Angela Aki
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
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Angela Aki
- Genres: Rock
Biography
Angela Aki is a Japanese singer/songwriter who specializes in piano-based pop/rock. She achieved fame after doing a theme song for the Final Fantasy XII game in 2006, although her career was underway for quite a while before that, starting on the other side of the Pacific -- which is not surprising, considering that Aki is the daughter of a successful Japanese businessman and an American of Italian origin. Born in 1997 in Itama, Japan, as Kiyomi Aki, she received musical education since the age of three, being taught to play piano, violin, guitar, and even drums. When she was 15 years old her family moved to Hawaii, where she graduated from high school, earning a scholarship for a Washington university. She combined political and jazz majors, but her fate was actually decided by a Sarah McLachlan show that she attended, leaving with a desire to become a singer/songwriter. She started performing in coffeehouses and soon met Tony Alany, who would be her first husband and the producer of her debut indie record, 2000's These Words (with lyrics in English). Aki had achieved moderate success, opening for Sixpence None the Richer and performing at Al Gore's Christmas party, but in the end she quit the American scene and returned to Japan, ending her first marriage not long before that.Aki's first Japanese release was the mini-album One, out in 2005. It topped HMV's yearly indie charts and, more importantly, attracted the composer Nobuo Uematsu, who let her record his song written for Final Fantasy XII. Aki composes her own material, but that was too good a chance to pass up, and so, after having a couple of moderately successful singles, she wrote lyrics and sang on "Kiss Me Good-Bye" (2006), which reached number six on the Oricon charts and saw a U.S. release through Tofu Records. Aki's long-expected Japanese full-length debut was preceded by her fourth single, "This Love," used in the anime series Blood+ and scoring number two on the charts. The album Home was delivered in mid-2006 through Sony Music and sold more than 500,000 units, securing Aki's status as a top-tier performer. Her fifth single, "Sakura Iro" (2007), sold more than 100,000 copies; she did a campaign song for the Japanese Football League, played the Budokan, and got a commission for the drama Kodoku No Kake: Itoshiki Hito Yo (the song "Kodoku No Kakera"). In between these activities she also found time to get married to a person from the music industry who is 12 years her senior (his name has not been disclosed). Her second Japanese album, Today, was released in the autumn of 2007, topping the charts immediately and selling almost 200,000 units. ~ Alexey Eremenko, Rovi
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Angela Aki
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| Angela Aki | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kiyomi Angela Aki 安藝 聖世美 アンジェラ |
| Born | September 15, 1977 Itano, Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, guitar |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | Tofu Records |
| Website | www.angela-aki.com (Japanese) |
Angela Aki (アンジェラ・アキ Anjera Aki), born Kiyomi Angela Aki (安藝 聖世美 アンジェラ Aki Kiyomi Anjera) on September 15, 1977, is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist from Itano, Tokushima, Japan.[1]
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Contents
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Biography
Early life
Aki was born in the small town of Itano, population 14,600, in the mostly rural island of Shikoku, to a Japanese father and Italian-American mother.[1][2] She is the daughter of Kiyoshi Aki, the owner and co-founder of Aeon Corporation, a large eikaiwa (English conversation) chain of schools in Japan.
Aki began to take piano lessons when she was three years old and lived in Tokushima through sixth grade, and spent her junior high school days in Okayama. She has admitted that growing up mixed-race in rural Japan proved very difficult and she turned to the piano as an escape from the isolation she felt. She grew up listening to a mix of enka, The Carpenters and The Bee Gees.[1]
Aki moved to Hawaii when she was fifteen years old and graduated from Iolani School-she speaks English and Japanese.[1] She was immersed in music there for four years. She graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and majored in political science[1]
Personal life
Aki's first marriage was to an engineer, producer and artist Tony Alany, who co-produced her first album These Words in Vienna, VA, US. On March 9, 2007, Aki announced that she had married Japanese A&R director and publisher Taro Hamano, and made public that she had been briefly married previously and got divorced.[3] In September of 2011, she announced that she was pregnant.[4] In February of 2012, she announced that she had given birth to her first child, a baby boy.[5]
She is good friends with J-Pop star Yuna Ito. Both singers attended the same Japanese language school.
