Mika Nakashima

Mika Nakashima 中島 美嘉
Born	February 19, 1983 (1983-02-19) (age 28)
Origin	Hioki, Kagoshima, Japan
Genres	Pop, jazz, adult contemporary, easy listening, alternative rock, pop rock
Occupations	Singer, model, lyricist, actress
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Sony Music Entertainment Japan
Website	mikanakashima.com

Mika Nakashima (中島 美嘉, Nakashima Mika^?, born February 19, 1983 in Hioki, Kagoshima) is a Japanese singer, model, and actress. She has achieved five number-one albums in Japan and also embarked on an acting career, most notably in the live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name.^[1]

Biography

Early life and debut

Born and raised in Kyushu, Mika was the youngest of three children. She grew up in the small town of Hioki, Kagoshima, where she has said there was "nothing there, only enka." She began listening to enka singer Eiko Segawa and studied classical Japanese dance, but as she loved dressing-up and make-up, she hoped to work in fashion magazines since she was too short to become a model.^[1]

Nakashima decided not to attend high school after completing junior high and began working. At the age of 15 she moved to the city of Fukuoka where she room-shared with two others.^[1]

At the age of 17, she attended an audition not knowing what it was for.^[1] She was chosen from 3,000 girls to be the actress of the fall 2001 Fuji TV drama Kizudarake no Love Song (傷だらけのラブソング, Tainted Love Song^?), in which she played the heroine Mirai Shimazaki,^[1] and also sang the theme song, "Stars."

In November 2001, "Stars" became her debut on Sony Music Associated Records, which would go on to become her best-selling single.

Her second single "Crescent Moon", an 80s themed song, was limited to 100,000 copies. It sold out the first day of its release. In March 2002 she released her third single, "One Survive," and her first video collection, "Film Lotus". This was followed in May by her 4th single, "Helpless Rain", and in August, by her 5th single "Will", which went on to rack up sales of over 140,000. Both were top ten hits and sold around 100,000 copies, proving Nakashima's rising star appeal.^[2]

Rise to fame: True, Love, and Music

Nakashima's first album, True, released in August 2002, was a number 1 hit on the Oricon charts. The album boasted a mature mixture of jazz and adult contemporary pop. In 3 weeks, True sold a million copies, and has sold nearly 1,174,000 copies to date. Then, as a commemoration of one year since her debut, Nakashima released a Premium EP: Resistance, which hit the charts' number 1 spot for two weeks in a row. On December 18, a documentary video, Kiseki: The Document of a Star, was released. In 2002, the singer received the "New Artist of the Year" award at the Japan Gold Disc Awards and "Best New Artist of the Year" at the All Japan Request Awards 2002. She also won the "New Artist of the Year" award from the 44th Japan Record Awards.

Nakashima's second album, Love, which was released in November 2003, sold nearly 1.45 million copies, surpassing that of her debut. The Japan Composers Association awarded Love the Best Album Award. After releasing a second mini-album, Oborozukiyo: Inori, in September 2004, Nakashima topped the Oricon Album Chart again with Music in March 2005, as well as with her first greatest hits album Best in December of that year. Best is the third album by Nakashima to have sold a million copies or more, but like her second album, Best also outsold True in sales - by nearly 30,000 copies.

Debut on the silver screen: Nana and The End

In 2005, Nakashima co-starred alongside Aoi Miyazaki in the live-action movie Nana, based on the manga of the same name, which was released September 10, 2005. She also sang one of the theme songs for the movie, which was released as a single under the name "Nana starring Mika Nakashima". The single, titled "Glamorous Sky," was written by the manga's author, Ai Yazawa, and composed by L'Arc-en-Ciel vocalist Hyde. It was Nakashima's only number 1 single on the Oricon Singles Charts. It sold over 423,000 copies in 2005, making it the best-selling female single of the year and the tenth highest selling in the world. The single continued selling well into the next year and sold 444,067 copies, which was about 25,000 copies less than her Nana co-star, Yuna Ito's "Endless Story". The single would be featured in Konami's guitar/drum simulation game GuitarFreaks and Drummania V3, as well as Nintendo's Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2.

Nakashima was nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan as "Best BuzzAsia from Japan" for "Amazing Grace '05", and the "Glamorous Sky" video was nominated as "Best Female Video" and "Best Video from a Film". She won the "Best Video from a Film" award.

