Yui (born March 26, 1987), stylized as YUI, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, actress and radio personality. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she played live at various locations in her hometown before being noticed by Sony Music Japan when she was 17 years old and released her debut single months later. However her singles were only met with moderate success until her breakout "Good-bye Days", which charted for 44 weeks on Oricon and marked her as one of the Japanese music industry's rising stars.[1]
Since her debut album, From Me to You, each of her albums has topped the charts, and has had at least one single reach number one yearly since 2007, including five straight from mid-2008 to late-2010.[2]
She is popular in Japan and in surrounding countries, ranking number one in 2011 Count Down TV "Dearest Female Artist"[3] and Music Station "Artist You Most Want to Marry"[4] polls, as well as Radio Television Hong Kong's "Most Popular Japanese Artist".[5]
Contents
Early life
Yui was born in Fukuoka, Japan. The Associated Press has reported that her full name is "Yui Yoshioka";[6][7] but Yui and her record label have not confirmed this. She grew up in a single-parent family; her father left her mother when she was three. She stated that she had always been close to music, as she would remember the beats from music she heard on the radio, and could sing it. By the time she was in elementary school she thought she would like to become a singer.[8]
Self-described as shy and horrible at talking to others as a child, she would play outside by herself in mountains, rivers, by the sea and in rice paddies.[9] In her third year, she was influenced by her mother to begin writing a journal of her feelings and tried to compose them into poems. By the time she was in high school, she began to write songs, and she thought of that as being managing to be able express herself little by little.[9][10] While in high school, she worked part-time at a Chinese restaurant to help pay for tuition. With her workload, she thought she no longer had the time to realize her dreams of a music career. For example, between music, school and work, she only had one or two hours of sleep; she would eventually get ill.[11] While in the hospital, she was overwhelmed with the desire to make music and finally decided that school and music could not coexist.[11]
Soon after leaving the hospital, she got a chance to see her first live street performance.[11] She expressed a desire to pursue a musical career to the band, Bianco Nero, at the end of the concert. The band advised Yui to join a private music school. Despite the social norm of finishing school in Japan and discouragement from her teachers, Yui did not hesitate to drop out of high school and began to study guitar and songwriting at a juku (cram school) in her hometown of Fukuoka.[11][12] Aspiring to become a professional, she took to street performing at Fukuoka's Tenjin Station. These street performances helped Yui to overcome her shyness.
Initial career
Her professional career began in March 2004 when, at the recommendation of her cram school instructors, she applied for an audition hosted by Sony Music Japan.[13] Despite the audition rule that a participant could only perform two songs, Yui was allowed to sing three. She first sang "Why Me" (a song later included in her debut Sony Records single), followed by "It's Happy Line" and "I Know". The judges gave her the maximum score. Because "I Know" was incomplete at the time, the judges were able to get a glimpse of what would later be dubbed "Yui-go" (YUI語?)", or Yui-speak, nonsensical English hummed to a tune during her songwriting process – an example of Yui-go can be found in the film Song of the Sun when Yui is working on the song "Goodbye Days".
On December 24, 2004, she released her debut single, "It's Happy Line", under the indie label Leaflet Records, coupled with the track "I Know". The pressing was limited to only 2,000 copies in her home area.
From Me to You (2005–2006)
Upon leaving her hometown in Fukuoka for Tokyo, Yui wrote the song "Feel My Soul" as a tribute to her hometown. Although she initially had planned its release on an indie label, Fuji Television producer Yamaguchi was so inspired by Yui's voice that he insisted on having her work on the music for his primetime drama Fukigen na Gene even before she released her first major single.[14] The music in Fukigen na Gene was eventually based on her songs "Feel My Soul" and "It's Happy Line".
On February 23, Yui released her first major debut single "Feel My Soul". With the publicity the drama tie-in drew in, "Feel My Soul" managed to sell over 100,000 copies and managed to chart at number 8 on Oricon Weekly Charts in its first week. Her next three singles, "Tomorrow's Way" (theme song for the movie Hinokio), "Life" (5th ending theme for the Bleach anime), and "Tokyo" did not chart as high as "Feel My Soul", and were only moderately successful in comparison.
