Hitomi
Encyclopedia
better known by her stagename , is a Japanese singer and songwriter
. She began her career as model, and after meeting Tetsuya Komuro
he began managing her career as a pop
singer. In 1998 she left the Komuro Family and started working with other musicians and producers, oriented to other musical genres such as pop rock
, and more recently to electropop
.
, Japan
, Hitomi's family relocated to Kawasaki
, Kanagawa Prefecture
when she was a child. Consequently hitomi always identified herself as a girl from Kanagawa. hitomi was an enthusiastic athlete throughout her childhood, playing baseball
, soccer, and basketball
, as well as an avid reader of manga
. When hitomi was 16 years old, she was spotted and approached by a scout from a modelling agency. hitomi signed a short modelling contract and began appearing in magazines while she was still in high school
.
In 1993, then 17 years old, Furuya was spotted by eminent Avex music producer Tetsuya Komuro
at an audition. Komuro signed Furuya to Avex, put Furuya through vocal training, and decided that she should use an all-lowercase 'hitomi' as her stage name. The following year, in November 1994, hitomi released her debut single, "Let's Play Winter
", through Avex Trax
, to which she wrote the lyrics. Since then, hitomi has been the lyricist for almost all of her songs.
" were considerable failures, her third single "Candy Girl" was used as the theme for a Kodak CM, and secured a top 20 spot on the Japanese Oricon
music chart. Subsequent singles "By Myself" and "Busy Now" established hitomi, barely out of her teens, as one to watch in Japanese entertainment. By Myself, hitomi's second album released in 1996, became her first musical work to debut at number one on the Oricon charts, and selling more than 800,000 copies it became her biggest selling album to date.
After three studio albums and twelve singles, Komuro and hitomi went their separate ways in 1998, and in 1999 she released her first greatest hits album, entitled H, that peaked at number one on the Japanese charts and sold more than a 500 thousand copies.
In 2000, she gained much public attention after her single "Love 2000" was used as the image song of runner Naoko Takahashi
, who became popular in Japan after winning the gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics
. This helped the song to get a lot of airplay, and the song became a commercial success, giving hitomi at the end of that year the chance to perform the song at the annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen
. Her Love Life
album released around that same time also caught attention within the Japanese entertainment because of its cover: hitomi appeared naked covering her breasts with her arms.
During some routine medical examination, she seemed to have some abnormalities, and after further examinations hitomi was discovered to have a small ovarian tumor
. Since it was a benign one, it was easy to remove, and hitomi went to a successful surgical remove in late November 2002. hitomi could return to her normal activities very quickly, and in December 1, 2002 she married a businessman. They got divorced in November 2007, and never had children. During this period as a married woman, her legal name changed to .
. The concert tour she subsequently embarked upon was a huge success, and she played to packed arenas at almost every stop. As the 10th anniversary of hitomi's debut came in 2005, she opened her own record label, Love Life Records, which functioned as a subdivision of Avex. The first single to be released from the label was "Japanese Girl", her 28th single, which also marked a change in hitomi's style and looks, much more modern dance-oriented and sexy, than any of her previous works.
In 2007, she got her first lead role in the movie Akumu Tantei, and also participated in her first musical: Waiting For The Sun: Tenkimachi. On December 5, 2007 hitomi's singles compilation album Peace was released to celebrate her 13th anniversary. On July 11, 2008, hitomi revealed on her blog
that she had got married again, this time to actor Masayoshi Haneda, and that she was 4 months pregnant. She released a new digital single called "Fight for Your Run☆" in August 2008. On December 23, 2008 she gave birth to a baby girl.
After a year on hiatus, hitomi released a new single, "World! Wide! Love!
", on May 20, 2009, and a month later she released her ninth studio album, Love Life 2
. This album was a spiritual successor to her 2000 album Love Life, with hitomi once again nude on the cover of it, but this time pregnant with her child.
