai Drive" (2002). Her last studio album,
Love Life 2Love Life 2 is the ninth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter hitomi, released on June 24, 2009 by hitomi's sub-label of Avex Trax, Love Life Records. It was originally to be released June 10, 2009, but was pushed back for promotional reasons. The first pressing of the album came with an...
, was released in June 24, 2009. On December 5 2007 hitomi released an entire-career compilation album,
Peace. hitomi has sold over 8,830,000 copies of all her albums, singles, and video releases.
Early life
Born in
Tochigiis a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Despite its name, it is not the capital of Tochigi Prefecture; the capital is Utsunomiya.As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 82,939 and the density of 679.49 persons per km²...
,
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, hitomi's family relocated to
Kawasakiis a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, between Tokyo and Yokohama. It is the 9th most populated city in Japan and one of the main cities forming the Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area....
,
Kanagawa Prefectureis a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Honshū, Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.- History :The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...
when she was a child. Consequently Hitomi always identified herself as a girl from Kanagawa. Hitomi was an enthusiastic athlete throughout her childhood, playing
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
, soccer, and
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
, as well as an avid reader of
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
. When hitomi was 16 years old, she was spotted and approached by a scout from a modelling agency. hitomi signed a short modelling contract and began appearing in magazines while she was still in
high schoolHigh school is the name used in some parts of the world, particularly in Scotland, Northern America and Oceania, to describe an institution that provides all or part of secondary education...
.
In 1993, then 17 years old, Furuya was spotted by eminent
Avex Traxis the holding company for a group of entertainment-related subsidiaries based in Japan. The origin of the word Avex comes from the English words Audio Visual Expert....
music producer
Tetsuya Komuro', also known as TK, is a Japanese keyboardist, songwriter and music producer born on November 27, 1958 in Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan. He is recognized for introducing dance music to the Japanese mainstream...
at an audition. Komuro signed Furuya to Avex, put Furuya through vocal training, and decided that she should use an all-lowercase 'hitomi' as her stage name. The following year, in November 1994, hitomi released her debut single, "
Let's Play Winter"Let's Play Winter" is the debut single by Japanese singer-songwriter hitomi and was released on November 28, 1994 by Avex Trax. It appears as a remixed version on her 1995 debut studio album Go To The Top and was later included in its original form on the 1999 best-of compilation H and the 2007...
", through
avex traxis the holding company for a group of entertainment-related subsidiaries based in Japan. The origin of the word Avex comes from the English words Audio Visual Expert....
, to which she wrote the lyrics. Since then, hitomi has been the lyricist for almost all of her songs. She has also performed covers, an example being the
Shocking BlueShocking Blue was a Netherlands rock band from The Hague formed in 1967. Their biggest hit, "Venus," went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970, and the band had sold 13.5 million discs by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974.-Members:...
hit "Venus" that she recorded an English-language cover for a
GilletteGillette may refer to:* Gillette , safety razor manufacturer* Gillette Stadium* Gillette, New Jersey* Gillette, Wyoming* Gilette, Alpes-Maritimes, France* Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare, Minnesota hospital...
commercial and later included on her June 2005 single,
Japanese girl.
Debut and success
While the first two singles,
Let's Play Winter"Let's Play Winter" is the debut single by Japanese singer-songwriter hitomi and was released on November 28, 1994 by Avex Trax. It appears as a remixed version on her 1995 debut studio album Go To The Top and was later included in its original form on the 1999 best-of compilation H and the 2007...
and
We Are "Lonely Girl""We Are "Lonely Girl"" is the second single by Japanese singer-songwriter hitomi and was released on February 22, 1995 by Avex Trax. It appears remixed on her debut studio album Go To The Top and in its original form on the 1999 best-of H and on the 2007 three disc set Peace.-Background:"We Are...
were considerable failures, her third single
Candy Girl was used as the theme for a Kodak CM, and secured a Top 20 spot on the Japanese
Oricon, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
music chart. Subsequent singles "By Myself" and "Busy Now" established hitomi, barely out of her teens, as one to watch in Japanese entertainment.
Komuro and hitomi went their separate ways in 1999. It is believed that hitomi was unhappy with being a marginalised figure in Komuro's stable of performers, as she was behind other Komuro-produced acts like
Namie Amurois a Japanese singer, entertainer, and former actress, who, at the height of her popularity, was referred to as the "Teen Queen [of Japan]" and is referred to as the "Queen of Japanese pop music". Born in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted at the age of fourteen as an idol in the girl group Super Monkey's...
,
globeA globe is a three-dimensional scale model of Earth or other spheroid celestial body such as a planet, star, or moon...
, and
Ami Suzukiis a female singer, songwriter, actress and dancer from Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.Having been discovered at a Sony Music Entertainment Japan audition, Suzuki was one of the most popular female singers as an idol in the late 1990s. However, in 2000 faced legal problems with her management...
at that time, and also wanted more creative control over her music and image. The split was apparently amicable, however, and in 2002, hitomi teamed up with Komuro once again for the SongNation project, a various-artists compilation intended to raise funds for the victims of the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners...
in the United States. hitomi contributed lyrics and vocals for the song "My Planet."
