Ken Hirai
Ken Hirai (Japanese平井 坚, Hirai Ken, born January 17, 1972 in HigashiOsaka ) is a Japanese R & B and J- pop singer. Since his debut in 1992, he worked part-time as a model, actor and songwriter.
In his career, he sold a total of 13 million records. In the Oricon charts Hitomi was where tojite with nearly 900,000 copies, the biggest selling single of 2004 and 2006 also achieved its best-of album with 2 million selling # 1 on the charts of the year.
- 2.1 albums
- 2.2 Singles
Career
Ken Hirai was born on January 17, 1972 in Higashiosaka and grew up in Nabari. As a student, he took part in a nationwide audition of Sony Music Entertainment Japan and came in 1992 as the winner. His first single Precious Junk was the title song of the film drama Ousama no Restaurant and reached number 50 on the charts. After his second single Kataho zutsu no earphone, which also was the title song of a drama series, came out in July 1995, his album un -balanced and towards the end of next year his second album Stare At. However, the latter remained without charting.
1997-2000
After his first album Ken Hirai took to change a break to his style. He therefore published in 1997 and 1998, only one single and produced no new works until his third studio album The Changing Same on 21 June 2000. 's First single from this album was Rakuen, with whom he was also one of the most important singers of Japan. This was followed by an appearance at the Apollo Theater in New York and the price of Best New Japanese Act of MTV in Taiwan.
2001-2003
Ken Hirais Single Kiss of Life was released in 2001 and was used for the Love Revolution drama series known in Japan. His fourth album Gaining Through Losing sold in Asia over 1.5 million copies and was accompanied by a major tour. Then, his first remix album remixed Kh -up one that brought him the first time in the dance charts appeared.
2002 Ken Hirai was voted Best Male Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan and also appeared at the concert for the soccer World Cup in Japan. He released a cover of the well known Japanese songs Okina Furudokei and reaped it, opposite to the opinion of critics, a great success.
Ken Hirai joined in 2003 as the first male Japanese artist in New York at MTV Unplugged on and gave an interview to CNN The Music Room, which was broadcast to 230 million viewers in 210 countries. His fifth album, Life Is ... was released on 22 January 2003.
On December 10, 2003, he released his cover album Ken 's Bar, to be sung on the mainly well-known jazz and blues tracks from him.
2004-2006
In November 2004, his album Sentimental overs appeared with the single Hitomi where tojite, which became the biggest selling single of the year in Japan.
In 2005 he reached with the single pop star first success in the U.S. and Canada. The song was released for the Nintendo DS game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 and for the drama broadcast Kiken na Aneki. It is Ken Hirais best known and most successful single outside of Japan.
2007
Published in 2007, Ken Hirai two singles that both reached # 5 on the Oricon charts. On September 12, then appeared the single fake star. They sold only 30,000 times and thus became his worst single since his fresh start in 2000.