Due to the success of Nana, a sequel was released in December, 2006. It included two new songs by Nakashima, again under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima. The theme song to Nana 2 movie was "Hitoiro" (One Color), which has also been written by Yazawa, while the music is composed by Glay's leader, Takuro, also the author of the coupling song, "Eyes for the Moon". Besides the single, Mika released the album The End, featuring all her songs under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima.

On December 18, 2006 Nakashima and Yui Ichikawa came to New York City for the International Premiere of 'Nana 2' at the IFC Center. In 2010 she made her US film debut with a small role in the Sony Pictures film Resident Evil: Afterlife, based on the videogame series Resident Evil.

Memphis & Yes era

Following the release of the Nana movie, Nakashima visited Memphis, Tennessee, and started another project beginning with the heavily gospel-influenced "Cry No More", the ending theme of the anime Blood+.

She also contributed to the New Orleans charity tribute when she teamed up with American musicians Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers and famed jazz pianist/musician Alan Toussaint. They released the single All Hands Together and as a result of her efforts, she was rewarded with an honorary citizenship of Memphis, Tennessee and a key to the city.^[1]

A month later Mika released another single "My Sugar Cat," which dropped out of the Top 50 a week after its release.

On February 21, 2007 Nakashima's 21st single, "Mienai Hoshi" was released. The single is the theme song for the Japanese drama Haken no Hinkaku (ハケンの品格, lit. Haken's Dignity^?), which aired starting January 10, 2007. The b-side track "I Love You" is a cover of the Ozaki Yutaka ballad. Promotional videos were made for both songs.

On March 14, 2007, Nakashima's 5th studio album, Yes, was released in Japan. The title "Yes" continues Nakashima's trend of having one-word album titles, such as "Love" and "True", excluding the Nana album "The End". Her 22nd single, Sunao na Mama, was released on the same day.

Voice era

Following the release of Yes, Nakashima embarked on her first tour since 2005, Mika Nakashima's Concert Tour 2007 "Yes My Joy", which ended in late July and was subsequently released on DVD on November 7, 2007. Nakashima's 23rd single "Life" as well as "Film Lotus VI", her sixth compilation of music videos, were released in August 2007. "Life" was the theme song for the drama adaptation of the shoujo manga series of the same name by Keiko Suenobu.

Nakashima's 24th single, "Eien no Uta", appeared in October 2007, and was the theme to the movie Southbound. Promotional videos were made for both Eien no Uta and its B-side, a cover of Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To".

Her 25th single, "Sakura: Hanagasumi", was released in March 2008. It reached number 12 on the Oricon chart.

"I Don't Know", Nakashima's 26th single, was her first sung entirely an English. A collaboration with owarai group Morisanchū (森三中^?) it was released under the name MICA 3 CHU (Mikasanchuu) and Nakashima claimed it was her way to "vent my complaints and enjoy doing something really silly. The music of the song was too short to put so many words in Japanese so it was better in English, if I feel like doing it again, there will be more."^[1]

Nakashima's next single, "Orion", was released on November 12, 2008. It was used as an insert song for the TBS drama "Ryusei no Kizuna", in which Nakashima herself appeared in a minor role.^[3][4]

Nakashima's fifth studio album, Voice, was released on November 26, 2008. Voice, which leaned closer to a mainstream yet mature form of adult contemporary pop than her previous albums, was the first album by Nakashima to top the Oricon Album Chart since Best in 2005, and sold over 155,000 copies in its first week of release and over 340,000 copies in total.

Star era

After releasing a new album called No More Rules on March 5, 2009, Nakashima embarked on her fifth tour. This Japan-based tour was called the "Trust Our Voice Tour 2009", which started on April 10, 2009 and concluded in Tokyo at the end of July 2009. She introduced her then-new single, "Over Load", released on May 13, 2009, during the tour.

"Life" ranked number 7 in JASRAC Award 2009: 10 best interactive song.^[5] "Life" was also used in the TV series Life (ライフ^?). The story is based on major school problems such as bullying, rape, abuse, etc. Nakashima's 29th single, "Candy Girl", was released on September 30, 2009, as a collaboration with the fashion brand SLY. Her 30th single, "Nagareboshi", was released on November 4, 2009.