Janis Ian is her mentor and friend.
Career
Beginnings
In 1997, Aki went to a Sarah McLachlan concert at age 20 and felt that she wanted to go into the music world, deciding to become a singer-songwriter. In 2000, she released an indie's album in the United States, called "These Words". After graduation from university, she found a job in Washington, D.C. and worked as a secretary. She could not give up her dream of being a singer, however, and quit her job in 2001. She worked as a waitress for 2 dollars 13 cents during the day, and she played songs at night at a nightclub. Aki briefly married her first album’s engineer in Vienna, VA. In 2002, she composed two tracks for "Let It Fall" by Dianne Eclar, a teenage pop singer from the Philippines.
Debut in Japan
After producing commercial music for several Japanese companies, including one for milk product Yakult which was sung by US Jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott, she decided to move back to Japan. On September 27, 2003, Aki saw Shiina Ringo's concert in Nippon Budokan Hall, and promised herself she would perform at the same place within three years, even though she was unheard of, had not yet been offered a contract with any record label, nor had she made an album or major debut. She performed live in many small venues and bars in Tokyo while working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant,[1] wrote 100 or more songs, and also made several demo CDs. In 2005, she released an independent mini-album under Virgo Music entitled "One," which was the #1 selling Indies album of 2005. This alerted Nobuo Uematsu to her music, and he asked her to write lyrics and perform the theme song for Final Fantasy XII, "Kiss Me Good-Bye".
She contracted with Epic Records and made her major debut with the single "HOME" in September, 2005. The album sold over half a million copies and reached #2 on the Oricon charts.[1]
On December 26, 2006, she held a concert in Nippon Budokan Hall, making history there as the first artist to ever perform in the famous venue solo (with just her piano) -- no backup singers, band or opening act.
Reaching an English audience (2006-2007)
In May 2006, Angela signed with Tofu Records in order to release English singles and albums. Her first release with Tofu was "Kiss Me Good-Bye" as a digital single in the USA, with a slightly altered track list. Later that month she performed the Final Fantasy XII theme song, "Kiss Me Good-Bye" at the premiere PLAY! A Video Game Symphony concert in Chicago on May 27, 2006. With orchestral backup, she played piano and sang the English lyrics, which she had written herself. She also performed a cover version of Faye Wong's "Eyes On Me", the theme song of Final Fantasy VIII, with her piano accompaniment.
In 2007 Aki's second major label album, Today, reached #1.[1]
Recent career (2009-2012)
In February 2009 Aki released her third full album in Japan, Answer, the first she produced entirely by herself.[1]
Angela Aki was chosen to sing Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with her original Japanese lyrics for the movie Heaven's Door and was chosen to write and perform the theme song titled “Ai no Kisetsu” for the NHK morning drama “Tsubasa” broadcast from March 30, 2009.
On September of 2010 Aki released her fourth full album in Japan, Life, and then in 2011 released her fifth full album White
Songbook, a cover album by Aki was released on January 11, 2012.
Discography
Main article: Angela Aki discography
Albums |
RIAJ certified singles
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References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Robert Michael Poole (2009-02-27). "Angela Aki turns to the keys for answers". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20090227r1.html.
- ^ Robert Michael Poole (2008-09-12). "She, herself and AI sidebar: Mixed blessings". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20080912a1.html.
- ^ Marriage announcement on Aki's blog 2007-03-09
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
External links
- Official Site (Japanese)
- Angela Aki - italian FanSite (Italian)
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Mentioned in
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(2007 Album by Kobukuro)
Home
(2005 Album by Angela Aki)
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(2007 Album by Tokyo Jihen)
Today
(2007 Album by Angela Aki)
Today [Bonus DVD]
(2007 Album by Angela Aki)
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