After the release of four singles, Yui released her debut album, titled From Me to You, a moderate success with sales of more than 200,000 copies.
Can't Buy My Love (2006–2007)
Yui made her acting debut in the full-length feature film Song of the Sun (Taiyou no uta, タイヨウのうた),[15] which opened on June 17, 2006. The film was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.[16] She had a very unique way of approaching her role, such as imagining unscripted conversations between other characters and hers as well as staying in her character's room and fitting the aberrant sleeping patters of her character to give herself a sense of her role.[17][18] She would eventually attend the Japan Academy Prize and win the Best Newcomer Award for Midnight Sun. Prior to the release of the movie, Yui released her fifth single "Good-bye Days" written specifically for the film. The single is thus so far her highest selling at more than 200,000 copies sold. All three tracks on the single are featured in Midnight Sun. The single also re-released the track "It's Happy Line", originally released on her debut single.
Her next single, "I Remember You", did well in terms of sales, riding on the wave of the popularity of "Good-bye Days". Yui's seventh single "Rolling Star" was chosen as the 5th opening theme for the Bleach anime. Her eighth single, "Cherry" was featured in commercial promoting KDDI, a Listen Mobile Service.
She released her second album Can't Buy My Love on April 4, 2007. The album spending two weeks at number 1 on the Oricon charts, shattering her entire previous album's record sales in one week. Can't Buy My Love managed to sell over 680,000 copies. Due to the success of Can't Buy My Love, Yui's previous album, From Me to You charted once again, adding another 9,000 copies to the Oricon counting.
I Loved Yesterday (2007–2008)
Yui released her 9th single "My Generation/Understand" on June 13, 2007. It was her first double A-side single. "My Generation" was selected as the ending theme for the TV drama Seito Shokun!, and "Understand" was chosen as the theme song for the movie Dog in a Sidecar (サイドカーに犬),[19] (starring her senpai at Stardust Promotion, Yūko Takeuchi). The single charted at number 1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts the first week of its release.
Her tenth single, "Love & Truth" was released on September 26, 2007. The title track is the theme song to the film Closed Note (クローズド・ノート) (starring Erika Sawajiri, also of Stardust).
During this time, her previous two albums were re-released as Winter Sleeve Editions in alternative covers taken from her "Love & Truth" photoshoot. Her first live concert DVD Thank You My Teens was released on November 14, 2007, which contained footage of her second live concert tour.
On November 19, 2007, Yui opened her first live show at Nippon Budokan, which promptly sold out.[20] The Budokan concert was structured similar to a live performance, which a writer from B-Pass called it fitting considering her beginnings as a street performer on the streets of Fukuoka.[20]
Yui started 2008 with her eleventh single, "Namidairo", released on February 27, 2008.[21] Yui composed the song as a "mysterious and sad sounding" insert for the television drama 4 Shimai Tantei Dan. The chorus of the song was incidentally written by Yui long ago, during her singing debut.
A week following the release of her 11th single, the promotional video of a new song "Laugh Away", was released. The song was used in Glico's "Watering KissMint" commercial. "Laugh Away" was released as a digital single on March 10, 2008.
Her third studio album was released on April 9, 2008 titled I Loved Yesterday. It quickly charted at number 1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and sold more than 400,000 copies, only a little behind her second album. The 10th track on the album, titled "Oh Yeah", was used as the opening theme to Mezamashi TV, a morning television show. The limited edition version of the album included a DVD which contained music videos of her previous singles and live footage of her Nippon Budokan show. The album was composed mainly of semi-ballads with much of the same themes as her previous releases such as youth.[22]
Yui's third tour, named "Oui: I Loved Yesterday'" started in May 2008 and ran until July.[23]
My Short Stories/Holidays in the Sun (2008–2010)
On July 2, 2008, Yui released "Summer Song"[24] again charting at number 1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts. "Summer Song" sold 83,440 copies in a week, making "Summer Song" second highest in first week sales after "Love & Truth."