The DVD of Nakashima's "Trust Our Voice Tour 2009", titled "Mika Nakashima Concert Tour 2009 Trust Our Voice", was released in Japan as her first 2-DVD concert release on December 2, 2009.^[6]

Nakashima's 31st single, "Always", was released on January 20, 2010, and was the theme song for the Japanese movie Sayonara Itsuka (サヨナライツカ^?). She also starred in the Japanese supernatural monster film Death Kappa,^[7] which was directed by Tomoo Haraguchi.^[8]

Nakashima's 32nd single, "Ichiban Kirei na Watashi wo" (The Most Beautiful Me; 一番綺麗な私を) appeared on August 25, 2010 as the tie-in song to the TBS drama series, Unubore Deka (Conceited Detective, うぬぼれ刑事).^[9] The drama focused on a story about a male detective that has the illusion of being the "ladies man". He is a romantic but conceited, he tries to convince female criminals, into either marrying him or being arrested. Mika Nakashima plays a role in the show as well. The name of her character in the television series is known as Rie Hagurashi.

On October 22, 2010, she announced she would be pulling out of her first performance at the Nippon Budokan commemorating her 10 year career and that she would be taking a break from singing while recovering from having patulous Eustachian tubes in both her ears. Nakashima's sixth studio album, Star, was released on October 27, 2010^[10]

Trivia

Nakashima has many tattoos, considered taboo in Japanese society, including one of a star on her wrist. She has said "I have resolved to live as a star. I have something linked with the stars because I have so many songs about them." She has also stated that she loves skin imperfections and decorations because "they are beautiful and I can imagine stories of people... hard feelings and pain... from them."^[1]

Nakashima is a frequent visitor to the US for voice-training classes, and rented an apartment near Wall Street, New York in 2009.^[1]

Cover versions

"Yuki no Hana" was one of the most popular karaoke songs in Japan in 2004. It has also been officially covered by numerous artists including Joi Chua, Park Hyo Shin, Seo Young Eun, Han Xue, Vincy Chan, Eric Martin (Mr. Big's vocalist), Hayley Westenra, Hideaki Tokunaga and Gackt. Park Hyo Shin's version was an insert song for the popular Korean drama I'm Sorry, I Love You.

"Find the Way" was covered by Korean singer Bada, who was a member of K-Pop girl group S.E.S..

Other popular covers have been done for "Stars" and "Sakurairo Mau Koro".

Discography

Main article: Mika Nakashima discography

Studio albums True (2002) Love (2003) Music (2005) The End (2006) Yes (2007) Voice (2008) Star (2010)

EP Resistance (2002) Oborozukiyo: Inori (2004) Compilation albums Best (2005) No More Rules (2009)[11]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Robert Michael Poole (2009-05-22). "Tattoo you — Mika's call to arms". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20090522r1.html. Retrieved 2011-05-13. 
2. ^ Mika Nakashima Official Fan Site (Membership is required) (Japanese)
3. ^ http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/AI/MikaNakashima/index.html
4. ^ http://www.tbs.co.jp/ryuseinokizuna/news/news080923.html
5. ^ JASRAC
6. ^ Sony Music Online Japan: Mika Nakashima (Japanese)
7. ^ "Death Kappa Crashes onto DVD and Blu-ray in July!". http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/36998/death-kappa-crashes-dvd-and-blu-ray-july. 
8. ^ First report/photos: J-monster epic Death Kappa
9. ^ "中島美嘉、ニュー・シングルはTVドラマ「うぬぼれ刑事」の挿入歌 (Mika Nakashima's new single, the Conceited Detective song)". tower.jp. 2010-07-05. http://tower.jp/article/news/67122. Retrieved 2010-07-15. (Japanese)
10. ^ "Mika Nakashima promotes new album on Ustream". Tokyo Hive. http://www.tokyohive.com/2010/09/mika-nakashima-promotes-new-album-on-ustream. 
11. ^ http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/AI/MikaNakashima/AICL-20001/index.html

External links

• Mika Nakashima Official Website (Japanese)
• Mika Nakashima at Allmusic
• Mika Nakashima at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Nakashima, Mika
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 19, 1983
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death