Kokia (singer)
Akiko Yoshida (Japanese吉田 亜 纪 子, Yoshida Akiko, born 22 July 1976 in Tokyo Prefecture, Japan ) is a Japanese singer- songwriter who under the stage name Kokia ( stylized as KOKIA written ) occurs. She was known by many music publications, of which a certain proportion of anime and computer games has been added.
- 2.1 albums
- 2.2 Singles
Curriculum vitae
Childhood and youth
Yoshida was born in 1976 in the prefecture of Tokyo, where she was raised by her mother. At the age of two and a half years, she began playing the violin, but preferred the familiar piano that they preferably other toys. By his own admission she could remember that she put pictures of books on the music desk and began to create music that could match the scene shown.
At the age of 10, she went with her sister Kyoko Yoshida, the Summer Music School in America, which she attended with 14 again. In high school, she put her focus on singing and opera music. Whereupon she chose opera at the Toho Gakuen Daigaku (桐 朋 学园 大学) as a main subject.
While she attended the University, gave one of her friends a trial recording of Yoshida to an employee by Pony Canyon on. Then she managed to sign a contract with the company and debuted in 1998, even as she attended the University. This was also the time when she is her stage name Kokia were they derived from the inverted syllables of her first name Akiko - a habit she had acquired from her childhood as a game. Their first release was the title For Little Tail, even if it never appeared on CD. Instead, he served as background music in the opening credits of the computer game Tail Concerto. Their first title, however, were not written by herself. They came from the pen of Hinata Toshifumi Kanno and Yōko. After the release of four singles they released in 1999 their debut album Songbird. In contrast to the previous singles now a majority of titles found again, which was written by Yoshida himself.
Still unknown did not reach these publications a higher ranking in the charts. Nevertheless, the title Arigato ... (ありがとうdt "Thank you ... " ... ) in Hong Kong was successful. So the title finished the "International Grand Prix of pop music Hong Kong" (Chinese香港 国际 流行 音乐 大奖/香港 国际 流行 音乐 大奖, Pinyin Xiānggǎng Guoji Liuxing Yinyue dà shǎng ) in 1999 to third place and was eventually replaced by Sammi Cheng in October gecovert year. Subsequently, the title became a hit in Hong Kong.
Victor Entertainment
After the release of their first album, the contract was set with Pony Canyon. There followed five titles in collaboration with Ryuichi Kawamura of Luna Sea vocalist in the project RKS ( ЯKS ) in 2000. The album was released by Victor Entertainment, from which the relations of Yoshida revealed to the Publisher. Beginning in 2001, she released three singles with her new contractor.
In parallel, Yoshida was known by various advertising campaigns in which their music was played. They also had their first appearances before a large audience. She played in the anti -drug concert together with the Four Heavenly Kings of Hong Kong entertainment (consisting of Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai ) in front of 30,000 spectators in Hong Kong and Taiwan to New Year 2001 even before 120,000 spectators. In January 2002, she released her second album, Trip Trip, which was now fully produced by her alone. However, this time the great success failed and none of the albums could achieve higher rankings in the Japanese charts.
However, in 2003, her breakthrough came. Their single Kawaranai Koto - Since 1976 was played in the series Itoshiki Mono e (愛しき 者 へ) in the opening credits for the first time and reached the top 50 An even greater success the single The Power of Smile / Remember the Kiss should be, their music in a commercial for hair care by KAO was used. Accompanied by the request in the popular music show Music Station to occur, the single reached the Top 20 in Japan and reached gold status with the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The subsequent album Remember Me also reached the Top 20 and it sold more than 45,000 copies.
Meanwhile, experienced their recorded still under Pony Canyon Title I Catch a Cold and Shiroi Yuki (白い 雪) a debut in the soundtrack of the Chinese series Haitunwan Lianren (Chinese海豚湾恋人, Pinyin hǎitúnwān liànrén ). At the same time they were also the end of Yoshida's active participation in the Chinese music market.
Their fourth album Uta ga Chikara turn was less successful, and it sold 20,000 copies. However, the title and the eponymous single Yume ga Chikara used by the Japanese team at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was to motivate. In February 2006, published Toshida the collections Pearl: The Best Collection and Jewel: The Best Video Collection. The former reached the 19th place on the charts and is the most recent release, which was to be found in the top 20.
Anco & Co., France
Since 2006, Yoshida began to break away from Victor Entertainment and went into the European music market. In January, she held her first concert in Paris and appeared at the Midem. Similarly, the album was Pearl: The Best Collection in France and Spain already one month before the Japan release available. Finally they broke their relationship with Victor in June 2006 and founded the independent company Anco & Co.. The reason she called the desire more control over their own creativity to have. Since November, she worked closely with the French specialized resellers Anime Wasabi Records, where she her 5th album Aigakikoeru: published lists for the Love. As a result, the album did not appear until six months later in Japan.
Nevertheless, they continue to publish music to Japanese productions. So in November 2007, the single Follow the Nightingale appeared to the franchise Tales of Innocence and reached number 30 in the Japanese charts. Since then she has published more albums, which differed thematically more from the original themes.
For its tenth anniversary on stage, she published on March 18, 2009, two albums Kokia ∞ Akiko - Balance and Akiko ∞ Kokia - Balance and went on their world tour KOKIA world tour 2009 「 ∞ 」 Infinity, which began in Shibuya and they also to France, Ireland, Poland, Belgium and Germany led.
Discography
Albums
Studio albums
Other albums
- 2006: Pearl - The Best Collection
- 2008: KOKIA complete collection 1998-1999
- 2009: Coquillage - The Best Collection II