On April 5, 2011, it was announced that hitomi had left the Avex major label and had signed to Maximum 10, an independent
label, although still affiliated to the Avex company, and owned by post-hardcore
band Fact
. On April 27, hitomi's tenth studio album and first indie album, Spirit
, was released, and featured mainly productions of western artists such as Rivers Cuomo
from Weezer
, Chuck Comeau
and Pierre Bouvier
from Simple Plan
, and Gabe Saporta
from Cobra Starship
. In June, hitomi started her Live Tour 2011: Spirit, her first live tour in five years.
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. She began her career as model, and after meeting Tetsuya Komuro
Tetsuya Komuro
, also known as TK, is a Japanese keyboardist, guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer born on November 27, 1958 in Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan. He is recognized as being the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced dance music to the Japanese mainstream...
he began managing her career as a pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singer. In 1998 she left the Komuro Family and started working with other musicians and producers, oriented to other musical genres such as pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
, and more recently to electropop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
.
Early life
Born in TochigiTochigi, Tochigi
is a city located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Despite its name, it is not the capital of Tochigi Prefecture; the capital is Utsunomiya.The city took its current form on March 29, 2010 when the old city of Tochigi merged with the towns of Fujioka, Ōhira and Tsuga from Shimotsuga District to form...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Hitomi's family relocated to Kawasaki
Kawasaki, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, between Tokyo and Yokohama. It is the 9th most populated city in Japan and one of the main cities forming the Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area....
, Kanagawa Prefecture
Kanagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...
when she was a child. Consequently hitomi always identified herself as a girl from Kanagawa. hitomi was an enthusiastic athlete throughout her childhood, playing baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, soccer, and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, as well as an avid reader of manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
. When hitomi was 16 years old, she was spotted and approached by a scout from a modelling agency. hitomi signed a short modelling contract and began appearing in magazines while she was still in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
.
In 1993, then 17 years old, Furuya was spotted by eminent Avex music producer Tetsuya Komuro
Tetsuya Komuro
, also known as TK, is a Japanese keyboardist, guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer born on November 27, 1958 in Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan. He is recognized as being the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced dance music to the Japanese mainstream...
at an audition. Komuro signed Furuya to Avex, put Furuya through vocal training, and decided that she should use an all-lowercase 'hitomi' as her stage name. The following year, in November 1994, hitomi released her debut single, "Let's Play Winter
Let's Play Winter
"Let's Play Winter" is the debut single by Japanese singer-songwriter Hitomi and was released on November 28, 1994 by Avex Trax. It appears as a remixed version on her 1995 debut studio album Go to the Top and was later included in its original form on the 1999 best-of compilation H and the 2007...
", through Avex Trax
Avex Trax
, listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange as 7860 and abbreviated as AGHD, is the holding company for a group of entertainment-related subsidiaries based in Japan...
, to which she wrote the lyrics. Since then, hitomi has been the lyricist for almost all of her songs.
Debut and success
While her first two singles, "Let's Play Winter" and "We Are "Lonely Girl"We Are "Lonely Girl"
"We Are "Lonely Girl"" is the second single by Japanese singer-songwriter Hitomi and was released on February 22, 1995 by Avex Trax. It appears remixed on her debut studio album Go to the Top and in its original form on the 1999 best-of H and on the 2007 three disc set Peace.-Background:"We Are...
" were considerable failures, her third single "Candy Girl" was used as the theme for a Kodak CM, and secured a top 20 spot on the Japanese Oricon
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
music chart. Subsequent singles "By Myself" and "Busy Now" established hitomi, barely out of her teens, as one to watch in Japanese entertainment. By Myself, hitomi's second album released in 1996, became her first musical work to debut at number one on the Oricon charts, and selling more than 800,000 copies it became her biggest selling album to date.
After three studio albums and twelve singles, Komuro and hitomi went their separate ways in 1998, and in 1999 she released her first greatest hits album, entitled H, that peaked at number one on the Japanese charts and sold more than a 500 thousand copies.
