Kumi Koda

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Koda Kumi is a pop singer. She debuted as a singer in 2000 with her single, "TAKE BACK", but did not achieve success until her seventh single, "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba", which was a hit because of its connection with the Playstation 2 videogame, Final Fantasy X-2. People note 2005 the year Koda became really popular in Japan after being named one of the best selling artists from a singles compilation album named "BEST ~first things~" and after winning several awards that year.

As a child her grandfather taught her Japanese bamboo flute and her mother taught her Japanese harp. Their influence helped Kumi become a success. She started practicing classical Japanese dance at the age of three which inspired her interest in performing, and singing in particular.

The first time she auditioned was when in her 3rd grade year of primary school. While attending Kyoto Seika High School for young women, Koda auditioned alongside Maki Goto for the 3rd generation of the Japanese group of entertainers known as Morning Musume, but she was not selected. It was not until 2000 until she was able to pursue a singing career. Koda won the "Avex Dream 2000" audition held by Avex Trax and was signed to Rhythm Zone, the urban sublabel of Avex.

She made her debut as a professional singer on December 6, 2000 with her single, "TAKE BACK", but the single sold poorly and failed to chart. The single was also released in the United States in March 2001 and debuted #20 at the Billboard Hot Dance Music Sales, which can be considered a general flop. Instead of focusing on a possibly lucrative American career, Koda placed emphasis on reaching the top in the local charts.

Koda followed up with a single called "Trust Your Love" ? also released in the United States and the last released by her ? which held the 19th position in Billboard's Hot 100 singles sales chart and went to number one in Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. Two more singles were released, "COLOR OF SOUL" and "So Into You".

After releasing her first four singles, Koda collaborated with Korean pop singer BoA to sing a song to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. BoA and Kumi contributed the single the meaning of peace, produced by Tetsuya Komuro. Their song also appeared in the charity album, SONGNATION. She also released her debut studio album, affection, on March 27, 2002, which flopped. She stated that she did not contribute to this album other than singing, because she "didn't care which songs she could sing as long as she was able to sing".

Koda remained active despite commercial failures of her previous works. In the summer of 2002, she released her 5th single "love across the ocean". While satisfied with the single, the single failed to bring her success. It debuted at #19 on the Oricon weekly charts and quickly disappeared.Unfortunately for Koda, her 6th single, "m·a·z·e" fared worse on the charts than "love across the ocean", peaking at #25 and garnering ten thousand less sales.

Koda enjoyed the first success in her career with the release of "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba". Both songs were the main vocal themes for the video game, Final Fantasy X-2, which voiced Lenne in the Japanese version of the game. The single debuted third at the Oricon weekly chart; it was her most successful single to this date and outsold all her previous singles and albums combined.

"With the success of "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba", Koda realized she had to adjust her attitude as an artist and the way she presented herself to achieve success she wanted. As a result, she began to care more about her looks, especially her weight.

The release of her second studio album, titled "grow into one", was announced after "real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba". This time, she grew more determined to assert her musical style and personal feelings into the album. In the end, the album became a modest-sized success as a top ten album and sold 191,033 copies.

Koda continued to release a string of top twenty hits with "COME WITH ME", "Gentle Words", and "Crazy 4 U". "COME WITH ME" sold 42,000 copies, making it the best performing single of her "feel my mind" album.

During the recording session of her third album "feel my mind", she started listening to international musicians. This influenced her music and led to more R&B and Hip-Hop influences in her next album. While Avex was doing the mastering of the album, Koda was asked to sing the theme song of anime series "Cutie Honey". She recorded it in the final recording session and had it included as a bonus track on "feel my mind".

"Cutie Honey", previously a bonus track off feel my mind, was made available as the title track on her next single, LOVE&HONEY, released May 2004.

Her success continued with her first ballad single, titled "Kiseki", a hit in Japan. Koda said she noticed an important fact as she was recording her 4th album, listening to her fans. She thought her fans liked songs to have complicated meanings, or to be technically "cool", but some fans told her that straightforward, frank songs were the songs they loved most. She decided "to just have fun" recording her 4th studio album "secret", released in February 2005. The album charted third on Oricon Top 200 Charts, higher than her previous albums, and was her first top five Oricon release. Compared to her past album releases, "secret" was a breakout success.

After secret, Koda released "Butterfly", her 16th single. This is her highest charting single at this point in her career, debuting second on the weekly Oricon charts. The single had a great reception from the Japanese public; the single ended up ranking fifth in the monthly charts, Koda won the Grand Prix prize for the single at the 47th Nihon Record Taishou and Japan Gold Disc Awards, and it was named song of the year for 2005. [Sanspo.com]

She continued to release two more singles, flower and Promise / Star, which both peaked at fourth in the weekly Oricon charts, continuing her string of top ten hits before releasing her first Best Of collection of her singles, which served as a monument of her achievement and evolution in five years as an artist. Titled "BEST ~first things~", it was released on September 21, 2005 and ranked second to Mr. Children's I?U album, even though Koda's album took the top position in the daily charts after four days of charting.