Many of her songs have been featured on a wide range of products. Examples include "I am," which served as an opening song for the popular
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
InuYasha, full title , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...
, "kimi no tonari," which was the theme song for a
PlayStationThe PlayStation is a 32-bit fifth generation video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December ....
video game Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and "IS IT YOU?" was used as a theme song for a popular
FujiTVis a Japanese television station based in Daiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, also known as or CX, based on the station's callsign, JOCX-TV...
drama series "dekichatta kekkon". In addition, hitomi is a perennial favourite of clothes, cosmetics and accessories brands like Trussardi and
GilletteGillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal hygiene products. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, it is one of several brands originally owned by The Gillette Company, a leading global supplier of products under various brands, which was acquired by...
for her modeling experience, photogenic features, and slender figure. Hitomi is currently the spokesperson for
GilletteGillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal hygiene products. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, it is one of several brands originally owned by The Gillette Company, a leading global supplier of products under various brands, which was acquired by...
Venus shaver in Japan and visited Hawaii to film a commercial.
Hitomi married boyband GASBOYS former member U-san in the autumn of 2002. They got divorced in November 2007, and never had children.. During this period as a married woman, her legal name changed to .
hitomi was largely out of the public eye from mid-2002 to early 2004, because it was discovered she had ovarian cancer.
TRAVELER to peace
In May 2004, hitomi released a new studio album,
TRAVELER. The concert tour she subsequently embarked upon was a huge success, and she played to packed arenas at almost every stop.
As the 10th anniversary of hitomi's debut came, she opened her own record label,
LOVE LIFE Records, which functions as a subdivision of Avex. At present, hitomi holds the appointment of Chairwoman of the company's
boardA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board...
.
In October 2005, it was announced that hitomi would feature at the annual NHK
Kōhaku Uta Gassen, more commonly known as simply Kōhaku, is an annual music show on New Year's Eve produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK and broadcast on both television and radio, nationally and internationally by NHK's networks and some overseas broadcasters which bought the program...
on December 31, as a member of the Red (females') team. However, hitomi ended up not performing, because of a minor throat infection, and on December 21 it was announced that her place would be taken by
Ami Suzukiis a female singer, songwriter, actress and dancer from Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.Having been discovered at a Sony Music Entertainment Japan audition, Suzuki was one of the most popular female singers as an idol in the late 1990s. However, in 2000 faced legal problems with her management...
.
Hitomi later released
Peace, a complete Set of all her most popular songs and music videos across her past five albums on December 5, 2007.
Remarriage, Pregnancy, and LOVE LIFE 2
In 2007 hitomi co-starred in the Japanese film . The film was directed by the horror film director,
Shinya Tsukamotois a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.-Biography:Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave hima Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging...
, and stars Ryuhei Matsuda, as the lead role, while hitomi co-stars as a police officer named Keiko Kirishima. hitomi was praised as being 'ethereal' and for being able to make a semi-romantic angle between her and Matsuda believable, despite being more than 8 years older than her co-star. Between late August to early September 2007, hitomi acted on the stage in performances of a drama called
Waiting For The Sun performed by Kitty-stage. Hitomi has also been the face (and body) of
GilletteGillette may refer to:* Gillette , safety razor manufacturer* Gillette Stadium* Gillette, New Jersey* Gillette, Wyoming* Gilette, Alpes-Maritimes, France* Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare, Minnesota hospital...
Venus ladies' shaving kits in Japan in 2005.
On July 11, 2008, hitomi revealed on her blog that she has remarried on June 30 and is pregnant. She also announced this during the a-nation concert in Ajinomoto Stadium on August 30, 2008.
hitomi released a new digital single called
Fight for Your Run☆. A limited edition was released on August 20, 2008, and the other edition was released on August 27, 2008.
hitomi gave birth to a baby girl on December 23, 2008. Her first single of 2009,
World! Wide! Love!"World! Wide! Love!" is the 33rd physical single and 34th single overall by Japanese singer-songwriter hitomi and was released on May 20, 2009 by Avex Trax...
, was released on May 20, 2009; Hitomi's ninth
studio albumA studio album is an original collection of new tracks by a recording artist.It usually does not contain live recordings and/or remixes, and if it does, those tracks do not make up majority of the album and are often "bonus tracks"...
,
Love Life 2Love Life 2 is the ninth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter hitomi, released on June 24, 2009 by hitomi's sub-label of Avex Trax, Love Life Records. It was originally to be released June 10, 2009, but was pushed back for promotional reasons. The first pressing of the album came with an...
, was released in June 24, 2009. This album is a spiritual successor to her 2000 album,
Love Life.
External links