In 2000, she gained much public attention after her single "Love 2000" was used as the image song of runner Naoko Takahashi
Naoko Takahashi
is a Japanese long-distance runner competing mainly in the marathon. She is widely known for her victory in the women's marathon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, a performance that stands as the current Olympic record. At the 2001 Berlin Marathon, Takahashi became the first woman to break the 2...
, who became popular in Japan after winning the gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
. This helped the song to get a lot of airplay, and the song became a commercial success, giving hitomi at the end of that year the chance to perform the song at the annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen
Kohaku Uta Gassen
, more commonly known as simply Kōhaku, is an annual music show on New Year's Eve produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK and broadcast on both television and radio, nationally and internationally by NHK's networks and some overseas broadcasters which bought the program...
. Her Love Life
Love Life (Hitomi album)
Love Life is the fifth studio album by Japanese singer Hitomi, released on December 13, 2000, by avex trax.- Description :Following the 1999 amicable split with her previous producer Tetsuya Komuro, hitomi was able to take more creative control of her album production...
album released around that same time also caught attention within the Japanese entertainment because of its cover: hitomi appeared naked covering her breasts with her arms.
During some routine medical examination, she seemed to have some abnormalities, and after further examinations hitomi was discovered to have a small ovarian tumor
Ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from the ovary. Symptoms are frequently very subtle early on and may include: bloating, pelvic pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination, and are easily confused with other illnesses....
. Since it was a benign one, it was easy to remove, and hitomi went to a successful surgical remove in late November 2002. hitomi could return to her normal activities very quickly, and in December 1, 2002 she married a businessman. They got divorced in November 2007, and never had children. During this period as a married woman, her legal name changed to .
2004–2009
After a one year and a half hiatus, in May 2004 hitomi released a new studio album, TravelerTraveler (Hitomi album)
-Charts and sales:Oricon sales charts...
. The concert tour she subsequently embarked upon was a huge success, and she played to packed arenas at almost every stop. As the 10th anniversary of hitomi's debut came in 2005, she opened her own record label, Love Life Records, which functioned as a subdivision of Avex. The first single to be released from the label was "Japanese Girl", her 28th single, which also marked a change in hitomi's style and looks, much more modern dance-oriented and sexy, than any of her previous works.
In 2007, she got her first lead role in the movie Akumu Tantei, and also participated in her first musical: Waiting For The Sun: Tenkimachi. On December 5, 2007 hitomi's singles compilation album Peace was released to celebrate her 13th anniversary. On July 11, 2008, hitomi revealed on her blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
that she had got married again, this time to actor Masayoshi Haneda, and that she was 4 months pregnant. She released a new digital single called "Fight for Your Run☆" in August 2008. On December 23, 2008 she gave birth to a baby girl.
After a year on hiatus, hitomi released a new single, "World! Wide! Love!
World! Wide! Love!
"World! Wide! Love!" is the 33rd physical single and 34th single overall by Japanese singer-songwriter Hitomi and was released on May 20, 2009 by Avex Trax...
", on May 20, 2009, and a month later she released her ninth studio album, Love Life 2
Love Life 2
Love Life 2 is the ninth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Hitomi, released on June 24, 2009, by Hitomi's sub-label of Avex Trax, Love Life Records. It was originally to be released June 10, 2009, but was pushed back for promotional reasons. The first pressing of the album came with an...
. This album was a spiritual successor to her 2000 album Love Life, with hitomi once again nude on the cover of it, but this time pregnant with her child.
2011: Departure from Avex and Indie start
hitomi's last single in the Avex label, "Umarete Kurete Arigato/Smile World", was released on February 16, 2011. This month she also inaugurated her own baby clothing brand called PomiPomi. On March 28, 2011 it was announced on hitomi's official website that two new songs, "Special" and "Guru Maze Yeah!" would be used in the NHK educative cartoon Hana Kappa, as opening and ending themes respectively, although these songs were never officially released.On April 5, 2011, it was announced that hitomi had left the Avex major label and had signed to Maximum 10, an independent
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
label, although still affiliated to the Avex company, and owned by post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
band Fact
Fact (band)
Fact is a Japanese post-hardcore band which formed in 1999 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Their music makes use of common hardcore punk and punk rock elements that include fast guitar riffs and a highly melodic style. Clean and screamed singing styles are both used, and gang vocals are present in...