In December 2005, Koda began a project called the “~12 Singles~ Collection” in which she released twelve singles for twelve consecutive weeks. Nine of the singles were limited to 50,000 copies while three of the singles remained normal editions (for future references, a “maxi single”). If all twelve singles were purchased, the cases could be put together to form a bigger image of Koda from the OBI strips and the back covers.

The first single of the project, a maxi single titled “you”, ranked first on the Oricon weekly charts, selling 72,000 copies, and gave Koda her first ever single to hit the top spot in the weekly charts. The following week, “Birthday Eve” was released and charted sixth in the weekly charts right after “you”. This marked the first time a female singer ever landing two singles in the top ten in the same week after Ai Otsuka accomplished it with her “Sakuranbo” and “Amaenbo” singles in March 2004. “D.D.D. feat. SOULHEAD”, the next single after Birthday Eve, charted second, and sold nearly all copies that were available.

The next two singles, “Shake It Up” and “Lies”, respectively released December 28, 2005, and January 4, 2006, grabbed the sixth and seventh position while “you” was still charting at ninth position.

The ~12 Singles~ Collection ended with the release of the maxi single, "Someday/Boys?Girls", and later with the "00" single of the collection, "Get It On", released exclusively online via cellphone.

.Because Koda’s project was a massive success, her management followed it up by wrapping all of the twelve singles in one best album: BEST~second session~. The album contained all the title tracks of the ~12 Singles~ Collection, with the exception of Boys?Girls, and included all the music videos of the project. The album came in three versions: a CD-only version, a CD+DVD version, and a limited CD+2DVD version. The extra DVD in the CD+2DVD version contains footage of from her first live tour in Japan, specifically footage from her tour performance at Osaka.

Koda's first single after the ~12 Singles~ Collection was "Koi no Tsubomi", released in May 2006. It charted second in its debut week with sales of 140,000 copies sold.

After the release of Koi no Tsubomi, there were news of Koda's first photobook in the making. The photobook was confirmed and titled "MAROC" and photographed by Leslie Kee in Morocco. It was later revealed that the photobook will be tied with her quadruple A-side 32nd single, 4 hot wave. Both items were released on the same date and have similar covers.

The single "Yume no Uta / Futari de..." (Dream Song/Two of us...) was released on October 18, 2006. It was named the "2 Story Ballad", and was released in CD and CD+DVD format. The first pressing for the CD+DVD version contained one of nine special photo liners, two bonus tracks, and a special 8 page booklet, available only in the CD-only version.

The "2 Story Ballad" single originally started out as a single song about "happy love". When Koda listened to the original melody given to her, she commented that the melody had both the elements of happiness and sadness. As a result, she collaborated with her staff on producing two songs but with the same melody, and her staff agreed to it. She wrote another set of lyrics for the song to represent sadness. This is the first single Koda has control over; she wrote the lyrics, chose the outfits, and produced the concepts for the videos of both songs.

After the success of "Yume no Uta / Futari de...", Koda Kumi & EXILE released their duet covering a pop classic called "WON'T BE LONG", by the Bubblegum Brothers.

Not long after, her 34th single, Cherry Girl / Unmei, was scheduled for release on December 6, 2006. Two weeks after the release of Cherry Girl / Unmei, Koda's 5th studio album titled "Black Cherry" will be released. The album has three versions: the CD-only version, the CD+DVD version, and the limited CD+2DVD version.

The album includes her singles from 2006: Koi no Tsubomi, 4 hot wave, Yume no Uta / Futari de..., and Cherry Girl / Unmei, with the exception of Yume no Uta / Futari de... in which Futari de... will be excluded from the album. The number of tracks is totaled to fifteen, which is raised to eighteen in first pressings of the album. Announced on her official site, the last track on the album, "Milk Tea", will be Koda's first composition. Typical of album releases, the first DVD disc will contain all of Koda's music videos, including a video she made collaborating with Taiwanese singer "Show Luo" in their duet of the English version of "Twinkle". This video of Twinkle will be on both Koda's and Show Luo's albums. According to Koda's official site, the second DVD disc, available only in the limited CD+2DVD editions, contains "Cherry Girl", a drama starring herself. It also includes famous drama actors such as MEGUMI, Itou Yuuko, Takeda Masaharu, Hoshino Mari and Hamada Mari.

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