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Nanase Aikawa

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Nanase Aikawa's album R.U.O.K.
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Nanase Aikawa's album R.U.O.K.

Nanase Aikawa (相川七瀬 Aikawa Nanase, born February 16 1975) is a Japanese rock musician. While she does have her fair share of soft songs (such as "Dandelion" and "The Last Quarter"), and fun songs ("Break Out", "Cosmic Love"), a good portion of her collection (and, indeed, the majority of her most popular songs) fall firmly under the rock category.

Contents

History

Nanase Aikawa (her real name is rumoured to be ), was born on February 16, 1975, in Osaka, Japan. Her parents divorced when she was young, which affected her significantly enough for her to develop into a bit of a troublemaker (which also happens to be the title of one of her singles.) It is also rumoured that she was in a girl gang in her young teenage years, and may even have been its leader. Another story has it that she was severely bullied by classmates, giving rise to nightmares, making her skip an entire year of school. Throughout her school years, Nanase had been singing and participating in a few singing competitions, which routinely passed her over, but brought her to the attention of a well-known music producer Tetsuro Oda. At the age of 15, she dropped out of school to be trained by Mr. Oda. Details of her life during these years are sketchy. Five years later, at the age of 20, she released her first single, Yumemiru Shoujou jairanai on 8 November 1995.

Personality

Nanase is an intensely private person. Very little is known about her personal life except for the bits and pieces she feels confident enough to announce. For instance, on 16 February 2001, a great many of her male fans were heartbroken when she publicly announced that she had gotten married that very day. She published this, and the fact that she was already three-months pregnant, on her [official website]. Nothing else about her relationship was known until the birth of her son on 6 September 2001.

She is "polite, but seldom enthusiastic" in interviews, although she frequently leaves hand-written messages on her website. Very little else is known of her. This may also be due to the lack of Japanese to English translators in the Nanase Aikawa fanbase. Oddly enough, roughly half of the non-Japanese Nanase fans are Chinese.

Career

After she released her first single on 8 November 1995, she released three more singles, and then her first full album Red in 1996, which sold more than two million copies in its first month. That album won her an invitation to perform on Kōhaku Uta Gassen, a New Year's Eve singing contest between male and female teams of popular singers sponsored by NHK (one of Japan's television networks). Since then, she has released about one album each year, plus an average of three mini- or maxi-singles. Her second album, Paradox, was released in July of 1997, selling 1.8 million copies, coinciding with her first concert tour Live Emotion '97 (consisting of 20 concert dates, and attracting a total of 65,000 fans, according to Avex). July of 1998 saw her third album Crimson, and another concert tour with over 40 concert dates. Her 1999 release, I.D., was a compilation album, but it debuted at number one on the rock chart, her fourth consecutive album to be released at the number one slot. In 2001, she also released a 'mini-album', something between a full album and a single, of uncharacteristically soft ballad-style music, recorded during her later months of pregnancy.

At the 11th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, Nanase's album Red was voted the Best Album (Japanese Rock and Folk music, female vocalist category). Her album Paradox was also voted Best Album of the Year at the 12th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards.

As of August of 2004, Nanase Aikawa has released six albums, plus two compilation albums and the mini-album, a total of 24 singles, and no less than three separate concerts and two music video collections on video and DVD.

Aikawa Nanase publishes her music under the Motorod label, a division of Avex Group.

Nanase is currently touring and recording with former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman.

Aikawa sang the 3rd opening song of the hit anime, InuYasha. It is called Owarinai Yume(Unending Dreams)

Aikawa also wrote and sang the opening song of the anime Samurai 7. It is called Unlimited.

Aikawa also wrote and sang the opening song of the anime . It is called No Future.

Personal Statistics

Name:Nanase Aikawa
Birthday:February 16, 1975, in Osaka, Japan
Astrological Sign:Aquarius (Year of the Hare)
Bloodtype:AB
Height:157 cm (5'2")
Weight:39 kg (86 lb)
Hair:Varies (Brown, currently)
Eyes:Brown
Favourite Pet:Cats
Favourite Time of Day:Night

Discography

Albums

Mini Albums

Mini-Singles

Maxi-Singles

External links

 

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