. On April 27, hitomi's tenth studio album and first indie album, Spirit
Spirit (Hitomi album)
-Charts:Oricon Sales Chart...
, was released, and featured mainly productions of western artists such as Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Weezer. Raised in an Ashram in Connecticut, Cuomo moved to Los Angeles at age 19, where he participated in a number of rock bands before founding Weezer in 1992...
from Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
, Chuck Comeau
Chuck Comeau
Charles-André "Chuck" Comeau is a French Canadian musician, who is best known as the drummer for pop punk band Simple Plan.-Biography:Comeau started his music career in Reset with fellow bandmate Pierre Bouvier...
and Pierre Bouvier
Pierre Bouvier
Pierre Charles Bouvier is a French Canadian musician, who is best known as the lead singer for pop punk band Simple Plan.At the age of 13, he founded the punk rock band Reset with his best friend Chuck Comeau in which he was the bassist and lead vocalist. He eventually wasn't enjoying his role...
from Simple Plan
Simple Plan
Simple Plan is a Canadian pop punk band from Montréal, Québec. The band has had no line up changes since its inception in 1999. Members are Pierre Bouvier , Jeff Stinco , Sébastien Lefebvre , David Desrosiers and Chuck Comeau...
, and Gabe Saporta
Gabe Saporta
Gabriel Eduardo "Gabe" Saporta is the lead singer and primary creative force behind the synthpop band Cobra Starship. He was previously the lead singer, bassist, and lyricist for the pop punk band Midtown....
from Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York...
. In June, hitomi started her Live Tour 2011: Spirit, her first live tour in five years.
Studio albums
- 1995: Go to the Top
- 1996: By Myself
- 1997: Déjà-vuDéjà-vu (hitomi album)Déjà-vu is the third original album by Japanese singer Hitomi. Originally released on November 12, 1997, by avex trax, it reached #2 on the Oricon Top 200 and charted for 11 weeks.- Track listing :-External links:***...
- 1999: Thermo PlasticThermo plasticthermo plastic is the 1999 4th album by the Japanese singer Hitomi, release on the Avex Trax label.The tracks "Wish", "Kimi no Tonari", "Taion" and "There is..." were released as singles.-Track listing:-External links:*...
- 2000: Love LifeLove Life (Hitomi album)Love Life is the fifth studio album by Japanese singer Hitomi, released on December 13, 2000, by avex trax.- Description :Following the 1999 amicable split with her previous producer Tetsuya Komuro, hitomi was able to take more creative control of her album production...
- 2002: Huma-rhythmHuma-rhythmHuma-rhythm is the sixth studio album by Japanese singer Hitomi, released on January 30, 2002, by avex trax.The album was a commercial success for hitomi, having reached #1 in the weekly Oricon charts in Japan and charting for eight consecutive weeks....
- 2004: TravelerTraveler (Hitomi album)-Charts and sales:Oricon sales charts...
- 2006: Love ConcentLOVE CONCENTLove Concent is Hitomi's eighth studio album and eleventh album overall, released in 2006. This album is hitomi's first album since Traveler, which was released on May 12, 2004. This album features five singles — "Japanese Girl", "Love Angel", "Cra"g"y Mama", "Go My Way", and "Ai no Kotoba".All...
- 2009: Love Life 2Love Life 2Love Life 2 is the ninth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Hitomi, released on June 24, 2009, by Hitomi's sub-label of Avex Trax, Love Life Records. It was originally to be released June 10, 2009, but was pushed back for promotional reasons. The first pressing of the album came with an...
- 2011: SpiritSpirit (Hitomi album)-Charts:Oricon Sales Chart...