Yui released her B-side compilation album, My Short Stories,[25] on November 12, 2008, which charted at number 1 on Oricon. The album included all the B-side tracks of all her singles to date, along with a new song "I'll Be".[26] Yui is the second female artist whose B-side compilation album topped the charts, after Seiko Matsuda's Touch Me in 1984. The last compilation album that reached No. 1 was Mr. Children's B-Side in May 2007. On the success of "My Short Stories", sales of her first album From Me to You rose again.
In her "Yui Diary" blog entry on August 29, 2008, Yui mentioned that she would put her career on hold, not making any public appearances after the release of the album. With this break, she would be able to fully concentrate on her plans for the next year. During this break, she co-wrote the song "I Do It" with Okinawa girl band Stereopony. It was released as Stereopony's third single on April 22, 2009.[27]
Yui announced her return from her 5-month hiatus on March 25, 2009 on her official website. The single celebrating her return is an up-tempo tune titled "Again." The track was chosen as the first opening theme of the new season of the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood anime, premiered on April 5, 2009. The single was released on June 3, 2009.[28] "Again" debuted atop the Oricon charts, selling over 110,000 copies in its first week. It currently has the highest opening week sales for a female act in 2009.[29]
Her website Yui-net.com announced the release of her second double-A side single named "It's All Too Much/Never Say Die" on July 27, 2009. The two songs were featured in the movie adaptation of Kaiji as both a theme and an insert song.[30] The single was released on October 7, 2009 and Kaiji released on October 10, 2009. The single debuted at number 1, selling 75,000 copies in its first week of sales. This is her fifth overall number 1 single. Yui released "Gloria" on January 20, 2010. It was another chart-topper, selling 80,000 copies in the first week. Her next single, "To Mother," was released on June 2, 2010.
On July 14, 2010, Yui released her fourth studio album Holidays in the Sun, which included her five singles from "Summer Song" to "To Mother". It became her fourth straight album to top the Oricon charts, eventually selling over 300,000 copies, and attained the certification of Platinum.[31][32]
How Crazy Your Love (2010–present)
Her single "Rain" was released on November 24, 2010.[33] Yui's released a double-A side of "It's My Life/Your Heaven," on January 26, 2011. Yui traveled to Sweden for the shooting of the "Your Heaven" music video and a short movie showing Yui's journey to various places and shops in Sweden.
Yui's tour DVD, Holidays in the Sun was released on March 9. Her newest single, "Hello (Paradise Kiss)", was released on June 1, 2011, the A-side and B-side being theme song and ending song, respectively, of the live-action movie "Paradise Kiss". On June 16, 2011, Yui traveled to Hong Kong for her first overseas concert at the AsiaWorld-Expo Arena, performing to a capacity audience of 14,000 people.[34]
Yui visited schools in stricken areas from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on July 7, 2011, and performed a charity concert. Her single "Green a.Live" uses the emotions and thoughts she felt from the visit, and was released on October 5, 2011.[35] It was previewed on the Tokyo FM radio show School of Lock on August 22.[36] "Green a.Live" debuted on top of the charts, and became her first number one single since July 2010.
On November 2, 2011, Yui's album How Crazy Your Love was released. The album debuted at number one on the daily charts, selling just under 50,000 copies on the first day of release, and would go on to reach number one on the weekly charts – making How Crazy Your Love her fifth straight album to debut at the weekly number one.[37][38] Yui started her fifth major tour on November 11, 2011 to promote her recent album.[39] It has cruising as the major theme.[40]
Yui's upcoming single was announced through her participation in Ncon (Nコン), a national school music competition where schools compete to provide their best rendition of songs composed by select artists for a specific theme for that year.[41] Yui was selected to compose for the middle school category. The song was eventually revealed as "fight" on R no Housoku (Rの法則), and was released on September 5, 2012.[42]
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